Project Vision

Supporting HEIs to establish quality assurance systems and preparing them to apply for accreditation from NAQAAE.
Project Mission
Assuring quality, on-going improvement and increasing the effective performance of HEIs to gain the confidence of the community in the abibilities and efficiency of their graduates on the national and international levels by means of supporting public universities to become accredited. 

Project Objectives

• Establishing NAQAAE
• Disseminating a culture of quality culture within the academic community.
• Establishing quality assurance and accreditation centers in public universities.
• Setting strategic plans to ensure quality at public universities
• Setting academic standards as reference for the different educational programs.
• Developing internal quality assurance systems in faculties.

Project Achievements

1- Establishing NAQAAE

• The preliminary law was drafted for the establishment of NAQAAE and the project participated in its discussions in both peoples’ Assembly and Shura Council. The Presidential Decree was issued for the establishment of NAQAAE in June 2006.
• Participating in the development of bylaws for the NAQAAE.
• Providing NAQAAE with the project outputs which include:

1. The standards for institutional accreditation of academic institutions.
2. The National Academic Reference Standards (NARS) for the educational programs (10 sectors).
3. Database of peer reviewers, field visits team leaders, and technical experts and administrators trained for five years in the domain of educational quality .

 2- Disseminating the Culture of Quality in the Academic Community and among all Beneficiaries of  Educational Services

• Training more than 4,000 staff members in coordination with the Quality Assurance Centers in the Egyptian universities to consolidate the concepts of quality in the academic community and university leaders.
• Training more than 700 faculty members to be peer reviewers and team leaders in the field visits to various academic institutions.
• Training all managers of the 17 quality centers to identify their roles with the faculties in training on standards and the concepts of quality and how to conduct self-assessment and write annual reports.
• Training more than 500 faculty members on how to draft the university strategic plans for quality assurance and how to design action plans for development and continuous improvement.
• Conducting a series of awareness-raising campaigns for more than 900 faculty members on how to develop and use NRAS as a reference for educational programs.
• Holding meetings and discussions with different audio and visual media and newspapers to introduce the project and holding seminars on educational quality assurance and its relevance to society.
• Holding the first national conference for quality assurance and accreditation in 2007 attended by more than 1,000 participants from the academic community and beneficiaries of educational services.
• Directors and members of the national committee have participated in  regional and international conferences in Europe, America, New Zealand and Canada to find out the international systems and present the Egyptian system for   quality assurance and accreditation.
• Representing Egypt in the International Network for Quality Assurance and Accreditation in Higher Education INQAAHE.

3- Establishing Quality Assurance Centers in the Egyptian Public Universities

• Establishing 17 QA centers in the public universities, some of which have been included in the administrative and financial organizational structure of the universities and most of their directors have became members in the university council. 
• The university centers support the quality assurance centers in the public universities to produce their annual reports. They also participate in preparing faculties and provide them with necessary technical assistance towards accreditation and on-going improvement of their programs.
• Training all employees and directors of the QA centers on the concepts and standards of quality assurance and accreditation.

4- Developing Strategic Plans for Quality Assurance in the Public Universities

• Completing the strategic plans for 14 Egyptian public universities indicating the status quo of educational quality and identifying strengths and points that need improvement.
• The strategic plans of the Egyptian universities have been evaluated by international experts and a report has been made for each university.
• Each university developed its operational plans and set its priorities to support the academic institutions to apply for accreditation from the NAQAAE according to a realistic and clearly prioritized timeframe.

5- Developing the National Academic Reference Standards (NARS)

• Finalizing NARS for 10 sectors in the light of international standards for educational programs, job market needs and competitiveness, as well as national needs. These sectors are nursing, agriculture, engineering, veterinary medicine, basic sciences, pharmacy, home economics, medicine, arts, and physical education.
• Reviewing current educational programs by the related sector committees and examining the possibility of applying NARS on the programs and that the academic institutions would follow the standards in their educational programs.

6- Establishing an Internal Quality Assurance System in the Public Universities

• Offering competitive projects to all faculties of public universities to apply for funds to establish an internal quality assurance system. 150 faculties obtained these projects throughout three different cycles held during the life of the project. Moreover, 15 faculties of education were funded to establish an internal system of quality through the FOEP project.
• Through the QAAP monitoring teams, the national committee periodically monitored and reported on the progress of all the projects (150 project + 15 education projects) in establishing an internal quality assurance system, the problems faced and proposed solutions so that the projects can prepare the necessary documents for field visits.  These monitoring reports were sent to the faculty deans and university presidents.
• 150 academic institutions were able to establish the internal quality systems and prepare the required documents which include the first annual report.
• The monitoring committee has developed the overall framework for the evaluation of the internal quality systems in the academic institutions, which contains the following items:

1. The academic standards of the program including: the targeted learning outcomes, curricula, student assessment, and student achievement.
2. Quality of learning opportunities including: teaching and learning, student support and learning resources.
3. Research and scholarly activities.
4. Community and environmental services.
5. The effectiveness of quality management and enhancement.

• Conducting 120 Development Engagement (DE) visits in 16 public universities during the improvement phase in collaboration with peer reviewers to give the academic institutions an opportunity to test, develop, and improve the internal quality systems and have a DE report containing the points of strength and areas requiring further improvement to be taken into account in future improvement plans to achieve accreditation by NAQAAE.
• The monitoring committee conducted follow-up visits to the faculties which had previously received DE visits and were ready for a second visit to evaluate the progress of applying the QA system and the efficiency of their action plans.