SieQA 2022 seeks to achieve a sustainable higher education environment

UTAR and the Malaysian Higher Education Institutions Quality Assurance Network (MyQAN) jointly organised the “Seminar on Internal-External Quality Assurance (SieQA) 2022” on 12 and 13 October 2022. The seminar focused on transforming the practical strategies and practices of higher education institutions to create a sustainable higher education ecosystem.

Front row, from left: Prof Irfan, Prof Dato’ Shatar and Prof Goi with the participants of SieQA 2022

The seminar, supported by the Malaysian Qualifications Agency (MQA), took place at Bangi Resort Hotel and saw about 150 participants who were quality assurance personnel, academic programme heads, accreditation officers, external reviewers and assessors, and relevant administrators from various higher institutions. SieQA 2022 with its theme, Quality Assurance Transformation Towards A Sustainable Higher Education Ecosystem served as a platform for quality assurance professionals to share ideas, experiences and best practices for a sustainable higher education ecosystem, and exchange strategies to support quality assurance and higher education in a global context.

Representing the Ministry of Higher Education (MOHE) Director General Dato' Prof Dr Husaini bin Omar was MQA CEO Prof Dato’ Dr Mohammad Shatar bin Sabran who also presented the officiating keynote. Also present at the event were MyQAN President Prof Dr Irfan Naufal Umar, SieQA 2022 Organising Chairperson and UTAR Vice President for Internationalisation and Academic Development Ir Prof Dr Goi Bok Min, and participants from various universities.

Prof Dato’ Shatar delivering his keynote speech

Prof Dato’ Shatar delivered his keynote titled “Higher Education Management for Quality Assurance Transformation and Sustainable Development.” He said, “We need to work together under the current situation to make Malaysia a global education hub. One of the key elements to attract international students to Malaysia is by providing quality higher education. I hope the sharing of the landscape of Malaysian higher education and the latest initiatives under MQA can bring a new perspective that can make Malaysia an outstanding country in the aspect of higher education.”

In his keynote, Prof Dato’ Shatar shared the functions of MQA, types of Accreditation of Prior Experiential Learning (APEL) and other related topics. He added, “Under the current higher education landscape, there are 20 public universities, 434 private higher education institutions, 36 polytechnics and 105 community colleges. MQA aims to maintain the Malaysian Qualifications Register, develop standards and credits as national reference for the conferment of awards with the cooperation of stakeholders and facilitate the recognition and articulation of qualifications. Besides that, MQA assures quality higher education institutions and programmes, accredits courses that fulfil the set criteria and standards, and implements MQF as a reference point for Malaysian qualifications.”

Prof Dr Irfan said, “SieQA is an annual seminar organised by MyQAN to discuss topics and subjects related to quality assurance and share the best practices in higher education in Malaysia. Higher education is currently facing more challenges at international, national and institutional levels, resulting from globalisation, the impact of technology and social transformation. Due to these challenges, there is a need to discuss ways and strategies to transform quality assurance in our institution.”

Prof Goi (left) and Prof Irfan welcoming the participants

Prof Goi said, “The seminar covers core issues relating to education and quality which are important for education to be sustainable and reputable in the long run. It is important for us to look beyond physical borders, extend networking to global partners, and engage in international partnerships for mutual learning and collaborative benefits. Exchanges with partners outside our own institutions will lead to growth and sharing of expertise and resources as the way forward. We have much to learn from each other. I hope that this seminar will lead to more collaborative activities on education and quality, including R&D. Extending our reach to more partners and learning from each other will be a productive way forward.”

Chief Section for Educational Innovation and Skills Development (EISD) UNESCO Asia and Pacific Regional Bureau for Education, Bangkok, Thailand Wang LiBing presented his keynote titled “The future of higher education: Inspirations from the 3rd World Higher Education Conference” and European Association for Institutes of Higher Education (EURASHE) Prof Dr Phil. Habil. Ulf-Daniel Ehlers delivered his keynote titled “Future of Higher Education: Opportunities and Challenges” via Zoom.

Wang LiBing (left) and Prof Ulf Ehlers during their keynote presentation

Wang, in his keynote address, focused on a few key takeaways, namely the human rights-based approach to higher education, quality assurance, flexible learning isolation, qualification framework, institutional autonomy and social accountability, internationalisation of higher education, and digital transformation of higher education. He also highlighted the need to go digital for governance with higher education institutions and go paperless with online tools in their daily administrative work.

While explaining the distant emerging future, the snapshot of the current future and the immediate future, Prof Ulf Ehlers said, “The four core elements composing the future of higher education are lifelong learning university, future-skill university, multi-institutional network university and personalised MyCurriculum university. The trends and challenges faced in the current landscape are digital transformation, globalisation, transformation of work, migration, mobility urbanisation, age health, and climate change.”

From left: Prof Hjh Hanim Salleh, Prof Dato’ Ewe, Nazrul Aziz, Prof Hilmi and Foong at the forum

A forum titled “Sustainable Higher Education in the Digital Era” featured Prof Dato’ Shatar, Prof Dato’ Ewe, Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS Deputy Vice Chancellor Academic Ir Prof Dr Hilmi bin Mukhtar, Talent Corporation Malaysia Berhad Vice President for Graduate, Diaspora & Industry Partnership Nazrul Aziz and MoneyLion Chief Technology Officer Foong Chee Mun as the panellists. The forum was moderated by MyQAN Deputy President Prof Dr Hjh Hanim Salleh.

A masterclass featuring three clusters was held on 12 October 2022. The first cluster titled, ‘Future of Higher Education Quality Assurance’ was facilitated by UTAR Dean of Academic Quality Assurance and Audit Ir Prof Dr Rajkumar Durairaj and MQA Senior Director of Policy Development and Expertise Mohamad Dzafir bin Mustafa.

