What is Accreditation in Higher Education?

Accreditation

Accreditation is a process that verifies that higher education institutions and programs meet certain quality standards. Independent accreditation institutions carry out this process and ensure that the quality of education is enhanced, and continuously improved and that institutions act by the principles of transparency and accountability. Accreditation provides national and international recognition of institutions’ educational programs and provides students with better educational opportunities. This article will discuss accreditation, measurement and evaluation in higher education, the benefits of accreditation and assessment, and accreditation associations.

Quality Assurance Process: Accreditation is a systematic process of assessing the conformity of an educational institution or program to certain quality standards and its ability to adhere to those standards. An independent accreditation institution carries out this process and supports the institution’s continuous improvement efforts to enhance the quality of education.

Standards and Criteria: Accreditation processes are carried out within the framework of certain standards and criteria. These standards are usually set in areas such as the content of educational programs, teaching methods, student support services, teaching staff quality, and student outcomes.

External Audit and Evaluation: The accreditation process includes external evaluations by independent auditors. These auditors objectively assess the institution’s compliance with the set standards and as a result of these assessments, accreditation status is granted or renewed.

Continuous Improvement: Accreditation is not just a one-time assessment process, but a continuous improvement cycle. Accredited institutions are re-evaluated at regular intervals and improvement plans are created and implemented during these processes.

What is Measurement and Evaluation?

Assessment of student achievement is an important part of the education and training process and aims to objectively determine students’ learning levels. The measurement and evaluation process collects and analyses data about student performance using a variety of measurement tools and methods. The results are used both to provide feedback to students and to improve the effectiveness of educational programs.

Examod’s assessment process generates insightful exam and candidate results for educational institutions and companies, including lower-group and upper-group statistics, comprehensive question and exam analyses, as well as visualization of each metric. It also provides standard deviation, test variance, Cronbach’s Alpha reliability coefficient, and discrimination analyses of exam questions. A quality assessment and evaluation process should include not only the validity and reliability of statistics but also the visualization of these statistics. Visualization of statistics increases the comprehensibility of the data and allows for a more effective evaluation of the educational process. Examod can generate candidate-based reports on the course, subject, learning objective, and question attributes (or with institution-specific labels) through its exam system, which it owns and continues to develop. In addition, we can analyze all course/unit-based measurements according to subject, learning objective, difficulty, etc. sub- attributes and present how much the teaching objectives related to the courses have been achieved.

Let's Start Examod Journey

Just contact us with a form to start your Examod Journey!

online meeting

If we summarize the measurement and evaluation process in sub-headings;

Evaluation of Student Achievement: Measurement and evaluation are systematic methods used to determine students’ learning processes and achievements. These processes aim to assess students’ knowledge, skills, and competencies objectively and fairly.

Measurement Tools and Methods: Assessment tools include a variety of methods such as exams, tests, projects, assignments, and performance assessments. These tools are used to measure students’ learning outcomes and performance.

Data Collection and Analysis: Measurement and evaluation processes collect and analyze data about student performance. The results of the analysis are used to evaluate student achievement and the effectiveness of educational programs.

Feedback and Improvement: Feedback to students plays a critical role in improving learning processes and helping students to overcome deficiencies. In addition, teaching staff and program managers can use the results of the assessment to improve educational programs and teaching methods.

The Relationship Between Measurement and Evaluation and Accreditation

Accreditation and assessment processes are critical for higher education institutions to enhance the quality of education and ensure continuous improvement. These processes enhance the credibility and reputation of institutions, helping them to deliver high-quality education to students and other stakeholders.

Integrated Processes: Accreditation measurement and evaluation processes complement and support each other. While accreditation assesses institutions’ compliance with certain quality standards, assessment processes determine how these standards are implemented and how effective they are in terms of student learning outcomes.

Quality Assurance and Continuous Improvement: Assessment results play an important role in accreditation processes. Accreditation auditors use measurement and evaluation data to assess the quality of education and continuous improvement efforts of the institution. This data helps institutions identify their strengths and weaknesses and make the necessary improvements.

Transparency and Accountability: Both accreditation and assessment processes ensure that institutions act by the principles of transparency and accountability. These processes provide stakeholders and the public with reliable information about the quality of the institution’s education.

Benefits of Accreditation and Assessment Software

Let’s take a look at the various benefits offered by accreditation and measurement and evaluation software in order to better understand and elaborate on them. These technological solutions support institutions to achieve their goals by improving the quality of education and optimizing processes. They also provide benefits in various dimensions such as data management and analysis, compliance with standards, automatic reporting, continuous improvement, and easy access and sharing.

1. Data Management and Analysis

  • Comprehensive Data Collection: This software collects a wide range of data on student performance, instructional programs, feedback, and more. The data collected helps institutions monitor and analyze academic achievement.
  • Advanced Analytics Tools: The software provides advanced analysis tools, enabling detailed analysis of data. These analytics are used to evaluate the effectiveness of educational programs and identify areas for improvement.
  • Customized Reporting: Institutions can create customized reports according to their needs. This provides a significant advantage for monitoring the performance of specific programs or courses.

2. Compliance with Standards

  • Accreditation Criteria: Software facilitates compliance with specific accreditation criteria and standards. These criteria are necessary to verify that organizations meet certain quality standards.
  • Regular Updates: Accreditation standards may change over time. The software provides regular updates to adapt to these changes so that institutions always operate in accordance with current standards.
  • Compliance Monitoring: The software continuously monitors institutions’ compliance with accreditation standards and recommends necessary improvements.

