The Agency for Quality Assurance in Higher Education and Career Development (AKKORK)

Address: Spartakovskaya ploschad, 14, bldg. 4, office 4206, Moscow, 105082

Description: The Agency for Higher Education Quality Assurance and Career Development (AQA) was founded in February 2005 (the registration number in the Uniform State Register of the Russian Federation is 1057746179920). AQA is formally recognized as an organization with the responsibilities for higher education quality assurance. AQA conducts academic audit both at programme and institutional level.
AQA sees the analysis and regular monitoring of the institutionâ??s activities as the key line of cooperation with it. Constant monitoring of all the higher education institution dynamic characteristics helps identify and improve the positive changes, address areas for improvement and monitor the main trends in the higher education institutionâ??s development. The applicable procedures and methods have been developed by the Agency. Besides, the Agency makes use of certain tools already in place in Russia.
The Agency for Higher Education Quality Assurance and Career Development cooperates with the Federal Service on Supervision in Education and Science in regards with quality assurance and public assessment of higher education quality. AQA also has signed cooperation agreements with the Association of Non-State Higher Education Institutions of Russia (from 19 September 2006), Opora Rossii â?? All-Russia Small and Medium Enterprise Association (from 30 August 2005), and ReitOR Rating Agency (from 27 February 2007).
The Agency for Higher Education Quality Assurance and Career Development has concluded cooperation agreement on academic audit with 30 higher education institutions in Russia.

Higher education institutions participate in audit by AQA on the voluntary basis.

Description: According to the AQA mission statement, higher education quality assurance and evaluation are the major activities of the Agency, which are relevant for achieving public good. The AQA goal is to improve the mechanisms used in the system of education quality evaluation in Russia, and to harmonize the process of collecting and assessing relevant data on the higher education institutionsâ?? activities (see Charter: Chapter II, Chapter V).
In line with the mission statement, AQA has the following objectives:
â?¢ independent analysis and evaluation of quality of education provided by the higher education institutions;
â?¢ supporting higher education institutions in their efforts aimed at enhancing effectiveness, competitiveness and level of sustainability, and also assisting universities in their preparation for state accreditation;
â?¢ assuring the stakeholder groups (the public, the Federal Service on Supervision in Education and Science, the regional executive bodies operating in the field, etc.) that the quality of education provided by the higher education institution is sufficient;
â?¢ promoting international principles and standards for higher education quality assurance in Russia, and also encouraging international cooperation between the universities and quality assurance agencies.
The AQA key responsibilities are as follows:
â?¢ Analysis and assessment of:
- Vocational training programs content;
- Effectiveness of the technologies applied;
- Effectiveness of E-learning;
- Organizational features of an institution;
- Academic management quality;
- Sustainability and comparability of an institution locally and internationally;
- Education networks technologies applied.
â?¢ Institutionâ??s needs identification and action plan development;
â?¢ Analysis of the internal quality management system and the level of its compliance with the Russian and international standards.

AQA is responsible for quality assurance and audit in higher education. The confusion came through the translation of the documents. The word â??vocationalâ? is mentioned in the Russian Law â??On Higher and Postgraduate Vocational Educationâ? from 22 August 1996 #125 ФЗ. In this context the phrase â??vocational training programs contentâ? refers to the higher education programs content. Thank you very much for the important, weâ??ll make sure to change this point in our documents appropriately.

Description: The number, roles and qualifications of the permanent staff are adequate to fulfill the goals and responsibilities of the Agency. There are defined job descriptions for the AQA staff members. The responsibilities of the Director-General are described in the Charter, Art. 4.8-4.12.
The AQA Administration:
Vyacheslav Samoilov, Director-General, Doctor of Economics
Evgeny Pankratov, First Deputy to Director-General
Alexander Kovalenko, Experts Committees Coordinator, PhD in Physics and Mathematics
Mark Kalinin, International Relations Director
Yulia Kachugina, Deputy Director for Customer Support
Alexander Rybkin, IT Director
Olga Varshavskya, Head of License and Legal Support Department
Also, Administrative Staff: 6 persons
AQA constantly works towards creating the opportunities for professional and personal development of the Agency staff (e.g. participating in the different conferences and events, including international).

Description: Advisory Council coordinates and analyzes the activities of the Agency for Higher Education Quality Assurance and Career Development. The Council engages appropriate external experts and decides upon the composition of the working groups in order to work out recommendations concerning the arrangement and implementation of expert reviews. The experts undertaking the external quality assurance activities have appropriate skills and are competent to perform their task. Appropriate briefing or training for experts is provided. It is also significant that international expertise is used in the audit process.
Since the Agency is guided by social partnership principles in its cooperation with higher education institutions, federal and local education authorities, employers associations and education consumers, and also aims at enhancing the mechanisms of public accreditation in Russia, the Advisory Council consists of various stakeholders.

