The Participation of Al-Wataniya Private University in The Quality and Accreditation Conference at Tishreen University... "Proposals and Developmental Insights for Enhancing the Educational Reality"

The Quality and Accreditation Conference was held at Tishreen University on Monday, May 29-30, 2023 under the title “Application of Quality and Accreditation Standards in Higher Education / Reality and Challenges/” under the official sponsorship of the Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research, Prof. Dr. Bassam Bashir Ibrahim, and organized by the Quality Assurance Center at Tishreen University. The conference was attended by representatives of quality and accreditation from universities and educational institutions concerned.

 Al-Wataniya  Private University was represented by the Vice President for Scientific  Affairs, Dr. Hazem Melli, a member of the scientific committee of the conference, where the participants, and experts of  quality and accreditation discussed some important papers and visions about the reality of quality and accreditation in all Syrian universities, according to Tishreen University President Dr. Bassam Hasan, who added  the conference aims ,through its axes, to clarify the concept of accreditation, its steps, stages, and the most important challenges it faces at present.

The Participants in conference sessions over two days discussed the need to identify performance indicators for academic plans for universities and colleges, determine tools and mechanisms for providing educational outputs, devices, and facilities for academic programs, review faculty development programs’ performance review workshops to review college mission statements and academic program objectives. They also proposed organizing periodic conferences on quality and accreditation annually in both government and private universities.

In a related context, Dr. Hazem Melli, Vice President of Al-Wataniya Private University, emphasized the importance of holding the conference annually due to its positive and effective impact on the educational reality. That he stated, “We all strive to improve the quality and reliability of our educational institutions. We work hand in hand to harness all available resources and capabilities to serve educational facilities and continuously participate in national conferences on quality and accreditation for their important role in spreading a culture of quality, forming new cooperative partnerships, discussing proposals, and finding solutions that will enhance the educational reality.”

Dr. Hazem Melli also considered this conference as (an opportunity and a challenge), that he said, “The opportunity is to review what universities have done in terms of quality and accreditation and the difficulties they faced through their experiences presented during the conference. At the same time, we are facing a great challenge in applying the standards recently launched by the National Accreditation and Quality Agency.”

The scientific lectures presented at the conference varied, as Dr. Mamoun Al-Waraa delivered a lecture entitled “The Role of the Arab Accreditation Engineering and Technology Authority in Accrediting Engineering Programs for Higher Education Institutions in Arab Countries.”

 Dr. Medein Al-Dabet also presented a lecture on the role of the International Standard

 ISO 21001 \ 2018 in promoting academic accreditation standards. In his turn Dr. Husam Abdulrahman spoke about the global and national ranking of Syrian universities, while Dr. Ghaithaa Qadra presented a lecture on “The Strategy of Scientific Research and Ways to Overcome Obstacles – Faculty of Arts as a Model”, Dr. Moataz Khairallah also presented a lecture entitled “Challenges of National Academic Reference Standards in Building National Qualification Frameworks.”

 The Quality and Accreditation Conference is an important initiative to open doors for interaction between participating entities and motivate them to find practical developmental formulas to facilitate the application of quality and accreditation standards in Syrian higher education institutions, thus achieving a qualitative scientific level that keeps pace with developments and updates in the educational reality, always seeking to keep up with progress and development.