University of Sharjah hosts British Council workshop on quality management in higher education

With the theme of 'Approaches to quality enhancement', the workshop will examine various approaches to enhancing the quality of the student experience including the scholarship of learning and teaching, the inter-related roles of learning, teaching and assessment, the potential role of national subject centres and staff development.

The Sharjah event is part of a programme of activities, including a series of five workshops, focusing on quality assurance in Higher Education organised by the British Council in the Middle East (with events in Qatar, Oman, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain) running from November 2007 to March 2008.

Alison Devine, Deputy Director of the British Council in the UAE with a remit for Higher Education across the Middle East, commented: "The British Council has been working with a higher education community of 30 leaders and managers in the region for two years, to help develop processes to support the quality management of academic programmes in universities in the region and the development of national systems for assuring, assessing and enhancing the quality of higher education programmes.

"The workshops are an important part of the British Council's programme and help share experience, expertise and best practice in quality management between the UK and the region, as well as within the Middle East. Participation in the workshops is fully funded by the British Council. We have also helped to create an online community within the region for quality assurance specialists to maintain their contacts and relationships, share published information and enjoy access to an online consultancy for the GCC community."

"We are very grateful to the University of Sharjah for offering its world class facilities for our UAE event on 10th and 11th December, particularly Dr Essam Al Agamy, Director of the Institutional Research Unit."

The programme of quality assurance in higher education activities for November 2007-March 2008 builds on the successful British Council programme in 2005-6, which included a major regional seminar held in partnership with the UAE Ministry of Higher Education at Zayed University in Abu Dhabi. All the British Council activities are designed to meet the needs and interests of both senior public servants concerned with developing national quality assurance and accreditation systems and university leaders, senior managers and academics engaged in the management of the quality of academic programmes.

The British Council's 2007-8 programme of activity consists of five workshops, four of which focus on various aspects of quality management and one which provides specific training in preparing papers for publication in international journals. In addition, the British Council offered a repeat of its popular UK study tour for higher education quality specialists, which interspersed sessions with staff from the QAA (Quality Assurance Agency) and the Higher Education Academy with visits to universities to discuss their approaches to quality management.