QUALITY ASSURANCE AND INSTITUTIONAL EFFECTIVENESS

The Quality Assurance and Institutional Research Affairs (QAIRA) plays a significant role in providing institutional research leadership towards creating the niche of academic excellence through effective delivery of vision, mission, goals and objectives, particularly, provision of strategic leadership and expertise in the design, establishment, implementation, evaluation and enhancement of Institutional Research (IR) policies.

The governance, through the Quality Assurance and Institutional Effectiveness Council (QA-IEC), is instituted to cater for the institutional effectiveness governance mandate of the University.  Under this council, the two Committees on Quality Assurance and Institutional Effectiveness (CQA-IE) for academic affairs and administrative affairs are established; and their corresponding sub-committees dubbed Committees on Quality Assurance and Program Effectiveness (CQA-CPE) are also organized to facilitate the implementation of the institutional research and effectiveness policy at the program and department levels in the various academic and administrative support programs.

In this regard, the policy on QA-IEC is institutionalized to provide guidance among members of the QA-IEC, CQA-IE, CQA-PE, the general faculty and staff of the academic and administrative departments in administering institutional plans and their systematic evaluation toward establishment of measurable objectives through annual goal setting, planning, and budgeting activities.  This mandate, however, espouses “best practice” in leading institutional research activities in various functional university affairs, and it establishes continuous process improvement required to be demonstrated by the university.

The Quality Assurance and Institutional Research Affairs (QA-IRA) resolves intervention programs in the design, implementation, evaluation and revision of the institutional research programs, their continuous process improvement, and other genres of institutional research affairs that strengthens UOF’s visibility and reputation in the United Arab Emirates, the Middle East Region, and in the international community.

UOF considers extreme important of the following interrelated sections of QA-IRA to function efficiently and by working collectively, their individual contribution advances the UOF’s mission:

  • Institutional Research and Effectiveness Unit
  • Quality Management System Unit

With this mandate, UOF ensures effective delivery of its academic programs and administrative support services, in particular, toward attaining its goals and objectives in general.

 

BURTON A. AGGABAO
Executive Director, QA-IRA