CAPACITY BUILDINGFOR QUALITYASSURANCE:LESSONS LEARNEDCONCEPCION V. PIJANO
President, Asia-Pacific Quality Network
Executive Director, PAASCUThe Asia Pacific Quality Network(APQN)¾Founded in Hong Kong in January 2003.
¾Current host: Shanghai Educational
Evaluation Institute (SEEI)¾Australian Universities Quality Agency(AUQA): 2003 – March 2009
¾Fairy Godmothers: The World Bank andUNESCO

Development Grant Facility
In 2004, APQN became the first network
to receive a 3-year World Bank Development
Grant Facility (DGF) to strengthen its
institutional capacity and the technicalcapacity of its member organizations.

Global Initiative for Quality
Assurance Capacity (GIQAC)
a partnership between World Bank and
UNESCO launched in March 2008 tosupport capacity building in quality
assurance of higher education indeveloping countries and countries intransition.

Russia

Bhutan. Maldives
Membership:
59 members from 25
countries and7 observers from
5 countries.Brunei

Mission
To enhance the quality of higher
education in Asia and the Pacific region
through strengthening the work of quality
assurance agencies and extending thecooperation between them.

VisionTo be a self-sustaining Network, afirst point of reference for advice orsupport, efficient in operation and open
in information sharing.

Activities supported by the grants:
 Expansion of the website and databasesof consultants to achieve better
electronic communication andinformation-sharing Workshops and conferences to build
quality assurance capacity in developing
countries/territories.

••Internship and Cross-regional Staff
Exchange Programme
Training Materials and Resource
PackageImpact
Most impact has occurred:¾ in improving QA mechanisms acrossnational systems in various countries,¾ in the exchange of ideas and of expertise,¾ in promoting communication, cooperationand mutual understanding amongagencies and institutions.

Countries where workshops,conferences and training programs wereconducted¾Australia¾Bangladesh¾China¾Fiji¾India¾Japan¾Lao PDR¾Malaysia¾Mongolia¾New Zealand¾Pakistan¾Philippines¾Vietnam¾ Indonesia

INTERNSHIP AND CROSS-REGIONALEXCHANGE PROGRAM (2008-2009)
Countries served¾Cambodia¾Vietnam¾Bangladesh¾Mongolia¾Indonesia

Lessons learned:¾A regional approach is an efficientand cost effective mechanism todeliver capacity building across awide and diverse region.
¾The regional approach has led togreater capacity to learn and share.

¾The regional model tends to develop
higher education QA systems more
quickly and efficiently.
¾The subject of educational quality isglobal, but the work of QA, for the mostpart, is local.
¾International cooperation and commitment
towards building capacity in QA asdemonstrated by the World Bank andUNESCO are yielding positive results.

Framework for Higher Education Quality
Assurance Principles in the Asia Pacific Region(Chiba Principles)

A:
Internal
Quality
Assurance

B:
Quality
Assessment

C:
Quality
Assurance
AgenciesChallenges¾ Continued expansion of the website toprovide a platform for discussion andexchange of information among
members¾ Developing other internet-basedknowledge sharing and capacity building
tools for QA

Challenges¾ Developing a vocabulary of key QA terms
describing how these terms are used indifferent contexts.
¾ Continuous training of staff and external
reviewers¾ Sustainability of the network