POLICY STATEMENT

An education quality policy outlines the strategies, principles, and processes that PSU follows to ensure the delivery of high-quality teaching and learning experiences.

It aims to maximize the potential for learning and skills development of each student by providing a high standard of education and training utilizing quality teaching practices that reflect the current needs of society.

BACKGROUND AND JUSTIFICATION

PSU is committed to providing a world-class education that empowers our students to reach their full potential and contribute meaningfully to society. The PSU education quality policy outlines the strategies, principles, and processes we follow to ensure the delivery of high-quality teaching and learning experiences. PSU is dedicated to fostering a culture of excellence in education where faculty and staff are supported in their ongoing pursuit of innovative and effective pedagogical practices.

PSU policy aims to ensure that all students have access to high-quality educational resources, cutting-edge technology, and modern facilities that support their learning and skill development. We continuously assess and improve our programs and courses to ensure that they remain relevant and responsive to the changing needs of society and the job market. Our ultimate goal is to create a learning environment that is engaging, challenging, and supportive, where students can develop their critical thinking, creativity, and problem-solving skills and become equipped to succeed in their chosen careers and positively impact their communities.

SCOPE AND PURPOSE

Scope:

This policy applies to all undergraduate and graduate programs offered at PSU, encompassing all faculty, staff, and students.

Purpose:

This policy aims to provide a comprehensive framework for maintaining and improving the standards of education at PSU. It outlines the processes and procedures that ensure students receive a high-quality education that prepares them for success in their chosen careers and enables them to contribute meaningfully to society.

The policy's importance lies in its role in promoting academic excellence, fostering a culture of continuous improvement, and ensuring that PSU's educational programs remain relevant and responsive to the changing needs of society and the job market. The policy promotes a shared commitment to academic rigor, critical thinking, creativity, and innovation by setting clear expectations for faculty and students. It also provides a structured approach to quality assurance, enabling PSU to monitor and evaluate its performance regularly and make necessary improvements to maintain excellence in teaching and learning. Ultimately, the policy's purpose is to ensure that PSU students receive an exceptional education that empowers them to achieve their full potential and positively impact their communities.

PRINCIPLES OF THE POLICY

The main principles of the Education quality policy are:

1. Compliance with National and International Standards: All academic programs at PSU must comply with the National Qualification Framework (NQF) adopted in Saudi Arabia and meet the local (ETEC-NCAAA) and international accreditation requirements. Additionally, professional programs must adhere to the requirements of relevant professional bodies.
2. Alignment with the Institution's Mission and Goals: The teaching and learning quality policy aligns with PSU's mission and goals, emphasizing the importance of providing high-quality education that prepares students for success in their chosen careers and enables them to contribute meaningfully to society.
3. Outcome-Based Approach: PSU adopts an outcome-based approach to teaching and learning, focusing on the achievement of specific learning outcomes that detail the knowledge, skills, and values students should acquire at each qualification level.
4. Assessment: The policy emphasizes the use of relevant assessment measures to ensure that students' knowledge and skills are assessed correctly, providing a reliable measure of their academic achievement.
5. Adherence to Policies and Procedures: PSU strictly adheres to its teaching and learning quality policies, processes, and procedures to ensure students receive a consistent, high-quality education.
6. Standard Documentation Practices: PSU uses standard documentation practices to plan and report meeting national and international standards, ensuring transparency and accountability in the teaching and learning process.
7. Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and Benchmarks: The policy establishes KPIs for the teaching and learning process at the institutional and program level, with internal and external benchmarks to measure and improve quality. This enables PSU to continuously evaluate and enhance its educational programs to maintain excellence in teaching and learning.
8. Continuous Improvement: The policy promotes a culture of continuous improvement, encouraging faculty and staff to pursue innovative and effective pedagogical practices that enhance student learning outcomes and support the development of PSU's academic programs.

DEFINITIONS

Assessment is a comprehensive term that encompasses both formative and summative evaluations to measure student learning and progress. It includes routine classroom assessments, external testing, and self-assessment. The primary purpose of assessment is to provide an opportunity for students to demonstrate their knowledge and skills and to improve the teaching and learning processes. Assessment is also used to collect data to evaluate student performance against specific learning outcomes, providing insights for decision-making and improvements in teaching methods (Cheng & Fox, 2017).

Evaluation is a systematic process of making judgments about the value, effectiveness, and quality of programs, policies, projects, or products. It involves setting criteria, collecting evidence, analyzing data, and making informed decisions or recommendations based on the findings. Evaluation assesses the impact, effectiveness, and efficiency of programs, policies, or products and identifies improvement or redesign areas.

A stakeholder is any individual or group with a vested interest or concern in a particular organization, program, policy, or project. Stakeholders can include employees, customers, shareholders, community members, and government agencies. Stakeholders have a stake in the success or failure of the organization or program and may be impacted by its outcomes.

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are quantifiable measures used to evaluate the progress and success of an organization, program, or project. KPIs provide targets for teams to work towards, milestones to gauge progress, and insights that help people across the organization make better decisions. KPIs are typically aligned with specific objectives and outcomes and are used to measure performance over time (https://www.qlik.com/us/kpi).

Outcome-Based Education (OBE)

Outcome-Based Education (OBE) is a student-centric teaching and learning methodology that focuses on achieving stated objectives and outcomes. OBE involves planning course delivery and assessment to measure student performance, i.e., outcomes, at different levels. The primary goal of OBE is to ensure that students acquire the necessary knowledge, skills, and attributes to succeed in their future careers and personal lives (https://www.ametuniv.ac.in/attachment/obe.pdf). OBE emphasizes the development of critical thinking, problem-solving, and communication skills and encourages students to take an active role in their learning process.

