Cooperation In Quality Assurance Research Articles

The COPHELA (Cooperation in Quality Assurance for Pharmacy Education and Training between Europe and Latin America) Project.

COPHELA (Cooperation in Quality Assurance for Pharmacy Education and Training between Europe and Latin America), a collaborative project between the European Union (EU) and Latin America, will produce on-line courses for the master degree in pharmacy. The program runs from 2019 through 2021. It is funded by the Erasmus+ program of the Education, Audio-visual and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA) of the European Commission. The partners are EU and Latin American universities. These are accompanied by associated partners from EU and Latin American universities, as well as from governmental and non-governmental organizations, such as pharmacy chambers and educational associations. The project is coordinated by the University of Granada, Spain (first author of this paper). It will produce distance learning master degree courses in a dozen fields of specialized pharmaceutical science education and practice, ranging from patient care to industrial pharmacy. This paper describes the design of the project and is intended to evoke constructive comments. It also represents a call for the recruitment of additional associated partners.

A framework for enhancing regulatory cooperation in external quality assurance in Southern Africa

ABSTRACTCross-border higher education (CBHE) has taken centre stage in the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC). There has been increased trade in higher education services among member states of the SADC. This has necessitated regional regulatory cooperation in quality assurance and accreditation. SADC has established the Southern African Quality Assurance Network as a regional network of external quality assurance agencies. This paper presents a framework that can be used to enhance regulatory cooperation within the Network on quality assurance in higher education with special focus on CBHE. The paper identifies the main areas of focus as people mobility, institutional and programme mobility, accreditation and registration and recognition of academic credentials. Proposed mechanisms for regulatory cooperation include regional credit accumulation and transfer system, regional qualifications framework, framework for accreditation and registration of foreign providers and framework for recognition of academic credentials.

ТЕНДЕНЦІЇ ПРОФЕСІЙНОЇ ПІДГОТОВКИ ЕКСПЕРТІВ У ГАЛУЗІ ОСВІТИ У БАЛКАНСЬКИХ КРАЇНАХ

The article analyzes the trends of professional training of experts in the field of education in the Balkan countries, such as: Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary. It identified the following common features of professional training of experts in the field of education: focus on quality assurance; implementation of vocational training as part of Continuing Education; seminars and conferences as the basic forms of training; lack of training of experts in the field of education in universities; election of candidates for experts in the field of education from experienced teachers with the experience and good practice; compliance with official Code of Ethics of professional experts in the field of education. International cooperation in quality assurance. Specific trends in training of experts in the field of education in the Balkan countries are not identified.

Bologna and Quality Assurance: Progress Made or Pulling the Wrong Cart?

ABSTRACT This contribution looks critically at the achievements regarding the Bologna action line ‘European cooperation in quality assurance’. Much has been realised but most of the visible achievements are at the supranational level: the development of the European Standards and Guidelines, the launch of the European Network of Quality Assurance Agencies, and the establishment of the Register of European Higher Education Quality Assurance Agencies. Despite these positive developments, we argue that there may have been too much stress on compliance to rigid procedures and mechanisms, at the cost of a focus on quality improvement and the student learning experience.

The Bologna Process and Its Achievements in Europe 1999–2007

This article deals with the Bologna Process (BP), which since its creation in 1999 has deeply influenced European higher education: What is it? How did it come into being? How far has it come? The BP is both a political phenomenon and a reform taking place in European higher education. As a political phenomenon it consists of a series of multilateral conferences in which nearly all European countries participate, both European Union (EU) and non-EU members. The BP has produced a governance structure of its own, in which the EU is also engaged through the membership of the European Commission. As a transformation (harmonization) of European higher education systems, the pan-European BP moves towards a common, more or less Anglo-Saxon, model based on, for instance, the introduction of a two-cycle structure (Bachelor and Master), a system of comparable credits, cooperation in quality assurance, and the promotion of student and staff mobility. The BP can be analyzed from an International Relations perspective, which regards it as an international policy process with, on the one hand, decision making resulting in common positions and, on the other hand, an implementation mode based on adaptation of national regulations and practices. This mode includes national reports that, through a feedback process, inform the BP about its performance. In 2005 and 2007 the BP's stocktaking procedure resulted in two assessments of national progress. Although the BP is not yet an intergovernmental organization, it is expected to become one.

