Page 77 - AUN-QA

An opening meeting with the host university management representatives should be
held at the start of the site assessment. The purpose of the brief opening meeting is
to:
 Introduce the members of the assessment team to the host university’s
management representatives
 Establish official communication links between the assessment team and the host
university
 Review scope and objectives of the assessment
 Clarify details of the assessment plan and schedule
 Allow the host university to introduce the university and its programme normally
done through a presentation

Typical opening statements by the chairperson of the assessment team are as
follows:

“Good morning ladies and gentlemen. My name is XXX and my colleague is YYY.
We are the assessment team from ASEAN University Network (AUN).

At the request of your university, we are glad to make a quality assessment at the
programme level under the AUN-QA guidelines and criteria. The scope of the
assessment will cover the XXX programme at the faculty of ABC. We will be looking
at the activities that are relevant to these areas. We will be following a schedule as
agreed earlier and do let us know if there are any changes. The assessment will take
about 3 days.

A closing ceremony will be held on the final day of the assessment where we will be
presenting the preliminary assessment findings.

Before we proceed, is there anything that you would like to ask? (Pause for a
second).

Thank you and you may now introduce the members in your team.”

Interviews

Interviews with various stakeholders are normally pre-arranged by the host university
prior to the site assessment. The interviews may start with a discussion involving the
writers of the SAR at the start and during the site assessment. In this interview, the
team can ask for clarification of any obscurities and explanation of any topics that
are not clear.

The interviews with the students provide a very rich source of information, but the
information needs to be checked and tested against the ideas of the staff members.
Student interviews are important to get an insight into the study load, quality of the
academic staff, the curriculum of the programme, the quality of the facilities, etc.

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