Quality assurance is essential for cultivating qualified individuals

Achieving world standards in education is highly important for the international validity of the education provided. For this reason, quality has become one of the key agenda items for universities both globally and in Turkey in recent years. As institutions that provide educational services and produce scientific knowledge, universities contribute to national and social development and shape the course of the world. Therefore, it is of great importance to ensure quality standards in the educational services provided and in the quality of the scientific knowledge produced at these institutions. However, for this to happen, topics such as what quality is, how it is determined, how it is measured, and what standards it requires have become one of the important agenda items for universities in recent years, with the guidance of the Council of Higher Education. To carry out these efforts systematically and continuously, the Higher Education Quality Council (YÖKAK) was established. It can be said that YÖKAK, in cooperation with YÖK, has launched a full-scale quality mobilization to ensure quality standards in all universities in Turkey and to accelerate accreditation efforts in this regard. Indeed, I believe that the Quality Conference organized by YÖKAK in Ankara on April 25-26 will accelerate these efforts. I would like to draw attention here to some interesting points from the discussions held within the scope of quality and accreditation during the two-day conference, which featured presentations by international and national experts and was attended by rectors and quality managers of universities in Turkey.

Based on the evaluations made and questions asked at the meeting, I realized once again that the subject of quality and accreditation in our universities is not yet fully understood. For example, I was surprised that the difference between students currently receiving education and graduates, who are stakeholder-oriented, is still being confused. Similarly, what can be said about the view that the top management units of universities, i.e., the rectorates, should be seen as external stakeholders of the institution? From such questions coming from the audience in the hall, each of whom is an academic in a managerial position at our universities, I understood that we are still at the very beginning of this process.

But being at the beginning does not mean one should fall into despair. In this sense, it is clear how important and necessary the meeting held by YÖKAK was. Despite some confusion, we are not in a very bad situation. Coming together, putting our confusion or clarity on the table, discussing, and sharing are very important for the process to progress on a healthy foundation.

Quality means that an institution plans its positioning within the system and its relationship and interaction with other structures in the system. Quality-oriented planning is of serious importance for institutional outputs to turn into contributions and maximum benefit.

Universities, on one hand, train the workforce for various business lines and professional fields in society, thus contributing to production and economic development. On the other hand, they contribute to technological development and the creation of a more comfortable and livable world through the production of scientific knowledge. But one of the important tasks of universities is to contribute to the creation of value for society and humanity by ensuring the cultivation of good people who are visionary, intellectual, and have developed humanitarian aspects. To fulfill all these duties as required, a quality-oriented approach is necessary.

One of the points highlighted in this sense at the meeting was that quality can be measured in both quantitative and qualitative terms. For this, experts tried to answer questions such as what quality covers, what criteria it requires, how these criteria are determined, and how measurement is performed.

In this context, attention was drawn to the importance of evaluating and continuously monitoring the quality, scope, goals, and outputs of the educational services provided at universities within the framework of certain criteria. It is important at this point for each program within universities to conduct its own self-assessment within the context of these criteria. For this, external institutional evaluations are important. At this point, a recommendation was made to receive support from accreditation bodies operating at the national and international levels.

External observation is always of great importance. When one remains closed off, it is not always easy to see the outside, to respond realistically to needs and expectations, and to fully understand the trends outside. Today's world is developing and changing very rapidly. The integration of technological developments into life and their transformative effect are very fast. It is no longer possible, nor realistic, to remain trapped within campuses to adapt to change and transformation and to respond instantly and realistically to changing and renewed needs. Quality and accreditation efforts are of great importance in this respect, that is, in terms of seeing outside the campus.

Nothing is the same as it used to be. The era of producing theory in our ivory towers has long passed. Today's world requires constant and intense interaction and rapid thinking. It is very important for academics to constantly and closely observe and monitor, and to continuously update their own scientific production and educational approaches accordingly. It is for this reason that it is necessary to resort to an external perspective and evaluation at certain intervals. It is important to consult the opinions of external evaluators from time to time to understand to what extent the knowledge we produce in our universities finds a response in real life and to what extent the human resources we are training overlap with the needs of society and the world, so that the efforts made can turn into value.

It is also of great importance for universities to be open to each other in quality processes. Collaborations and partnerships, both within the country and at the international level, are necessary for quality efforts to progress on a much more realistic ground and for quality standards to be ensured. Interaction in education, cooperation in the production of scientific knowledge, and sharing the outputs of production provide great benefits in universities gaining vision and strengthening their missions.

Therefore, in quality efforts, it is important for academic units and programs that operate in the same field and produce similar services to be in cooperation and interaction in order to increase the quality of gains and outputs. On the other hand, submitting the operations, services, and production to the evaluation of external evaluators from time to time is very useful for ensuring the quality standard of the production and services provided.