INQAAHE Forum 2024
Transforming Society: Social Reponsibility trough Quality Assurance of Tertiary Education

June 12, 2024

Roundtable
Sub-theme 4: Fostering Opportunities for All Ages

Access, transfer and progression for learners and the role of quality assurance agencies 

Following a major review after 20 years experience and implementing policies and criteria for access transfer and progression, QQI, the national Quality and Qualifications agency in Ireland, is faced with the challenge of renewing its aproach. While the traditional approach has had some successes, the systemic affect has been less than hoped for. The review as outlined the major priorities, but there remains the task of designing new policies and criteria and renewing the vision to serve a changed society and educational system. The workshop explores options for the agency’s response.

The aim of this workshop is to present the key findings of the review and explore with participants how QQI might proceed in implementing the recommendations of the reviewers. The intention is that by considering explicit requirements for access, transfer and progression and how these are embedded within broader, Quality Assurance activities colleagues may be able to suggest how QQI can fulfill its mandate, and may find prompts for how to bring two decades experience in Ireland to bear similar questions in their own countries. The relationship of quality assurance to the implementation of National Qualifications frameworks is central to this discussion.

The workshop will include a brief scene-setting outlining the features of the Irish system, as presented in the independent report, followed by working groups, considering each of the five questions recommendations made by the committee panel and brainstorming methods of implementation and prioritization for the agency. Participants will also be encouraged to articulate take-home messages, relevant to their their own countries, based on the issues raised.

Facilitated by:

Dr. Bryan Maguire

Dr. Bryan Maguire is Director of Integration at Quality and Qualifications Ireland (QQI). He has worked in QQI and its predecessor agency HETAC since 2005. Previously he was Head of School of Creative Technologies at Dún Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design and Technology, Ireland and lectured in Bangor University, Wales from 1991-98. Dr. Maguire holds a bachelor degree in psychology from University College, Dublin and a PhD from the University of California, San Francisco. An internationally recognized expert on qualifications frameworks and quality assurance he has served numerous advisory and review groups, including the European Qualifications Framework advisory group and the Bologna Thematic Peer Group on quality assurance.

If you have any question about the event, please do not hesitate to contact INQAAHE and/or the Forum host, ARACIS.