A joint degree programme in business administration and law: experience on educational innovation applying ECTS, tutorials, and e‐learning in the context of the European convergence 1

Since 2003 the University of Valencia Law School and the Economics and Business School have participated in the projects for the development of experience in educational innovation in the University of Valencia in the context of the European convergence (http://www.uv.es/oce). At the present time, the projects in which we are developing this experience are: a joint degree programme in business administration and law, a degree in economics, a degree in political sciences and another in criminology. We focus on some of the key objectives of the Bologna process (1999): establishment of a system of credits as a means of promoting students' mobility, promotion of European cooperation in quality assurance, promotion of European dimensions particularly for curricular development, and inter‐institutional cooperation. The Bologna process creates a number of challenges for the design, content and organisation of the curriculum and this double degree programme may be a test to examine joint degrees in terms of some ...

Analysis of Education Problems at Higher Education Institutions

The Bologna declaration stresses the importance of education and educational co-operation in the development and strengthening of stable, peaceful and democratic societies. Additionally the declaration highlights the need to promote European co-operation in quality assurance with a view to develop comparable criteria and methodologies. The cooperative activity of universities created preconditions for students’ mobility under the Leonardo da Vinci and Socrates programmes. Hence, a comparison of efficiency of engineering education studies at partner institutions has become a topical issue. The paper presents the problems related to engineering education quality at different universities and suggests a system of indicators that are applicable for education quality estimation. The main idea is to compare the distinguished aspects of the education process and to evaluate quality of teaching. The efficiency of different subjects (social and engineering) is estimated by applying sets of criteria, to be implemented by incorporating a proposed system of criteria into questionnaires for students at Vilnius Gediminas Technical University (VGTU), who participate in student mobility programmes. Processing of the received responses let the author achieve the ultimate aim, i.e. to trace differences in the quality of teaching. Policy implications in the field of engineering education quality management are seen as main outcome of presented research.

Recognition and quality assurance in LIS

Purpose – The term “lifelong learning” is used for combining formal, informal and non‐formal education and training, with a reconsideration of professional recognition and quality assurance processes. The objectives of the article are to demonstrate the need of cooperation in quality assurance and recognition between higher education institutions and vocational education and training accreditors, with particular focus on exchange of models and methods of accreditation, which have been adopted in LIS, as well as common criteria and principles.Design/methodology/approach – Present LIS criteria, standards and guidelines are examined together with a documentary and literature review, looking to quality assurance and individual recognition focus and process.Findings – The emergence of common themes between quality assurance and individual recognition is outlined, with the learning outcomes focus as the driving force for integration. The European Qualification Framework, Europass and ECVET are discussed as the ...

The Bologna process and medical education

The Bologna Process designates the ongoing activities whereby the Ministers responsible for Higher Education in Europe attempt to change and harmonize fundamental aspects of all higher education in the many countries involved. This grand scheme is gaining momentum. The number of participating countries is increasing, more aspects of higher education are included and the number of activities and projects is growing. Medical education has so far been neglected in the process and awareness of the development at medical schools has been limited. The purpose of this paper is to introduce the Bologna Process, its background, objectives and main activities and to draw attention to some of the challenges medical education will probably have to face in the near future such as a structure based on two main cycles, undergraduate and graduate, a system of easily readable and comparable degrees and European cooperation in quality assurance including a system of accreditation, certification or comparable procedures. The position of medical education towards the Bologna Process is essential.

