Independent agency for quality assurance in education What

Independent agency for quality assurance in education What System of External Quality Assurance to address the challenges of State Policy for Quality Assurance of Cycle 3 (doctoral) programmes? The case of Kazakhstan www. iqaa. kz assylbekova@iqaa. kz Aliya Assylbekova Senior expert. October, 16, 2018, Astana

Public policy on Ph. D and QA of Ph. D programmes in Kazakhstan President`s Address, Strategic documents State education development plans (2005 -2010 (transformation of established system into three cycle system), 2011 -2020 (to have least 2 thousand Ph. D students enrollment by 2020, increase the share of optional component of the content to 90%), 2016 -2020 (increase the share of optional component of the content to 95%, 3 years of experience are among entry requirements)) • • Law on Education, 2007 (recent amendments were made in 2018 to expand the academic autonomy of HEIs) More freedom in defining admission requirements, awarding degree (national universities) Only accreditation of agencies listed in OECD countries QA networks are eligible for public funding and awarding a degree State regulations (defining admission requirements, content, assessment and award of the degree) State regulations (defining requirements to QA bodies register) Institutional level regulations QA standards and criteria

The average expenditure on training of 1 Doctoral student, 2011 -2017 (in euro) 30000 25000 20000 15000 1 euro=365 tenge *only civil HEIs are considered 10000 5000 0 2011 -2012 -2013 -2014 -2015 -2016 -2017 Nazarbayev Unievsrsity 0 0 20295 21156 17690 26501 Other HEIs 3 884 3 915 3 895 Min 3 580 euro Max 4 153 euro

Ph. D students population in Kazakhstan 4000 3 603 3500 3000 2 710 2500 1 892 2000 1500 2 063 2 288 1 296 960 1000 412 400 508 366 303 868 666 439 7/ 18 20 1 6/ 17 20 1 5/ 16 20 1 4/ 15 20 1 3/ 14 20 1 2/ 13 20 1 1/ 12 20 1 0/ 11 20 1 9/ 10 20 0 8/ 09 20 0 7/ 08 20 0 6/ 07 20 0 6 05 /0 20 4/ 05 20 0 3/ 04 0 *496, 209 Bachelor`s degree programmes (0, 75% of bachelor`s students body)

Number of accredited Ph. D programmes in Kazakhstan by different QA bodies, 2008 -2018 (May) № QA body Number of accredited programmes 140 131 120 100 40 24 15 ES T 0 IM ar IIN AS Au st ria IN AQ AС QU ВS P AB ET 0 BA A 1 0 0 13 FI 20 AC 237 53 60 АР 53 1 24 15 13 НА IAAR (НААР) ABET ACВSP AСQUIN AQ ASIIN IMar. EST FIBAA Итого 80 AA 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 131 IQAA (since 2014) 6

The sample Before the questionnaire was developed 5 HEIs representatives and 5 Ph. D students from 5 HEIs were interviewed The list of 3456 Ph. D students (out of 3603) was received Surveyed 1300 (410 responses) (36% out of the whole Ph. D students body). The number of covered programmes – 101 Courses – 1 -3. 8

The sample 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. Education (Pedagogy and psychology) Physics Chemistry Biology History Philology Economics Information systems Medicine

Findings 1. Lack of skills of publishing in peer-review journals. 2. Lack of full access to articles in Scopus, Web of Science databases and resources in English 3. Due to delivery of extra and unnecessary subjects lack of time for writing a dissertation 4. Lack of hours delegated for research methodology 5. Low quality of supervision 6. Lack of administrative support from university side (in arranging the internship, finding international consultant, arranging thesis defense etc. )

Findings 5. Admission of students with low English and research skills 6. The assessment forms do not coincide with the learning outcomes. 7. Most of the graduates of the doctoral programmes are not able to defense thesis on time. 8. Unclear situation on expenses of International consultant and dissertation committee.

Discussions 1. Entry language requirements should include only international language test results (IELTS, TOEFL etc. ) 2. Research skills of the candidate should be examined by essay writing and reviewing previously written papers. 3. HEIs should put more effort on research methodology, decreasing the number of unnecessary subjects, providing relevant resources and support in finding the international consultant, arranging internship and etc. 4. HEIs should systematically monitor the quality of supervision. 5. HEIs should consider the means of revealing students from burden of caring of expenses of international consultant and dissertation committee.

Recommendations 1. Entry language requirements should include only international language test results (IELTS, TOEFL etc. ) 2. Research skills of the candidate should be examined by essay writing and reviewing previously written papers. 3. HEIs should put more effort on research methodology, decreasing the number of unnecessary subjects, providing relevant resources and support in finding the international consultant, arranging internship and etc. 4. HEIs should systematically monitor the quality of supervision. 5. HEIs should consider the means of revealing students from burden of caring of expenses of international consultant and dissertation committee.

Discussion On April, 7, 2018, representatives of 32 HEIs in charge of doctoral programmes delivery took part in discussions of recommendations on improvement of doctoral programmes.