3. Automatic Reporting

  • Fast Reporting: Thanks to automated reporting features, reports for accreditation processes are prepared quickly and accurately. This minimizes errors that may occur in the manual reporting process.
  • Transparency and Accountability: Automated reports enable organizations to act by the principles of transparency and accountability. This provides stakeholders and accreditation institutions with reliable information.
  • Data Visualization: Automated reporting makes data more understandable by visualizing it. Graphs and tables make data faster and easier to understand.

4. Continuous Improvement

  • Feedback Mechanisms: Collecting continuous feedback from students, staff and other stakeholders is the foundation of the continuous improvement process. The software collects and analyzes this feedback.
  • Improvement Plans: The software creates improvement plans in the light of the collected data and feedback. These plans are used to improve the quality of training programs and processes.
  • Performance Monitoring: Institutions can monitor the impact of continuous improvement efforts and adjust their strategies when necessary. This ensures that the quality of education is continuously improved.

5. Easy Access and Sharing

  • Cloud-Based Solutions: Many software offer cloud-based solutions. This ensures that data is accessible from anywhere and on any device, so users gain flexibility.
  • Secure Data Sharing: Software facilitates secure data sharing. This is especially important when data sharing is required between different departments or stakeholders.
  • User-Friendly Interface: Modern software has user-friendly interfaces. This allows users to use the software more quickly and effectively.

Examod: Digital Exam & Assessment Platform offers the accreditation processes of educational institutions and companies uninterruptedly and stably in today’s requirements. With Examod, which adopts the company philosophy of “Smart, Secure, Sustainable”, it is just a click away to realize your measurement and evaluation processes safely!

Want to know more about how we do all this?

Accreditation Institutions

These institutions and associations play an important role in improving the quality of higher education programs and ensuring their compliance with national and international standards. Accreditation processes help institutions to continuously improve the quality of education and provide students with better educational opportunities. We have discussed some of the accreditation associations operating in Türkiye for you below.

THEQC (Turkish Higher Education Quality Council), is an independent organization that evaluates and accredits the quality assurance systems of higher education institutions in Turkey. THEQC was established in 2015 and aims to improve the quality of education, research, and management activities of higher education institutions. THEQC monitors and evaluates the quality assurance processes of institutions and makes accreditation decisions.

TEPDAD (Medical Education Programs Evaluation and Accreditation Association), is an organization that evaluates and accredits the education programs of medical faculties in Türkiye. TEPDAD aims to improve the quality of medical education and ensure its compliance with national and international standards. TEPDAD evaluates the educational processes of medical faculties and makes accreditation decisions.

HEPDAK (Association for Evaluation and Accreditation of Nursing Education Programs), is an organization that evaluates and accredits nursing education programs in Türkiye. HEPDAK aims to improve the quality of nursing education and ensure its compliance with international standards. HEPDAK evaluates the educational processes of nursing programs and makes accreditation decisions.

AEADEP (The Association for Accreditation of Dental Education Programs), is an organization that evaluates and accredits dental education programs in Türkiye. AEADEP aims to improve the quality of dental education and ensure its compliance with international standards. AEADEP evaluates the educational processes of dental faculties and makes accreditation decisions.

EPDAD (Association for Evaluation and Accreditation of Teacher Education Programs), is an organization that evaluates and accredits teacher training programs of faculties of education in Türkiye. EPDAD aims to improve the quality of teacher education and ensure its compliance with international standards. EPDAD evaluates the quality of education programs and makes accreditation decisions.

MÜDEK (Association for Evaluation and Accreditation of Engineering Programs), is an organization that evaluates and accredits engineering programs in Türkiye. MÜDEK aims to improve the quality of engineering education and ensure its compliance with international standards. MÜDEK evaluates the educational processes of engineering faculties and makes accreditation decisions.

MEDEK (Association for Vocational Education Evaluation and Accreditation), is an organization that evaluates and accredits the education programs of vocational schools in Türkiye. MEDEK aims to improve the quality of vocational school education and ensure compliance with international standards. MEDEK evaluates the educational processes of vocational school programs and makes accreditation decisions.

ZİDEK (The Association for Evaluation and Accreditation of Agricultural Engineering Educational Programs), is an organization that evaluates and accredits the education programs of agricultural faculties in Türkiye. ZİDEK aims to improve the quality of agricultural education and ensure its compliance with international standards. ZİDEK evaluates the educational processes of agricultural faculties and makes accreditation decisions.

Frequently Asked Questions​

Accreditation is the process of approval and certification by an authorized independent institution that an institution meets certain standards and criteria. In this process, it is verified that the institution provides services or produces products of a certain quality in a specific field. Accreditation is generally applied to educational institutions, health organizations, laboratories, certification institutions, and other professional service providers.

Measurement and evaluation are two fundamental processes that complement each other in educational sciences and play a critical role in determining the effectiveness and quality of the education system. These processes aim to identify, analyze, and improve students’ knowledge, skills, attitudes, and competencies. Measurement and evaluation is used as an important tool to assess the success of educational programs and teaching methods.

Accreditation institutions are authorized institutions or organizations that independently and impartially assess, approve, and certify organizations that comply with certain standards and criteria. These institutions operate in various fields from education to health, from laboratories to product certification, and manage the accreditation process. Accreditation institutions are recognized and authorized by national and international organizations that set standards in specific fields.

Meet the Examod!

Let's talk about Examod for your organization​ and decide the best plan for you