On January 26, 2024, a meeting of the IQAA Supervisory Board was held, which was attended by all members of the Supervisory Board:
- Zhaksybek Kulekeev (Chairman of the Supervisory Board of IQAA)
- Takir Balykbayev
- Sholpan Kalanova
- Maiki Udam
- Tasmaganbetov Gani
During the meeting, Sholpan Kalanova presented a report on the main results of the Agency's activities for 2023 and the Agency's development strategy for 2024-2030.
One of the means to achieve the values of the Independent Agency for Quality Assurance in Education (IQAA) is accountability. The Agency's activities, procedures and documents are open, transparent and accessible to all interested parties. Following these principles, IQAA President Sh.M.Kalanova presented a Report on the main results of IQAA's activities for 2023 at a meeting of the Supervisory Board.
The Independent Agency for Quality Assurance in Education (IQAA) is an internationally recognized organization in the field of quality assessment of educational organizations and educational programs. In accordance with the Rules of Recognition of Accreditation Bodies, IQAA confirmed its full membership in ENQA and registration in the European Register for Quality Assurance in Higher Education EQAR by April 30, 2027.
The main activity of the Agency is focused on conducting institutional and programmatic accreditations for educational institutions. In the reporting year, 9 higher educational institutions of Kazakhstan passed the institutional accreditation procedure, of which 8 universities were re-accredited, three of which received accreditation status for a period of 7 years, five for a period of 5 years, and one university after initial accreditation was accredited for a period of 3 years until the first graduation of students in 2026.
In 2023, a total of 34 external evaluations were conducted, during which 344 educational programs were accredited in 68 clusters in 29 educational institutions.
In addition, in 2023, the Agency conducted cross-border program accreditation for 16 educational programs of higher educational institutions of Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. Thus, 3 educational programs of the International University of Kyrgyzstan and 13 OP of the International University of Kim (Uzbekistan) were accredited for a period of 5 years.
In 2023, IQAA conducted procedures for institutional and programmatic accreditation in 2 organizations of technical and vocational education, and institutional accreditation in 3 organizations of additional education.
A total of 460 experts, including 71 international experts, took part in the IQAA audits on institutional and programmatic accreditation. The qualitative composition of experts is presented as follows: 73 doctors of Sciences, 148 candidates of sciences and 47 PhD. In addition, 85 representatives from employers and students were involved in the accreditation procedure.
In the reporting year, a lot of work was carried out by IQAA as part of post-accreditation monitoring. Thus, 18 universities, 8 colleges and 5 additional education organizations underwent post-accreditation monitoring for institutional accreditation. 591 programs of higher and postgraduate education, 7 educational programs of the Research Institute and 35 educational programs of the VET have been post-accreditation monitoring for program accreditation.
In order to ensure the effective and well-coordinated work of the expert commissions on the conduct of accreditation procedures, the Agency conducts training seminars and briefings for educational institutions and the experts involved on an ongoing basis. During the reporting period, a total of 45 online seminars were held for 445 experts who participated in the external evaluation of higher education institutions, 10 seminars for universities on institutional and 2 seminars for additional education organizations, which were attended by over 170 representatives of educational institutions.
In the period from May 29 to June 1, 2023, the Agency held a large–scale event - the 17th international conference of the International Network of Quality Assurance Agencies in Higher Education (INQAAHEE) on the theme "Roadmap for Quality Assurance in Higher Education 2030". The conference was attended by representatives of accreditation agencies and higher education institutions from 62 countries, including the rector, vice-rector, international and national experts. 250 participants of the conference in offline and online formats discussed the role of quality assessment to support progress on the UNESCO roadmap. Dr. Deb Adair, President of INQAAHE, noted the high level of organization of the international conference in her letter.
One of the positive practices of the exchange of experience and training of experts is the annual holding of the Eurasian Forum on Quality Assurance in Higher Education "Sustainable Development and the Future of Higher Education". In the reporting year, 220 experts from national and foreign universities and organizations from Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Russia, the USA, Spain and Estonia took part in the VI forum.
In order to implement in the system of higher education and type of dual education, IQAA participated in the Erasmus+ project "Implementation of the dual system in Kazakhstan". As part of this international project, on March 2-3, 2023, the Agency organized a training seminar on preparing for the accreditation of pilot dual educational programs for universities and colleges participating in the KazDual project. In addition, representatives of the Agency took part in working meetings and conferences on September 20 at the Shakarim University and on December 5 at the Abai Kazakh National Pedagogical University. In May, the procedure for pilot accreditation of pilot educational programs was carried out by a group of international experts.
During the reporting year, the Agency's representatives took part in various other national and international projects and events. One of the significant events attended by IQAA is the online meeting of The Global Academic Integrity Network (GAIN) consortium on working with commercial services providing services in the field of academic fraud, which took place on February 15, 2023.
Within the framework of social responsibility, the Agency annually, together with the Sharapat Social Service Center of the Astana city Akimat, conducts charity events for single and elderly people and low-income families. In the reporting year, the delivery of 100 food baskets was organized.
The Agency's management pays great attention to corporate culture. It has become a tradition to jointly celebrate state and national holidays, employee birthdays, and attend cultural events in the capital by the whole team, including collective trips to the Astana Opera Theater. Medical services for the provision of polyclinic and inpatient services have been organized on the basis of an agreement with the University Medical Center corporate foundation.
Along with the above activities, the President of IQAA reported on the main vectors of the Agency's development and noted some problems in the field of quality assessment of educational organizations and educational programs.