Quality Assurance

Considering its role in the monitoring of and reporting on the achievement of strategic objectives, the quality assurance system provides an effective early warning system that has the capacity to detect and signal irregularities, provide potential sources of the problem and support the solution finding. Also, the system includes a quality cycle that correlates objectives, operations, and results in order to enable continuous quality improvement by closing the quality circle and ensuring that steps are taken to match the quality of the achievements with the strategic objectives.

The Quality Assurance Strategy and the Strategic Plan communicate with each other closely and support each other's implementation.

The Quality Assurance Director oversees the processes for the drafting and approval of the strategic and operational plans. The Strategic Plan is valid for a period of 5 years whereas the Operational Plans are drafted for a timeline of one academic year. The Strategic Plan can be amended in light of changing circumstances. The Quality Assurance Director also collects the quarterly reports when the Management Committee takes note of the organization-wide progress.

The quality assurance system at AUS ensures that the organizational structure and governance bodies are designed in a way that meets basic conditions to operate independently, is fit for purpose, and supports AUS in fulfilling its mission and achieving its strategic objectives. In doing so, the quality assurance system ensures that all internal and external stakeholders, including students, administration, faculty, and representatives of the labor market, are appropriately represented.

Furthermore, the quality assurance system supports the institution in reflecting good governance principles, such as transparency and accountability, by overseeing the regulatory documentation of all governance bodies and ensuring that they work in an open manner so as to facilitate access to its policies and decisions by the public.

The quality assurance system ensures that the administrative and academic staff are qualified to fulfill their roles, and, to this end, it contributes to processes relating to recruitment, periodic performance assessment, and career development of staff.

The policy management component is based on the principle of institution-wide participation in the formulation of policies, as well as the timely implementation of policies and monitoring thereof. The quality assurance system serves as a single point of contact for all formal arrangements at AUS and ensures that all policies, procedures, and processes are defined, communicated, and applied systematically, transparently, and consistently; furthermore, it ensures that all relevant areas are regulated and that policies do not contradict or overlap each other.

The data function of the quality assurance system supports institutional planning, decision-making, management, and monitoring of all key institutional processes. It also facilitates the development of appropriate institutional systems, student, graduate, faculty, staff, and employer surveys, and impact studies. It also creates value from the generated data and helps in more proactive/seamless decision-making management and monitoring processes. The quality assurance system systematically contributes to providing relevant and current quantitative and qualitative information on which AUS relies to make current and strategic decisions. This is achieved through a series of instruments designed to collect data later on used to improve the quality of education and learning outcomes as part of the monitoring and feedback segment of the quality cycle; this includes all internal and external stakeholders in the development of its operations.

The quality assurance system ensures that AUS activities correspond to its type, specific features, and strategic objectives and are carried out in accordance with the principle of freedom and independence. To this extent, periodic evaluations of teaching, research, and the results achieved in these areas are conducted.

The quality assurance system operates in conjunction with the arrangements and instruments for the enhancement of academic quality, design, monitoring, and review of study programs and procedures established for clarity and consistency, with the overall scope of improving the quality of training and student learning experience.

In order to contribute to the quality enhancement of the student life-cycle and ensure that students are enabled to succeed in the AUS programs, the quality assurance system ensures compliance with the criteria for admission, for the assessment of the student performance, and for issuing final diplomas according to the AUS mission.

At AUS, quality culture is defined by two components that support and reinforce each other: a procedural component that enhances the organizational transparency by determination of responsibilities, identification of appropriate KPIs, standards, rewards, and accountability mechanisms, procedures, and process descriptions; secondly, an attitudinal component involving all internal and external stakeholders in anchoring quality-based thinking in the organization.

It is within the scope of the quality assurance strategy to contribute to the enhancement and development of a quality culture where everyone assumes and understands their role in the enhancement of quality as restless excellence, defined as a collective, commonly agreed goal.

The quality assurance system is based on an improvement cycle which implies that strengths and weaknesses are identified, and plans are designed for dealing with the challenges. This area is based on the quality assurance cycle detailed below, with the understanding that the core mission of the quality assurance system is to support and guide the decision-making process based on data and close the feedback loops that contribute to the enhancement of institutional operations.

At AUS, particular attention is paid to transparency of reports on collected data, commitments in action taken in response to feedback and dissemination of the implemented solutions.

Within the quality assurance system, periodical internal assessments are conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of the system and smaller parts within it and seek ways to improve it. Academic performance reports are produced on a termly basis and global institutional self-evaluation reports are drafted at the end of each academic year.

The quality assurance system ensures that the organization is compliant with the expectations and requirements of regulators, accreditors, and academic partners. In addition to the compliance component, particular attention is given to the enhancement one; AUS is dedicated to addressing all areas for improvement identified in the external quality assurance processes and is committed to implementing all recommendations and suggestions it receives during accreditation exercises.