RESPONSIBILITIES AND IMPLEMENTATION STRATEGIES

Responsibilities:

• All academic departments, including deans, chairpersons, and faculty, are responsible for adhering to the PSU quality cycle of teaching and learning based on their job positions.
• The DQAD, including SPDC, QAC, TLC, and CSI, is responsible for ensuring the implementation of the PIMRU quality cycle.
• The institutional quality committees are responsible for providing executive support in assuring the implementation of the quality cycle.

Implementation Strategies

PSU provides a well-coherent organizational structure that is used to ensure all the academic programs adhere to the teaching and quality framework. All academic programs follow a continuing annual cycle based on the principles of PDCA (Plan→ Do →Check → Act) to ensure the quality of teaching and learning.

Plan

• The program specification is prepared by every academic program and should be updated on a regular basis to reflect the changes in the curriculum, institutional policies, program administration, program goals, or learning outcomes.
• The course specifications are prepared for every course in an academic year, which are in line with the relevant program specification stating the learning outcomes, the course contents used to achieve the Learning Outcomes (LOs), types of assessments, their schedule, the contribution of CLO to PLO.
• Operational action plans are prepared for the coming academic year based on the annual program reports. The plans are in alignment with the 5-years PSU and College strategic plan.
• The learning resources are planned based on the course offered in the upcoming semester.
• The projection for recruiting teaching faculty is done a semester ahead.
• The teaching load is planned in a semester to the coming academic semester.
• Academic Advisors are assigned new students if needed.
• Every faculty member prepares his/her weekly schedule, showing the teaching, office, and consultation hours. It also shows the time for research and administrative activities on a weekly basis.
• All faculty must follow all the course requirements specified in the Quality Calendar the Quality Assurance Center-DQAD prepared.

Do

• The course syllabi are prepared for every course at the beginning of an academic semester, which is aligned with the approved course specification and used across the campuses if required.
• The Teaching and Learning Centre (TLC) offers Quality Professional Development activities to the faculty staff, helping the academic programs ensure all faculty members and instructors are equipped with the necessary T&L skills needed for the courses they teach in their programs.
• Unified or peer-reviewed final exams are conducted across the campuses.
• All faculty members are required to prepare e-course folders for the courses they have taught in a semester.

Check

• Use effective reporting channels through which quality measures may be regularly monitored, and issues, if any, may be addressed by different levels of PSU management.
• The learning outcomes at the course, program, and institutional learning outcomes (Graduate attributes) are assessed. evaluated, and actions are planned for their continuous improvement.
• The course reports are prepared by every course instructor, reflecting the findings of the courses they have taught in the form of grade statistics, CLO results, course evaluation, and improvement plans for the following semesters.
• Independent verification of student achievement is conducted at the end of every academic semester by the academic program, which is facilitated by the Quality Assurance Center.
• The stakeholders (employer, faculty, students, external factors) in the quality assurance and improvement process for teaching and learning through regular surveys, meetings, events, and review processes.
• The program and course documents are audited annually by the IQC to ensure compliance with the ETEC-NCAAA requirements.
• Internal assessments are conducted for the academic programs regularly to ensure compliance with local and international quality requirements.
• The academic programs are required to see local or international accreditation (external review) depending on the PSU higher management’s decision.
• Annual Program Reports are prepared by every academic program based on the templates prescribed by ETEC_NCAAA, stating the actual statistics of cohort, program assessment, alumni, and survey/KPI results, continuous improvement plan. This report is also based on all the course reports submitted by the course instructors.
• Annual Progress Reports of 5-year strategic plans are prepared by every academic unit to evaluate the accomplishment of the action plan for the current academic year.
• The faculty members are also evaluated at the end of an academic year by using predefined performance criteria to ensure the teaching and learning practices are of quality standards in all programs and align with the university's mission statement

Act

• The policies are updated on a regular basis or based on some internal or external triggers
• The program specifications and/or course specifications and course syllabi are updated if required.
• The improvement plans are implemented in the following years.

Role of the Institution in Quality Assurance Process

A well-defined quality assurance structure has been established at PSU to establish, monitor, and improve the quality measures of teaching and learning practices in the academic units. Department Quality Committees (DQC) report regularly to the College Quality Committee (CQC), which in turn reports to the Quality Assurance Centre (QAC). The IQC (Institutional Quality Assurance Committee) is a supporting committee at the institutional level that supports the Deanship of Quality Assurance and Development in overseeing the overall T&L quality assurance processes. The IQC identifies the best practices among the academic programs that can be shared with others, as well as areas of improvement to strengthen the quality of the programs. The IQC reports to the Institutional Executive Quality Committee (IEQC) and supervises and guides the whole teaching and learning quality assurance process. The final decision-making body is the university council for any major changes that improve the quality of education. Various kinds of documentation for planning and reporting at different levels of administration are imperative.

PROCEDURES FOR HANDLING POLICY VIOLATION

All violations performed by the administrative offices will be handled according to the personnel governing by-laws.

REFERENCES

• (Cheng & Fox, 2017)
• (https://www.qlik.com/us/kpi)
• (https://www.ametuniv.ac.in/attachment/obe.pdf)
• (NQF)
• ETEC-NCAAA