Quality assurance of degree programs has become increasingly important as the landscape of degree providers becomes more diverse in Canada. Quality assurance refers to the criteria and processes that are employed in reviews of institutions and/or programs to determine whether standards set for postsecondary curriculum, outcomes, and input are being met and maintained, and whether they encourage continuous improvement in the quality of higher education.
Each province and territory has its own system of postsecondary institutions and its own approaches to quality assurance. However, the lack of national or common standards presents presenting a challenge for student mobility and transferability within Canada and for understanding of Canadian education and institutions internationally.
Context
In the context of a dynamic and increasingly varied degree-granting environment in Canada, determining the level and quality of new degree credentials is of concern to provincial and territorial governments, students, parents, employers, and postsecondary institutions. Two key issues had to be addressed:
- In recent years, new degree-granting institutions have emerged and new degree programs have multiplied. There are new public universities, private universities, for-profit degree-granting institutions, public colleges offering bachelor and master's degree programs, institutions offering degrees through distance delivery, and degree-completion partnerships between colleges and universities. Graduates of these programs need to have their degrees accepted by employers, licensing and professional bodies, and other postsecondary institutions.
- Universities and other degree-granting institutions in Canada must compete in a global context in which other countries assess programs against published standards. Most countries have a degree qualifications framework and standards for assessing the quality of degree programs – Canada's lack of these tools constituted a distinct disadvantage. As Canada moves increasingly toward the export of its programs and the recruitment of foreign students, consistent and coherent pan-Canadian quality assurance standards are essential.
Statement on Quality Assurance
In 2007, the provincial and territorial ministers responsible for advanced education endorsed a statement on quality assurance for three main purposes:
- To provide assurance to the public, students, employers, and postsecondary institutions at home and abroad that new programs and new institutions of higher learning meet appropriate standards and that performance against the standards will be assessed by appropriate means
- To provide a context for identifying how degree credentials compare in level and standard to those in other jurisdictions, with a view to facilitating the search for continuous improvement, the education and training of an internationally competitive workforce, and international recognition of the quality of Canadian credentials
- To improve student access to further study at the postsecondary level by establishing a degree-level standards context in which policies on the transfer of credits and credential recognition may be developed and, in fairness to students who choose non-traditional providers, to focus discussion of credit transfer and credential recognition on the academic standards that the programs involved have met
The statement is to be used as a guideline in decision making relating to new degree programs and new degree-granting institutions within a province or territory. It contains three sections:
- Canadian Degree Qualifications Framework
- Procedures and Standards for New Degree Program Quality Assessment
- Procedures and Standards for Assessing New Degree-Granting Institutions
The framework of standards includes
- Descriptions of the general learning outcome competencies expected of degree holders at the bachelor, master's, and doctoral levels
- Standards for quality assurance reviews of sufficient rigour to ensure the confidence of all stakeholders
Continuing the Focus on Quality Assurance
The first of a series of reports on quality assurance, Report of the Pan-Canadian Committee on Quality Assurance of Degree Programming: Quality Assurance of E-Learning and Private Institutions was released in 2006.
In 2008, the Pan-Canadian Quality Assurance Symposium: Challenges and Opportunities in Canadian Degree Quality Assurance was organized by CMEC. Representatives from various government bodies and stakeholder groups from across the country addressed such themes as the current purposes, activities, and results of quality assurance, shifting the focus to continuous improvement and learning outcomes, and balancing quality assurance and innovation. A report on the symposium can be found here.
More information on quality assurance, including recent reports from each jurisdiction on their quality assurance policies and processes, can be found at the Canadian Information Centre for International Credentials.