Higher Education Relevance and Quality Agency

HERQA Institutional Quality Audit

Preparing
a
Self Evaluation Document

Document reference HERQA QA04/06/V1

Date of issue May 2006

This applies to audits undertaken from September 2006

Further copies of this document can be obtained from

HERQA
PO Box 1367
Addis Ababa
Ethiopia

Phone 011 156 55 50 and 011 156 55 63

Fax 011 156 55 50

This document is also available for downloading from the HERQA web site
(www.higher.edu.et)
 Higher Education Relevance and Quality Agency

HERQA Institutional Quality Audit

Preparing a Self Evaluation Document

Contents
Page

Introduction 3

Purpose of this Document 3

The Self Evaluation Document 4

The Content of the Self Evaluation Document 4

1 The Institution 5

2 Institutional Processes for the Assurance of Quality

and Relevance 5

3 Institutional Self Evaluation 5

4 The Evaluation of Quality and Relevance 6

5 Good Practices 6

6 Plans for Enhancement of Processes and Practices 7

Writing the Self Evaluation Document 7

(i) The Style of the Self Evaluation Document 7

(ii) The Length of the Self Evaluation Document 7

(iii) Additional Documentation 7

Submission of the Self Evaluation Document to HERQA 8

Confidentiality of the Self Evaluation Document 8

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 Higher Education Relevance and Quality Agency

HERQA Institutional Quality Audit

Preparing a Self Evaluation Document

Introduction

The Higher Education Relevance and Quality Agency (HERQA) is an autonomous

agency established through the Higher Education Proclamation (351/2003) as one of
the key agencies responsible for guiding and regulating the higher education sector
in Ethiopia. The mission of HERQA is to help ensure a high quality and relevant
higher education system in the country. The Agency is mandated to report on the
relevance and quality of higher education offered by all higher education institutions
(HEIs) in Ethiopia. One of the central roles of HERQA is to encourage and assist the
growth of an organizational culture in Ethiopian higher education that values quality
and is committed to continuous improvement.

As one of its key activities HERQA will carry out institutional quality audits of all HEIs.
An institutional quality audit is an in-depth analysis and assessment of the quality and
relevance of programs and of the teaching and learning environment. Equally
importantly, an institutional quality audit will assess the appropriateness and
effectiveness of a HEI’s systems of accountability and its internal review
mechanisms. An essential component of a HERQA institutional quality audit is a Self
Evaluation Document. This is prepared by the HEI following a self evaluation.

As the name indicates a self evaluation is an assessment carried out by the HEI
itself. A HEI’s Self Evaluation Document is a product of this self evaluation and is a
principal reference source used by the HERQA team undertaking an institutional
quality audit. An institutional quality audit will seek to verify claims made in a Self
Evaluation Document.

Purpose of this Document

The purpose of this document is to provide guidance on the preparation of the Self
Evaluation Document that a HEI should present to HERQA to enable HERQA to
plan, carry out and report on an institutional quality audit of the HEI. HEIs are
reminded that a Self Evaluation Document is an essential requirement for a HERQA
quality audit.

HERQA is issuing other documents to assist HEIs in their preparations for

institutional audits: HERQA Profile (HERQA QA01/06/V1); Areas of Focus for
Institutional Quality Audits (HERQA QA02/06/V1); Institutional Self Evaluation
(HERQA QA03/06/V1); and HERQA Institutional Audit Procedure (HERQA
QA05/06/V1). It is important that these are read in addition to this document.

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The Self Evaluation Document

The Self Evaluation Document is a document that a HEI writes about itself. It should
present a balanced mix of description and self-analysis. An institution's Self
Evaluation Document is the principal reference document considered by a HERQA
external audit team undertaking an institutional quality audit. It is a crucial document
that informs the institutional quality audit and arises from a HEI’s self evaluation.

