The Deanship of Development and Quality concluded the events of Salman bin Abdualaziz Quality Symposium on Thursday 5th of the first Jumada 1434H corresponding to 06/03/2014, which lasted for two days. Constellation of international and national quality experts attended such an event, as various experiences of quality implementation have been discussed.
It is worth mentioning that the symposium had been inaugurated by the rector of the University, Dr. Abdelrahman Alasmi who stated that such symposium came as an incarnation of the great efforts exerted by the University and its support for building up a internal system of quality in the entire units of the university, the academic and the administrative. It aims at introducing the good practices of quality in the Saudi Universities and making use of the Foreign Experiences in such a field, which in turn helps incorporate the good practices of quality into the University. Furthermore, it would play a major role in overcoming the obstacles and difficulties facing the implementation of a number of quality processes in the University.
The outlines of the symposium cover the Quality Assurance Systems, Developmental Review, and National and International Accrediation, reported by Dr. Saleh Alqhatani, the University Deputy for Development and Quality during the inaugural session.
The symposium hosted a number of the international and national quality experts to present their various experiences in implementing the quality systems. In addition, it also hosted Dr. Abdullah bin Al-Musallam, the secretary- general of the National Commission for Academic Accreditation and Assessment(NCAAA)and Dr. David Woodhouse, the former president of The International Network for Quality Assurance Agencies in Higher Education(INQAAHE), Dr. Ian Alan, the international expert in Quality Assurance, and Dr. George Paterson, the former executive director of ABET for the programs of Engineering and Technology. Furthermore, several numbers of the Saudi Deans of Development and Quality were present in the symposium.
“Sattam bin Abudalaiz has pursued the cultivation of quality culture into the Community of the University through establishing a number of quality units dispersed at various colleges of the University and hiring a distinguished cadres. The University moved to the implementation of the second stage related to the self-evaluation and program evaluation,” reported by Dr. Alqahatani.
The Symposium discussed the impact of the quality systems implementation on the development of the educational process through identifying the strengths points and the points need further improvement, reported by Dr. Hussein Almaghrabi, the executive director of quality and academic accreditation project in the University.
Twenty four participations have been introduced during the symposium represented in six academic paper and six power point presentation turning around the University programs participating in the developmental review project and twelve academic posters reflecting various issues related to the quality in the University.