Enhancing Internal Quality Assurance Mechanism at HEI through Responsive Program Evaluation

Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) should be more responsive and routinely take proactive role in quality assurance in time with the internationalization of education and massification of enrolment in academic programs offered. This can be done through continuous quality improvement by enhancing, complementing and developing HEI internal quality assurance mechanisms. Hence, the first part will observe the development of a proposed responsive outcome evaluation as a complementary tool towards heightening the comprehensiveness of existing quality assurance mechanisms. The second part of the paper will further discuss and elaborate the qualitative nature of the proposed self-evaluation as a meaningful dialectic device towards continuous quality improvement of programs. In the proposed qualitative and responsive program evaluation, the quality of an academic program is explored from the perspectives of stakeholders. Domains of change are the main reference in this proposed responsive program evaluation. These domains of change focus on knowledge, attitude, skills and aspirations (KASA) and broad indicators of outcomes derived from the program outcomes, course learning outcomes and graduate qualities promised to be catered to stakeholders. The proposed qualitative and responsive outcome evaluation as an alternative internal quality assurance mechanism is believed to complement the existing internal quality assurance mechanisms by including the aspects which relate directly to the stakeholders inclusive of the program's provider, lecturers, graduates and also employers. With relevant minor modification, the proposed responsive outcome evaluation could be employed in other educational programs and higher education institutions.