The Self Evaluation Document allows an HEI to:

 Set the context for the HERQA institutional quality audit by providing
information on such as its size, mission, vision, management, facilities and the
nature and extent of its programs;
 Describe and evaluate how it provides programs of study of appropriate
quality and relevance;
 Highlight the outcomes of internal or external reviews and evaluations and the
responses made;
 Reflect on its strengths and weaknesses and make clear how it is taking steps
(or has concrete plans) to build on strengths and remedy weaknesses;
 Indicate any limitations and constraints that restrict the fulfillment of its mission
and how it plans to respond;
 Provide information on how the institution assures quality and relevance;
 Indicate the effectiveness of its mechanisms for assuring quality and
relevance;
 Describe its good practices and explain how these have arisen and are being
disseminated;
 Highlight any recent key changes in practice and why these have been
introduced;
 Evidence how it has enhanced quality and relevance and has plans in place to
continue to do so;
 Provide evidence to illustrate the claims being made;
 Provide a sound basis for the HERQA audit team to gain a good
understanding of the quality and relevance of the educational provision of the
HEI and how it assures quality and relevance to enable the team to make a
judgment of the confidence that can be placed in the HEI’s ability to manage
and enhance quality and relevance.

The Content of the Self Evaluation Document

A HEI should structure its Self Evaluation Document under the following main
headings:

1. The Institution
2. Institutional processes for the assurance of quality and relevance
3. Institutional self evaluation
4. The evaluation of quality and relevance
5. Good practices
6. Plans for enhancement of processes and practices

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1 The Institution

This section should provide a short description of the HEI and its mission and vision.
It should make clear how the HEI is governed, led and organized and the structures it
has established to plan, organize and administer its affairs. It should also make clear
the programs offered and the awards made. The profile of the HEI should be
presented briefly. This may include:

 A short history and contextual information;

 A list of programs (including undergraduate, postgraduate, regular,
extension, continuing education and distance education), faculties and
academic and service departments;
 Statistical data on student enrolment on programs and a profile of the
teaching staff in each department;
 Governance, leadership and organizational structure.

2 Institutional Processes for the Assurance of Quality and Relevance

This is key section of the Self Evaluation Document as it must convey to the HERQA
quality audit team the detail of the institutional quality assurance systems at various
levels of the HEI (e.g. institution, faculty, department and course). HERQA will judge
from the evidence collected in the audit visit the extent to which the systems
described are functioning effectively in the HEI to assure the quality and relevance of
its provision and thus the confidence that can be placed in the HEI’s ability to
manage quality and relevance. It is important here to indicate how courses and
programs are approved, monitored and reviewed and how students are assessed
fairly and competently against the aims and objectives of courses and programs and
in line with expected standards of achievement.

This section should also provide information on how the HEI assures the quality of its
teachers through appointment procedures, the allocation of duties, regular evaluation
and the provision of support. Here too, an HEI should report on how it assures the
quality of its facilities and support for teaching and learning, including the academic
support and welfare of its students.

In making judgments of quality it is important for an HEI to listen to the student voice
and to the voices of other appropriate stakeholders. This section should thus make
explicit how such voices are heard and how the views expressed are considered and
used to improve the educational provision of the HEI.

3 Institutional Self Evaluation

This section should describe how the HEI has engaged in self evaluation. This
should outline its history of self evaluation and note any institutional or program
reviews, their methodologies and their outcomes. If external reviewers, stakeholder
representatives or individuals have contributed to such self evaluations then their role
should be explained.

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Most of this section should be given over to the strategy used for the institutional self
evaluation that has led to the Self Evaluation Document, the procedures used and a
reflection on their implementation. Groups contributing data to the self evaluation
should be indicated. Instruments used for data collection should be included in an
appendix to the Self Evaluation Document as could any other relevant documents or
pertinent information.

4 The Evaluation of Quality and Relevance

In this section the HEI should make clear its judgments on the quality and relevance
of its educational provision. It should also pass judgment on its systems for assuring
quality and relevance and their operation. Judgments should be frank, fair and
honest. In all cases judgments should be supported by evidence, ideally from more
than one source and which could be verified by the HERQA audit team. Every
attempt should be made to give a balanced picture and HEIs should avoid presenting
an over positive or over negative evaluation. One of the purposes of the HERQA
institutional audit is to establish a level of confidence of a HEI’s ability to judge the
quality of its educational provision. Overstating or understating quality both lead to a
lack of confidence in the HEI.

