Consultation: Principles for Accreditation and other Professional Engagements
QQI is currently seeking feedback on the document Towards Principles for Accreditation and other Professional Engagements.
The consultation process is open until end December 2020, and feedback can be submitted to QQI through this form.
The principles build QQI's existing programme of engagement with the professional statutory and regulatory bodies (PSRBs) over approximately the past two years and aim to reduce the burden of accreditation and other related activities on both PSRBs and HEIs. They are based on a set of principles in respect of accreditation, produced jointly by Professions Australia and Universities Australia, which was discussed by the PSRBs and HEIs at a QQI last December.
With the kind permission of the Australian bodies, and taking into account the feedback received at its December event, QQI has created a set of Irish principles in respect of accreditation and other professional engagements occurring between PSRBs and HEIs (including, for example, the approval of programmes for the purpose of granting exemptions).
These principles promote processes based on common principles of proportionality, risk, transparency, collegiality, enhancement, necessity and shared responsibility, accountability, effectiveness, efficiency, and fairness, and emphasise inter alia the following points:
- Publication of PSRB reports;
- Sharing of QA documentation and reports;
- Encouraging professional accreditation processes to be transparent [published standards, processes, reports], consistent and predictable to stakeholders;
- Implementation of procedures for managing perceived or actual conflicts of interest;
- Consideration of resources, policies and practices where appropriate.
It is hoped that increased engagement and sharing of information will lead to a better understanding by all parties of each other's roles, and will increase confidence and trust among all stakeholders involved in the academic validation and professional accreditation of programmes of education and training.