An important event took place on February 13, 2019 at Sumy State University.
The important issues were considered: «The system of external quality assurance» (speaker - professor T. V. Phinikov, President of the International Foundation for Research in Educational Policy) and «The System of Internal Assurance of Academic Integrity and a Set of Documents in Support of Academic Integrity during the Accreditation Examination» (speaker – A. Artyukhov, a coordinator of the Project for Promoting Academic Integrity in Ukraine at Sumy State University,a member of National Agency for Quality Assurance in Higher Education of Ukraine, a project participant in Innovation University and Leadership).
Taras Phinikov has presented the results of the International Fund for Research in Education Policy on the issues of the external quality assurance system and has focused particularly on such important issues as the main coordinates of the system of external quality assurance; national traditions: specifics and limitations; the basic principles of external quality assurance; accreditation as the main quality assurance technology.
He has emphasized the peculiarities of modern systems of accreditation of the Eastern, Central and Western European countries, the development of decentralized accreditation system: the lack of a monopoly of state accreditation agencies; openness for the entry of non-governmental agencies of external accreditation; freedom to choose institutions of higher education agencies, which optimally correspond to the profile of their activity; taking into account the results of accreditation carried out by the independent agencies in the procedures for financing educational programs.
The professional interest has been caused by the new approaches to the accreditation of educational programs. T. Phinikov has paid much attention to the characteristics of the project’s new «Regulations on the Accreditation of Educational Programs»: recognition in Ukraine certificates of accreditation of educational programs issued by foreign accreditation agencies or agencies of quality assurance; accreditation by specially trained independent experts, including students; the place and role of the educational program in the strategy of the institution of higher education; a student-centered model of education, support for higher education students.
According to prof. Taras Phinnikov, the project aims at transforming the accreditation system from the control tool into a tool for assistance and support. The project’s objectives are to help National Agency for Quality Assurance in Higher Education of Ukraine in developing the procedure, regulations, ways of functioning in the field of accreditation of educational programs.
А. Artyukhov has detailed the specifics of the internal system of academic integrity and has outlined a set of documents on academic integrity for accreditation expertise: the Code of Academic Integrity of the Sumy State University, the position on academic integrity and the ethics of academic relations at the university, characterized the form of self-examination in terms of ensuring the principles of academic integrity within the educational program, the system of ensuring the principles of academic integrity, etc.
