The Accreditation Committee of Cambodia Held a Meeting to Conclude Its Activities – Tuesday, 25.8.2009

Posted on 26 August 2009
The Mirror, Vol. 13, No. 627
http://cambodiamirror.wordpress.com/

“Phnom Penh: The Accreditation Committee of Cambodia released the results from its checking the educational progress during the Foundation Year education [the Foundation Year is defined as the first academic year towards achieving a bachelor degree] of 38 higher education institutions, which found that 15 educational institutions performed very good, 15 performed good, and 8 performed moderate during the year 2008-2009.

“The findings of the assessment were announced during a meeting of the Accreditation Committee of Cambodia in the morning of 24 August 2009 at the Council of Ministers, under the presidency of the Minister of the Council of Ministers, Deputy Prime Minister Sok An.

“Deputy Prime Minister Sok An said that the main mission of the Accreditation Committee of Cambodia is to assess the quality of education of higher education institutions, based on a set of standards, on which also all relevant sides, such as higher education institutions and relevant ministries, have commented. The assessment of the quality of education is a difficult task, requiring thorough attention and extreme carefulness, otherwise there might arise various kinds of criticism.

“According to the report of the Accreditation Committee of Cambodia, the assessment of the quality of education has two stages: the assessment of the quality of education during the Foundation Year education, based on six characteristics, and the assessment of the quality of education of educational institutions, based on nine standards, which are planed to be achieved by 2010, following pre-set stages and procedures.

“The Foundation Year education programs of 35 higher education institutions were assessed. The Accreditation Committee of Cambodia fully accepted the Foundation Year program of 19 institutions, while the programs of a further 16 institutions were accepted temporarily. This year, there were no higher education institutions where their programs were rejected [as not qualified].

“During the assessment of the quality of the Foundation Year programs, working groups implemented procedures for the assessment and for observations, and set up clear procedures for the task, in order to ensure fairness and transparency in their assessments.

“Based on some reference document, including documents of the Shanghai Jiao Tong University – 上海交通大学 – and the Times of London Higher Education Survey, the ranking of universities in the world usually focuses on the following major criteria:

1- Assess former students

2- Assess accomplishment awards

3- Assess the number of learners and researchers of various subjects

4- Assess the number of articles published in humanities and in science

5- Assess the outreach of universities by covering the percentage of foreign
lecturers, the percentage of foreign students, the proportion between the number of lecturers and students, the size of libraries, and the number of books

6- Assess assessments by partner universities

7- Assess assessments by employees

8- Assess assessments by staff and students of universities etc…

Rasmei Kampuchea, Vol.17, #4981, 25.8.2009
Newspapers Appearing on the Newsstand:
Tuesday, 25 August 2009