Advisory Counsil
Professor Vladimir Shadrikov
Chairman of the Council,
Doctor of Psychology, full member of the Russian Academy of Education
Former Deputy Minister of Education of Russia. He is well-known in Russia and abroad as a reform champion and a leader working proactively to develop the education in general.
______________________________________________
Professor Yuri Rubin
Doctor of Economics,
Deputy Chairman of the Council,
President of the Council for Quality Assurance in Higher Education,
Rector of Moscow University of Industry and Finance
______________________________________________
Professor Valentin Baidenko
Doctor of Education,
Head of Education Research Department,
Research Center for Staff Training Quality
______________________________________________
Nikolai Brusnikin
â??Delovaya Rossiyaâ? All-Russia Association of Entrepreneurs
______________________________________________
Professor Vladimir Vasilyev
Doctor of Engineering,
Rector of Saint-Petersburg University of Information Technologies, Mechanics and Optics,
Chairman of the Council of Rectors of Saint-Petersburg
______________________________________________
Professor Albert Vladimirov
PhD (Engineering),
Rector of Gubkin Moscow Oil and Gas University
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Professor Alexander Efremov
Doctor of Science (Physics and Mathematics),
Vice-Chancellor of Peoplesâ?? Friendship University of Russia
______________________________________________
Professor Vladimir Zernov
Doctor of Engineering,
Rector of Russian New University,
Chairman of the Association of Non-State Higher Education Institutions of Russia
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Professor Mikhail Karpenko
Doctor of Engineering,
Rector of Modern Academy for the Humanities
______________________________________________
Vladimir Kozlov
Doctor of Engineering,
Vice-Chancellor of Saint-Petersburg State Technical University
______________________________________________
Sergei Korshunov
PhD (Engineering),
Vice-Chancellor of Bauman Moscow State Technical University
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Viktor Matrosov
Doctor of Science (Physics and Mathematics),
Rector of Moscow Teacher Training State University,
Corresponding Member the Russian Academy of Sciences,
Member of the Russian Academy of Education
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Yuri Pesotsky
Opora Rossii (Russiaâ??s Support) All-Russia Small and Medium Enterprise Association
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Professor Sergei Podlesny
PhD (Engineering),
Rector of Krasnoyarsk State Technical University
______________________________________________
Professor Dmitry Puzankov
PhD (Engineering),
Rector of Saint-Petersburg State Power and Technical University
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Vyacheslav Samoilov
Doctor of Economics,
Director-General of AQA
______________________________________________
Professor Viktor Solovyev
PhD (Engineering),
Vice-Chancellor of Moscow Steel and Alloys State University
______________________________________________
Professor Vladimir Tikhomirov
Doctor of Economics,
Rector of Moscow University of Economics, Statistics and Informatics
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Professor Gennady Turmov
Doctor of Engineering,
Rector of Far East State Technical University
______________________________________________
Mikhail Lukyanchuk
Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs
______________________________________________
Evgeny Pankratov
Executive Secretary of the Council,
holder of the Russian Government Award for meritorious service in education,
First Deputy to Director-General of AQA

Description: The Agency for Higher Education Quality Assurance and Career Development is an independent not-for-profit organization (Charter, Art.1.1) and has autonomous responsibility for its operations and judgments. This is guaranteed in the AQA official documentation (see Independence Regulations). One of the AQA main goals is to conduct independent quality assurance of provision in higher education institutions (Charter, Art.2.2).
The independence of the AQA can be proved by the following:
1. Financial independence. According to the Charter, Art 1.9, p.3: The ORGANIZATION shall meet its financial obligations with all its assets. The state shall not meet the ORGANIZATIONâ??s financial obligations. The ORGANIZATION shall not meet the stateâ??s financial obligations. The founders shall not meet the ORGANIZATIONâ??s financial obligations and the ORGANIZATION shall not meet the foundersâ?? financial obligations.
2. Expertsâ?? independence. The Advisory Council is responsible for the selection of experts. Expert and reviewers work groups are composed in line with the Regulations for Recruitment, Training and Responsibilities of Higher Education Quality Reviewers. Experts and reviewers are required to sign a statement of independence.
3. Operational independence. The procedures of quality assurance and evaluation carried out by the AQA follow predefined guidelines and can not be influenced by third parties. The Agency representative coordinates the procedure of the institutional audit, but the judgments and recommendations are made by the audit team which conducted the audit. It is the responsibility of an Agency representative to test that the team findings are supported by adequate and identifiable evidence.
4. AQA has developed and defined a number of measures to ensure the independence of external experts, as well as the impartiality of academic audit procedure and the final report of the review team (see Independence Regulations).

