HEEP

Higher Education Enhancement Project (HEEP)

Impact Assessment

	The impact Assessment for the Higher Education Enhancement Projects
	Objectives of Impact Assessment
	HEEP Impact Assessment Initiatives
	Development Phases of the Impact Assessment Strategy

The impact Assessment for the Higher Education Enhancement Projects .

Impact assessment is considered one of the tools being used in the study and assessment of policies for the aim of enhancing and developing the Higher Education system. In fact this tool is helpful in the process of collecting and providing information about the reality and the degree of the long-term and short-term importance these projects have when being applied in the society; moreover the results of these studies serve as feedback that helps in the occurrence of the required and desired changes in policies together with the identification of the priorities for development on one hand, and the enhancement of inputs and processes that take place during implementation on the other hand.

Objectives of Impact Assessment:

Identifying the ability of the higher education project to rise the awareness about the importance of the development projects that have the priority and that are being carried out during the first stage whether inside or outside the higher education institutions.
Determining the ability of the project to create a culture for development and change.
Evaluating the impact/ effect of the higher education project on providing and creating distinct academic programs and curriculum.
Identifying the impact/ effect of the higher education project on the development of more interactive teaching methodologies.
Assessing the impact of the higher education project on improving the learning environment.
Assessing the impact of the higher education project on the setting up of the base/ nucleus for the establishment of the learning society.
Assessing the impact of the higher education project on eliminating the gaps between females and males on one hand, and between social classes on the other hand.
Assessing the impact of the higher education project on raising the capacity of the higher education institutions.
Determining the development in students’ quality level.
Assessing the impact of the higher education project on improving the nature of the interdisciplinary relations between faculty members and students, the institution, and the international and local community.
Identifying the degree of societal confidence in the outcomes of higher education.

HEEP Impact Assessment Initiatives

The concept of a comprehensive, well-structured Impact Assessment (IA) study was nearly absent from any of the reform projects implemented under the Ministry of Higher Education (MOHE). However, dispersed monitoring and evaluation efforts to evaluate the projects outputs/outcomes were ad hoc with no structured methodology and baseline data to compare with.

The Ministry of Higher Education in collaboration with the World Bank realized the importance of measuring the impact of their efforts to reform the Egyptian higher education system to assess the performance of reform projects, collectively and individually, to take the necessary corrective actions as needed during the consecutive phases of the reform activities. This unforeseen mandatory requisite, realized halfway during the implementation of the first phase of the higher education strategic reform plan, led to the absence of baseline data to compare performance and reform outcomes. As a result, several initiatives took place to assess performance starting on a pilot basis and ending with a university system-wide implementation of an impact assessment structured methodology developed based on the pilot results.

Development Phases of the Impact Assessment Strategy

Impact assessment initiatives developed over a period of nearly four years in three distinctive phases, namely; piloting phase, development phase, and structured and system-wide implementation phase.

The Impact Assessment piloting phase

The piloting phase started in 2005 under one of the HEEPF funded projects at Zagazig University, one of the 17 Egyptian public universities, to measure the impact of the project on the concerned beneficiaries from the project outcomes. The scope of the pilot study was further expanded to assess the overall impact of HEEPF funded projects within Zagazig University on the main beneficiaries within the university.

The Impact Assessment development phase

The development phase started after the successful implementation of this pilot IA study, with the same team contracted by the Projects Management Unit (PMU) at the Ministry of Higher Education (MOHE) to develop a comprehensive framework for an impact assessment strategy for the overall reform activities conducted in Egyptian public universities. The outcome of the methodology followed during this development phase is three fold; (i) the first is a final report containing the framework for the IA of the Higher Education Enhancement Projects (HEEP), together with the results of implementing this framework at Zagazig Universities using sample representative colleges; (ii) an Operational Manual developed to guide universities and higher education institutions on how to implement structurally the IA methodology; and (iii) an Impact Assessment Handbook based on well-established methodologies and criteria.

Outputs of the Impact Assessment project

* HEEP Impact Assessment Pilot Study

* Final Report.

* Operational Manual.

* Study Design Handbook .

الدليل العملى لقياس مردود مشروعات تطوير التعليم العالى

دليل قياس مردود مشروعات تطوير التعليم العالى

The structured and system-wide implementation phase

Finally, the structured and system-wide implementation phase entailed applying the IA framework developed on a selected sample of universities and then on a university system-wide basis. This was the first attempt to establish a system-wide IA on the public universities level with the hope to establish a baseline data for the second phase of reform that extends to year 2012.

More details: Outputs of HEEP Impact Assessment Study

Part 1 Results of implementing: ICTP - FLDP – QAAP projects

Part 2 Results of implementing ETCP Project.

Part 3 Results of implementing HEEPF Fund.