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Twenty nine European ministers have signed the Bologna declaration in June 1999 and committed their governments and their countries to create the European Higher Education Area by 2010. The European Commission is actively supporting the Bologna Process and has set out their own Action plan `From Prague to Berlin - the European contribution'. Quality assurance is one of the Bologna action lines. Accreditation could be seen as an important contribution to the completion of the European Higher Education Area. Whilst interest in accreditation has been accelerated in Europe in recent years, it is interesting to note that the concept of accreditation can be traced back to 1347 and the creation of the University of Prague. However, it should be stated that accreditation started in the US in an attempt to self-regulate a higher education sector characterized by a mix of institutional types in a competitive context. In Europe interest in accreditation is a direct consequence of the increased interest in accountability of those of us who are employed in the public sector. Globalization and the increased internationalization of the higher education market has led to attempts to compare the systems in place in different countries. The Bologna process and the internationalization of higher education are inter-connected in so far as the ultimate goal is to reach more readability, comparability, compatibility and transparency in European higher education, while preserving institutional diversity and autonomy. So, internationalization of quality assurance was seen as a necessary and logical response of European higher education to current globalization trends as well as to the challenges of building a European higher education area. However, progress has been made in quality assurance field since the Commission began supporting pilot schemes through Socrates in the last decade of the last century. On the basis of the Council recommendation on cooperation in quality assurance in higher education of December 1998, many countries have set up their own quality assurance agencies and a European Network of Quality Assurance Agencies has been established to promote exchange of information, ideas and experiences, contents and methods in the field of evaluation within the EU by organizing forums, workshops etc. Different initiatives have been taken to explore the context and the feasibility of accreditation across national borders, to clarify the key concepts and issues as well as to discuss possible collaborative accreditation schemes at the European level. For example, in 2000 CRE (Confederation of European Union Rectors' Conferences) launched a project with the support of the European Commission to explore issues related to this topic and to define criteria or reference points used in evaluations (Tuning project). However, Mrs. Viviane Reding concludes: We still have a lot to do to make the European Higher Education Area a reality by 2010. We are still far away from a situation in which transparency, quality and recognition are common features in Europe. We now need to go a step further and make quality assurance and evaluation more widely spread, more common and more coherent. This means we need to progress both on quality assurance inside universities, and on external mechanisms to support this'. The Commission will also stimulate the debate on the future organisation of quality assurance and accreditation in Europe in the run up to the higher education convention in Graz, May 2003 and to the Ministerial Meeting in Berlin, September 2003. Conclusions will be set out in a Report on the Council Recommendation on Quality.

Design and implementation of an antibiotic usage review

s 131 Design and implementation of an antibiotic usage review J. B. Babcock, G. J. Damert,*t J. E. Cooper,f and T. R. Franson* Ofice of Chief of Staff and Departments of *Medicine and 7 Nursing, Veterans Administration Medical Center, 5000 West National Avenue, Wood (Milwaukee), Wisconsin 53193, USA To have an integrated and effective hospital quality assurance programme, there should ideally be active communication and sharing of audit data and information among a variety of disciplines. Appropriate committtee structure and membership can promote interaction between hospital infection control., antibiotic usage review, pharmacy and therapeutics and quality assurance committees. The antibiotic usage review committee decided to use an antibiotic order sheet similar to that described by Durbin, Lapida and Goldmann (1981). The order form requires the physician to categorize antibiotic usage as to prophylactic (i.e. anticipated invasive procedure), empiric (i.e. suspected infection but no pathogen identified), or therapeutic (i.e. known infection with identified pathogen). Depending upon the category chosen, automatic stop dates of 2 days (prophylactic), 3 days (empiric) or 7 days (therapeutic) were established for inpatients and were adhered to, unless the prescription order is rewritten. Experience using the antibiotic prescription order sheet was studied by sampling 7 consecutive days in July and August 1984. A total of 487 antibiotic prescription order sheets were reviewed from 257 patients during a 14-day period. An analysis of 489 antibiotic prescription forms from 257 patients during two sample periods over a total of 14 days showed that the frequency of antibiotic orders was 28 per cent prophylactic use, 47 per cent empiric use and 25 per cent therapeutic use. The antibiotic form was used without exception for inpatients because of strict enforcement by Pharmacy Service. Although it is premature to assess long-range benefits at this point, the use of an antibiotic order form allows concurrent audit processes, discourages inappropriate or inadvertent antibiotic use (with projected cost savings), prevents changes in bacterial flora from casual antibiotic use, and provides a mechanism for multidisciplinary co-operation in quality assurance. References Durbin, W. A., Jr, Lapida, B. & Goldmann, D. A. (1981). Improved antibiotic usage following introduction of a novel prescription system. Journal of the American Medical Association 246, 1796-l 800. t Present address: Kaiser-Foundation Hospital, Cleveland, Ohio, USA. Revolution in rabies prevention: a public health perspective L. Y. Altmayer, C. V. Trimarchi* and N. B. Schellt 480 Parker Avenue, Levittown, New York 117.56 *New York State Department of Health, Albany, New York 12201 and TNassau County Department of Health, 240 Old C ountry Road, Mineola, New York 11.501, USA In 1884, Louis Pasteur presented to an international audience in Copenhagen his original report on the use of a vaccine for the prophylaxis of rabies. It is fitting, in 1984 and at another international meeting, to pay tribute to him and to the workers who have followed him in this field.