Back Toolkits for improving transparency and accountability in higher education institutions

Toolkits for improving transparency and accountability in higher education institutions

Within the framework of the Council of Europe “Strengthening Integrity and Combatting Corruption in Higher Education in Armenia” project, several focus group discussions were organised with the students and staff representing more than fifteen universities as well as civil society organisations to present the two draft Toolkits contributing to transparency and accountability in higher education institutions.

The first Toolkit, ensuring transparency and accountability in higher education governance, is developed to support the Armenian government in the implementation of its anti-corruption Action Plan. This Toolkit is a possible model for periodic institutional reporting in the area of higher education governance. It provides a template that universities may use to prepare a formal, standardised disclosure to the Government and the public. This document might be prepared concurrently with other existing institutional activities such as annual reporting, accreditation, or auditing processes.

The Toolkit aims to promote transparency and accountability among Armenian universities in several key areas of institutional governance. It addresses university activities, processes, and policies in the following areas: Financial, Governing Boards, Strategic Planning, Human Resources and Hiring, Admissions, Student Assessment, and Academic Discipline, Information Management.

The Toolkit requests information within these six areas, providing a template for universities to disclose the information in a precise, organised, and publicly available format. The consolidation of this information in a single document can provide a new resource for stakeholders, promoting a clearer understanding of the efforts universities are making to ensure fair and rigorous accounting, implementation of institutional policies and procedures, and decision-making. The intended users of this information are the stakeholders to which universities are ultimately accountable: the Government; higher education agencies; university staff, students and their families; non-governmental organisations; the private sector; international partners; and Armenian society.

The second Toolkit guides the higher education institutions as to how accountable and transparent curricula could be developed and students assessed to support the RA to effectively implement the Anti-Corruption Action Plan 2015-2018 of the Government.  In this way, the Armenian institutions will benefit from the positive image based on improved quality subsequently leading to an overall recognition in the academic world and beyond. The Toolkit is designed to help to create a fair and transparent environment for students, in fact, for all learners, as regards learning, teaching and assessment.

Being a practical guide, this Toolkit, is used as a guideline for agreed standards of curriculum development and student assessment as two examples of potential areas of corruption in higher education.

These focus group discussions have been convened to solicit feedback and recommendations about the contents of the Toolkit and how universities and stakeholders will utilise the Toolkit and the information it yields.

 

ARMENIA: developing codes of ethics and toolkits for strengthening integrity and combatting corruption in Higher Education in Armenia

 

Yerevan 19 July 2016
  • Diminuer la taille du texte
  • Augmenter la taille du texte
  • Imprimer la page