Enhancing Quality Assurance Management in Higher Education in Tunisia

Programme: Erasmus+

Key Action 2: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Action: Capacity building in the field of higher education (CBHE)

Type of action: Structural projects

Budget

966 thousand EUR (965.636 EUR)

63% of the budget (nearly 613 thousand EUR) for Tunisian partners and 37% (nearly 353 thousand EUR) for European partners.
30% of the budget (nearly 290 thousand EUR) for equipment for the benefit of Tunisian partners.

Priorities targeted by the project

Capacity building on Quality assurance (QA) processes and mechanisms.
Governance, strategic planning and management of higher education institutions.
Internationalization of higher education institutions.

Main objective

Assist Tunisia in its ambition to strengthen the QA systems and their adequacy with the immediate and direct needs of society, while meeting the expectations of the international community.

The project specifically concerns the development, implementation and results of QA in HE, whether at institutional level or that of curricula or teaching, as well as the strengthening of the QA systems and achieving capacity building among staff in Tunisian Universities, as well as enhancing the culture of quality in the higher education system at large.

Specific objectives

Co-construction, by the key actors, of a roadmap or reference framework describing the detailed requirements necessary to implement and / or improve QA functions and procedures at institutional but also programmatic level and to align internal and external QA.
Preparation of a white paper aimed at informing the main Tunisian stakeholders of the gradual transformation of the existing “system” of QA in HE into an effective and efficient “system”, aligned with national needs and international practices, meeting achievable expectations and leading to a strengthening of the Tunisian ES.
Contribution to the development of a critical mass of QA practitioners in HE in Tunisia and in the MENA region, by capitalizing on the skills of European and Tunisian partners in QA and on Tunisian skills in e-learning and enhancing Tunisian QA practitioners’ capacities regarding the designing and management of QA in Higher Education Institutions.
Contribution to the operationalization of internal quality committees in universities and pilot establishment of internal QA systems, in the most advanced universities, certified by ANECA (like its AUDIT program set up in Latin America) ; and this within the framework of a process carried out jointly with the Tunisian authority IEAQA.
Development of a shared toolkit to meet internal QA and external QA needs in Tunisia and of a code of good practice for QA management in Tunisian universities.