Workshop to enhance academic quality audit skills

Miri – 26 September 2011 – Curtin University, Sarawak Malaysia (Curtin Sarawak) recently held an Academic Audit Workshop to enhance the academic quality auditing knowledge and skills of 21 of its staff members involved in its academic quality audit processes.

They included Pro Vice-Chancellor and Chief Executive Professor Ian Kerr, Deputy Pro Vice-Chancellor Professor Alistair Inglis, deans and department heads of Curtin Sarawak’s three schools, as well as staff of the university’s Planning, Quality and Accreditations (PQA) and Internal Audit offices.

The 2-day workshop was jointly organised by the university’s Human Resources Department and PQA Office and was facilitated by Associate Professor Dr. Rozilini M. Fernandez-Chung, Vice President of HELP University College, Malaysia responsible for quality assurance and an expert in policy and quality assurance, particularly in higher education.

Prior to joining HELP, Dr. Fernandez-Chung was attached to the Malaysian Qualifications Agency where she led multi-sectoral teams, including consultants, researchers and related professionals in developing the Malaysian Qualifications Framework, numerous programme standards and guidelines to good practices.

According to Human Resources Manager Maizatul Azni Abdul Mutalib, all the participants were very positive about the workshop and looked forward to more workshops of its kind in the near future. She said the workshop was held to ensure academic quality at Curtin Sarawak was in line with Curtin’s commitment to excellence in teaching and research as well as quality audit principles and practices applicable to institutions of higher learning in Malaysia.

Maizatul Azni added that the workshop took a practical approach to auditing based on the Code of Practice for Programme Accreditation (COPPA). It was furthermore designed to help the university’s internal academic audit team establish programme audits; recognise good practices within the institution to encourage sharing and adoption; add value to, identify and manage quality teaching and learning; and provide an overview to auditors to plan, conduct and report on internal audits, thus providing the organisation meaningful feedback on the strengths, weaknesses and improvement opportunities available.

Planning, Quality and Accreditations Manager Doris Lian said accreditation is one of the means universities provide assurance of the quality and standards of their academic programmes, and as one of eight self-accrediting universities in Malaysia, Curtin Sarawak is committed to quality assurance and improvement on all fronts.

“We endeavour to continually comply with the standards and criteria set by professional bodies such as EAC, IEEE, IChemE, CPA and MICPA as well as government agencies like MQA and TEQSA,” she remarked.

She said the aim of the Academic Audit Workshop was to train a team of internal auditors to assist the university in auditing processes and activities with the ultimate objective of embedding continual improvement in all areas, especially in teaching and learning and service.

Mitrabinda Singh, Head of the Department of Marketing and Management at the School of Business meanwhile said workshop was a means of encouraging continual improvement at Curtin Sarawak.

“Though we have many good practices in place, we need to be able to report them properly.  The workshop not only taught us how to audit our academic quality, but also to rethink our policies and strategies on reporting so that it is done in a more structured and responsible manner,” she said.

Internal Audit Manager Ngu Kee Leong commented that the workshop provided the participants clear guidelines on carrying out academic audits. He complimented Dr. Fernandez-Chung on being very knowledgeable about the subject and on the way she conducted the workshop. He said every participant got the chance to be involved in the discussions and thus learned a lot about the practical ways of auditing academic documents.

Professor Kerr, meanwhile, added that the workshop was timely as Curtin Sarawak is undergoing an increasingly number of audit processes, both internal and external, to ensure it meets the quality requirements of government agencies such as the MQA for self-accreditation status and various professional bodies for programme accreditation.

He said Curtin is continually strengthening its quality management system to further enhance its programmes, operations and services, and ultimately produce graduates who are highly sought after.

“At Curtin Sarawak we are very committed to quality improvement and enhancement and we have been successful in the process of educating students within the frameworks of Curtin’s quality management system, AUQA and the Malaysian Qualifications Framework.

Furthermore, as Curtin’s strategic objective to be positioned amongst the top 20 universities in Asia by 2020, a strong commitment to quality and excellence is of utmost importance,” he said.

For more information on Curtin Sarawak, visit its website at www.curtin.edu.my.

Dr. Rosilini Fernandez-Chung conducting the workshop.

Prof. Ian Kerr presenting Dr Fernandez-Chung a souvenir.

Prof. Ian Kerr presenting his deputy Prof Alistair Inglis his certificate of participation.