Prof Rajkumar (left) and Mohamad Dzafir

In his presentation titled “Developing a Quality Culture through Internal Quality Assurance”, Prof Rajkumar shared about the dimension of quality including the quality concept in higher education and the Malaysian higher education system with a focus on quality assurance. He said, “Universities’ standard management processes are interlinked with quality assurance processes and embedded in routine activities. It is in accordance with the idea of a quality culture.” He then explained the organisation culture and the Fogg behaviour model that explained three elements, namely Motivation, Ability and Prompt. “Quality assurance processes are, to a considerable degree, interlinked with broader management processes and embedded in management routines. They are, thus, generally perceived as useful rather than as a politically motivated nuisance that places an additional burden on the staff,” said Prof Rajkumar. He also spoke about the six IQA frameworks, the IQA instruments and the quality assurance documents: hierarchy.

On the other hand, Mohamad Dzafir’s presentation was titled “National Qualifications Framework (NQF) & Regional Qualifications Framework (RQF)”. He explained the similarities, differences and interconnections of the NQF and RQF with regard to quality assurance and qualification recognition in higher education. He also emphasised that it was important to use appropriate information on NQF and RQF when engaging with higher education partners or relevant parties from other countries or regions. Throughout his sharing session, he provided an overview of NQF and RFQ which included the definitions of NQF and RQF, the history of NQF, the roles and the management of NQF, NQF and RQF around the world, ASEAN qualification reference framework and ASEAN quality assurance framework. He also spoke about the conventions on the recognition of qualifications which included the older and the current version of conventions, the national information centre and the new mechanism recognition of qualification (mekanisme baharu pengiktirafan kelayakan).

The second cluster titled ‘Digitalisation/Flexible Education’ was facilitated by Universiti Sains Malaysia Centre for Development of Academic Excellence Deputy Director Assoc Prof Dr Azidah Abu Ziden and HELP University Deputy Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Andy Liew Teik Kooi.

Dr Azidah and Prof Andy Liew (right)

Dr Azidah presented her topic titled “The Rise of Micro-credentials”. In her session, she covered the basics of developing Micro-credential Modules. The participants were taught to identify the concepts and implementation of Micro-credentials and the importance of digital credentials in the context of flexible education, and to design the structure of the whole programme appropriate for micro-credential delivery. According to Dr Azidah, it was not an easy journey for them to develop micro-credential back in 2018 because it took time to implement and they had to look at various parts of micro-credentials in order to develop them. She said, “Micro-credential is a way forward; we give opportunity for external people to learn flexibly compared to online distance learning. Micro-credentials lead to more flexibility because we can design our programme without having the students enrol in the programme and they can learn step by step according to their pace.”

Prof Andy Liew presented his topic titled “Open, Flexible and Online Learning (OFO): Gaps between Aspirations and Practice”. In his session, he spoke about four broad aspects which included the aspiration gap: OFO, narrowing the gap: operational, course planning and development, and delivery and assessment. “In the three key elements of OFO there is always a separation between the learner and the instructor. When there is a separation, we need to connect the separation. For us to connect the separation, we need to talk about the learning content which may involve various digital resources or digital platforms. When we talk about online, it is about widening the access,” said Prof Andy Liew. Meanwhile, he also shared the benefits of OFO and student-centred operational matters, namely staffing, integrating tech/media, managing project teams, systems thinking and decentralising.

Lastly, the third cluster, ‘Challenges on Current Situation’ was facilitated by Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia School of Liberal Studies Assistant Dean Assoc Prof Dr Wahiza Wahi and Universiti Teknologi MARA Division of Academic Assessment and Evaluation Director Assoc Prof Ts Dr Syamsul Nor Azlan Mohamed.

Dr Wahiza (left) and Dr Syamsul

Dr Wahiza gave a talk titled “Personalised Experiential Learning (POISE): Curriculum Design and Delivery”. According to Dr Wahiza, POISE offers new and redesigned academic pathways to ensure Malaysian Higher Education systems remain relevant and within reach for all. It aims to provide autonomy and flexibility to students in deciding their preferred pathway in line with their passion, interest or career needs. The redesigned curriculum structure is positioned to transform how Malaysians gain access to higher education without being confined to the traditional pathway. “POISE is about choice,” she said. She then shared the 60 concentrations across disciplines, the list of current concentrations of SmSn Citra (Sarjana Muda Sains Citra) students and the institutional course sharing. She also shared about flexible learning pathways as the way forward, the example of student concentration and work-based learning placement, and POISE graduate attributes. She concluded her presentation with three key takeaways which were personalised and self-paced learning, accessible and inclusive learning, and lifelong and student-driven learning.

The last presenter was Dr Syamsul with his presentation titled “Designing Innovative and Sustainable Assessment for Higher Education”. He began his session by defining the definition of teaching. According to Dr Syamsul, teaching is defined as “the interaction of a student and a teacher over a subject”. Then he highlighted that engagement is important because it increases students’ satisfaction and motivation to learn, reduces the sense of isolation and increases engagement. He then spoke about the innovating pedagogy 2022, explaining the six key takeaways of pedagogies and strategies for flexible learning and the differences between instructional designers and learning designers. He also talked about how to get to know their domain and skillsets, the assessment and evaluation, Kirkpatrick’s four levels of evaluation, the Miller Pyramid of Competency, the knowledge dimension, cognitive learning domain, SAMR (Substitution, Augmentation, Modification and Redefinition) Model, the Holistic assessment, conventional versus alternative assessment, and assessment as/for/of Learning. He concluded his presentation by redefining the differences between final assessment and final examination.

SieQA 2022 concludes successfully