Description: AQA has adequate and proportional resources to perform its duties in order to reach the stated goals:
1. According to the Charter (Chapter III), AQA operations are financed mainly by grants and any other financial liabilities related to or resulting from its major activities, i.e. academic audit, as well as by voluntary donations of its founders;
2. AQA has sufficient facilities and material resources (head office covering an area of 130 sq m, broadband Internet, official website);
3. Regional representative offices (http://www.akkork.ru/40034/);
4. Sufficient human resources: competent administrative staff and Advisory Council
5. There are several subcontractors involved into some AQA activities (IT issues, logistic, publishing, etc). Appropriate relationships with subcontractors have been established, the necessary processes have been running smoothly, and are subject for internal feedback

Description: The Agency for Higher Education Quality Assurance and Career Development has independently developed quality standards and audit procedures according to the international standards and good international practices. The description of the processes and criteria applied are publicly available at the AQA web site www.akkork.ru (Standards and Guidelines for Higher Education Quality Assurance, Code of Practice for the Assurance of Academic Quality and Standards in Higher Education, Institutional Audit Guidelines for the Assurance of Academic Quality in Higher Education Institutions).
AQA aims to assure all the interested parties that while conducting the academic audit it will only use the procedures that are in line with the Code of Practice, and also the Agency supports the institutional autonomy and respects the studentsâ?? interests.
Criteria. AQA quality assurance and academic audit procedures are based on internally developed criteria, described in the mentioned above documents. Nevertheless, the Agency acts in accordance with the provisions of the following external reference points:
â?¢ the Russian Law â??On Educationâ?;
â?¢ the Russian Law â??On Higher and Postgraduate Educationâ?;
â?¢ the Russian Government Decree No. 264 of 5 April 2001 â?? â??The Russian Federation Higher Education Institution (HEI) Operational Regulationsâ?.
The following 4 main aspects are considered in the course of the academic audit:
â?¢ the HEIsâ?? program contents and specifications;
â?¢ efficiency of the educational technologies used by the HEIs and the way the technologies influence the program quality;
â?¢ HEI management and administration, including the level and characteristics of the institutional management;
â?¢ the way the HEI organizes its operation, including the businesses where it is engaged.

The following model of review is used: the self-evaluation/site visit/draft report/published report/follow-up.

Self-evaluation. External quality assurance procedures should take into account the effectiveness of the following internal quality assurance processes:
1. Policy and procedure for quality assurance
2. Approval, monitoring and periodic review of programs and standards
3. Assessment of students
4. Quality assurance of teaching staff
5. Learning resources and student support
6. Information systems
7. Public information
The internal quality assurance results should be used in the course of the academic audit. Additional monitoring measures (e. g. testing) should not be used in the course of studentsâ?? achievements assessment. The procedure should be based on the documentation with summative and formative assessments results available in the HEI, such as written examination transcripts, tests, and course/diploma papers.
Site visit. The institutional audit process is coordinated by an Agency representative who provides consulting services to the HEI on the matters related to the preparation of the audit team visit. An Agency representative meets the institution management and the students around 3 months before the audit visit. The purpose of the meeting is to clarify the scope of the audit, and to discuss the interactions between the institution, the Agency and the audit team. The institutional audit extends for not more than 5 working days.
Draft report/Published report. At the end of the academic audit procedure the Agency makes and publishes a report which comprises the auditorsâ?? judgments of the following:
â?¢ the extent to which the auditors are sure of the current and future quality assurance system functioning and the way the standards of awards are observed;
â?¢ the extent of the accuracy, completeness and reliability of the HEI published information about quality and standards of awards. The auditors make their judgments on the basis of the information gathered during the program assessment procedure and augmented where necessary by the data gathered by specialist advisers.
Stakeholders (both within the relevant institution and outside it) have an opportunity to comment on usefulness of the reports.
Follow-up. The audit procedure includes a structured follow-up procedure to ensure that recommendations are dealt with appropriately and any required action plans drawn up and implemented. This may involve further meetings with institutional or program representatives. The follow-up procedures objective is to ensure that areas identified for improvement are addressed with close attention and that further enhancement is encouraged.

The Follow-up procedure is a combination of actions of both AQA and an institution. AQA publishes a report and gives recommendations. HEI develops an action plan and submits a report on what has been done. AQA comments the report and arranges a brief site visit if needed.

The Follow-up procedure is described in â??The Institutional Audit Guidelines for the Assurance of Academic Quality in Higher Education Institutionsâ?, p.21

Description: The Agency for Higher Education Quality Assurance and Career Development considers the internal quality assurance mechanism to be one of the most necessary and relevant tools for improving the Agencyâ??s services and thus fulfilling its main goals and responsibilities. Therefore, AQA has developed a document where quality assurance measures are described and planned.
The Agency has also determined the appeals/claims procedures mechanism which demonstrates some internal quality assurance instruments.
Stakeholders groups are able to analyze and review the Agencyâ??s performance in mass media or online. The Platnoe obrazovanie, a well-known journal on education issues in Russia, has become the key venue for presenting the results and activities of AQA to the public, and also for getting feedback. AQA publishes relevant information and reports in every edition of The Platnoe obrazovanie and on the magazineâ??s web site www.platobraz.ru .
International feedback, achievements and processes are also very important for the quality improvement activities of AQA. The Agency operates in line with recommendations by the international accreditation agencies and networks, and also international quality standards (ISO 9001:2000, ISO 19796-1). AQA is a full member of INQAAHE since November 2006 and a member of EFQUEL since September 2005.
The Agency management and reviewers are active participants of various quality assurance conferences, workshops, and round table discussions in Russia and abroad.