The aim of the event – to discuss standards and criteria of accreditation, to create a platform for effective exchange of ideas and opinions on the issues of quality assurance, and to make collective decisions.
On 30 June 2017 the Independent Kazakh Agency for Quality Assurance in Education (IQAA) conducted the discussion of standards and criteria of institutional and specialized (programme) accreditation. The meeting was attended by more than 40 participants: Rectors, Vice-Rectors and representatives of higher education institutions responsible for the procedure of quality assurance, representatives of research institutes responsible for postgraduate training of residents as well as the heads of IQAA Accreditation committees. Representatives of several medical universities and research institutes took part in the discussion via online conference software system.
The program of the discussion consisted of two parts:
1) Discussion of standards and criteria for institutional and specialized (programme) accreditation of higher education institutions;
2) Discussion of standards and criteria for post-graduate education (training of medical doctors in residency).
During the discussion of standards and criteria of institutional and specialized (programme) accreditation of higher education, representatives of educational organizations proposed their recommendations and ideas on the improvement of standards and criteria of IQAA accreditation and discussed the amendments made by the Agency on the basis of previously provided suggestions from universities.
To discuss standards and criteria for accreditation in the framework of postgraduate education (training of medical doctors in the residency), the Agency invited representatives of research institutes and medical universities of the country. This discussion also was conducted in form of a constructive dialogue, which allowed to develop general decisions on the improvement of quality assurance procedures by means of a systematic reconsideration of the mechanisms for conducting accreditation.
Summarizing the results of the discussion, the following decision was made: to introduce the concerted suggestions and amendments into the criteria of IQAA accreditation standards with the goal to further improve the methodological database of the accreditation procedure in HEIs.
IQAA expresses its sincere gratitude to all participants of the discussion for active cooperation, valuable remarks and facilitation in the continuous development of the Agency.
The protoreport from this discussion is presented on the official IQAA Facebook page.
Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Republic of Kazakhstan 
Ministry of Education and Science of the Kyrgyz Republic 