This section should describe the HEI's self evaluation of the following focus areas.

 Vision, Mission and Educational Goals

 Governance and Management System

 Infrastructure and Learning Resources

 Academic and Support Staff

 Student Admission and Support Services

 Program Relevance and Curriculum

 Teaching, Learning and Assessment

 Student Progression and Graduate Outcomes

 Research and Outreach Activities

 Internal Quality Assurance

Each area should be presented clearly and with evidence cited to support the
judgements made. The discussion of each focus area should end with a summary of
strengths and weaknesses.

5 Good Practices

Under this heading a HEI should highlight what it considers to be its good practices
and the evidence for the claims made.

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It should indicate how the good practices arose and how the HEI disseminated these
(or plans` to do so) and the results. Evidence of impact should be cited.

6 Plans for Enhancement of Processes and Practices

In this final section of the Self Evaluation Document a HEI should reflect on its
strengths and weaknesses and make clear how it is taking steps (or has concrete
plans) to build on its strengths and remedy weaknesses.

Writing the Self Evaluation Document

Keeping in mind the level of importance of the Self Evaluation Document to a

HERQA quality audit, HEIs are advised to note when it has to be submitted to
HERQA and to plan for its preparation to ensure that there is sufficient time for the
task. They are encouraged to establish a writing team and to appoint a team leader
to manage the process. The involvement of students and other stakeholders in the
development of the Self Evaluation Document could be beneficial.

(i) The Style of the Self Evaluation Document

The Self Evaluation Document should be a concise document that is sufficiently

descriptive and evaluative to allow the HERQA institutional audit team to gain a clear
picture of the HEI and its own appraisal of its strengths and weaknesses. The Self
Evaluation Document must also allow the audit team to gain a good understanding of
the key features of the HEI’s approach to assuring quality and relevance. It should
also make explicit the HEI’s view of the effectiveness of the approach it has taken to
quality assurance and relevance and, importantly, the evidence for the judgments
made. The Self Evaluation Document must thus be an honest appraisal that is both
accurate and verifiable by the HERQA audit team.

(ii) The Length of the Self Evaluation Document

The Self Evaluation Document may typically be 30 to 40 pages in length but slightly
shorter or longer documents will not be viewed unfavorably if they provide necessary
information. A Self Evaluation Document may include appendices of relevant
information and also be cross referenced to other documents made available to the
HERQA audit team. The Self Evaluation Document (excluding appendices) should
be no more than 50 A4 pages in length. It should be typed with ample margins using
a font size of 12pt.

(iii) Additional Documentation

A HEI should, as far as is possible, prepare a Self Evaluation Document that is a free
standing document. It should not need to be supplemented by additional papers.
However, if a HEI so wishes, it may submit additional documents if it considers that
these will assist the audit team to reach a fuller understanding of the HEI.

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Submission of the Self Evaluation Document to HERQA

A HEI is asked to submit 6 copies of its Self Evaluation Document to HERQA. In

addition to these paper copies, the HEI should also provide HERQA with 2 copies of
an electronic version on separate CDs, preferably in Microsoft Office Word.

Confidentiality of the Self Evaluation Document

Following a HERQA institutional audit visit, HERQA will write a Quality Audit Report.
This will become a public document and will refer to the Self Evaluation Document
and may include quotations from it but the Self Evaluation Document itself will not be
made public by HERQA. The Self Evaluation Document will remain confidential to
HERQA, to the HERQA audit team and to those commissioned by or approved by
HERQA to carry out studies on quality assurance. Should a HEI wish to make its
Self Evaluation Document public then HERQA would be prepared to assist with this.

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In keeping with HERQA's commitment to continuous improvement, it is
intended that this document will be reviewed regularly and updated as
required. Users of this document are invited to contribute to this review at any
time by alerting HERQA to any perceived errors and providing constructive
written feedback on its utility.

New versions of this document will be indicated by a new issue date and a
change in the last character of the reference number.

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