Quality Assurance

The University of Buraimi is committed to continuous quality improvement for sustainable excellence in academics and services by regularly reviewing and monitoring its outcomes and performance. It assures quality by aligning and integrating its vision, mission, strategic and operational directions with its processes, evaluation and review. It ensures that its mission, goals and objectives are attained through a collective engagement and commitment of all staff, students, and other partners in its quality management system.

The University quality management reflects continuous improvement in its various stages of planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation, and enhancement; and the underlying approach is the ADRI Cycle which is patterned from OAAA four-step cylindrical model comprising of Approach, Deployment, Results and Improvement.

The implementation of the UoB quality management framework rests on the entire UoB Community and stakeholders, where everyone collectively commits and engages to attain UoB mission, goals and objectives. In involves various components such as mechanisms to assure common understanding of the framework, knowledge of standards, quality assurance and accreditation, planning process, assessment and evaluation processes among others. The continuous quality improvement mechanisms include but are not limited to the following:

  • Quality Assurance Workshops/Orientation

  • Creation of Committees

  • Conduct of Meetings

  • Development and Standardization of processes, procedures, and documents

  • Self-Assessment

  • Internal Quality Audit

  • External Review

  • Quality Audit

  • Accreditation

The QAD spearheads the quality improvement and review within the University, which includes the following:

  • Self-Evaluation Review

This is a mechanism employed by the CFS and Colleges to review their program’s conformance to published OAAA program standards, MoHE regulations and accreditation criteria/ requirements. The program delivery and associated elements are reviewed based on a set of indicators/ requirements/criteria. This results to a Self-evaluation Survey, where an improvement plan is developed to address identified weaknesses and gaps. 

  • Internal Quality Audit Review

This is a mechanism implemented by the QAD to ensure that programs and processes conform to the requirements and standards. This is conducted on a regular and systematic basis. A systematic mechanism is applied to review programs/ courses and operational processes in UoB to ensure efficiency and effectiveness in all its processes. This is detailed in the Internal Quality Audit (IQA) Policy of UoB. 

The QAD performs an audit review, prepares the review schedule and uses the set of KPIs and checklist as described in the IQA Policy. 

  • External Examiner Involvement

This is a mechanism whereby an external examiner/ reviewer is involved in the assessment/ review of specific processes in the University, such as examination, assessment and moderation, program delivery, etc. 

The University of Buraimi (UoB) views quality as a holistic approach to transcend excellence in all its aspirations. It strives to ensure that quality is part of its culture of excellence and as such, the approach to quality which is driven within the University involves the commitment of everyone, executive management, employees, students, and other stakeholders. Considering that UoB’s reputation lies on the quality of its program offerings which is manifested in the standards of the graduates, it is imperative that UoB permeates quality in all its processes, and a common understanding of the concept of quality in the University is shared.

The Quality and Accreditation Department (QAD) is the entity at UoB which is involved in establishing, implementing, monitoring and maintaining UoB’s Quality Management System. It is responsible in ensuring that UoB meets the requirements of audit, standards assessment and accreditation by the Oman Academic Accreditation Authority (OAAA); as well as the criteria and standards of targeted external professional accrediting bodies.

The QAD coordinates with all the Units at UoB, and oversees the implementation of policies, procedures and processes and ensures compliance to requirements and standards in all aspects through various mechanisms for continuous quality improvement.

The QAD assures that the QMS is properly understood and implemented. Specifically, the Director of QAD spearheads the deployment and implementation of the QMS as spelled out in his/ her duties and responsibilities, which are as follows:

  • Ensure the University meets Institutional as well as program accreditation requirements of Oman Academic Accreditation Authority (OAAA);

  • Ensure that academic/ administrative departments are guided by the vision and mission of the University and that departmental goals are directed towards achieving Institutional goals;

  • Be responsible to satisfy quality and accreditation criteria of the University as well as OAAA, MoHE, Government Agencies, Partner Institutions and International Accreditation Bodies to whom the University may wish to get membership, achieve research specialized accreditation and obtain professional accreditation/ certification;

  • Promote and support continuous improvements, quality achievement and performance improvement throughout the University;

  • Develop, implement, communicate and maintain a quality plan to ensure that the University policies, regulations, and manuals are in compliance with the local, regional and international standards;

  • Establish clearly defined quality methods for staff to apply and set up a system for maintaining, controlling and documentation procedures;

  • Monitor performance across the various departments of the University by gathering relevant data and producing various statistical reports;

  • Identify relevant quality-related training needs and delivering training in promoting and supporting quality improvements, and implementation of the required standards;

  • Ensure assessments procedures are properly understood, carried out and evaluated by concerned departmental staff and work closely with them to reach comprehensive quality procedures;

  • Be responsible for quality and accreditation related external correspondence, evaluation and eligibility of documents to be submitted, timely preparation and completion of different reports, documents, analysis and surveys etc;

  • Be responsible to keep and update the records of all accreditation related reports and documents of all the departments and copies to be kept at the Vice Chancellor’s records office;

  • Be responsible to assist and manage the quality and accreditation related external visits to the University;

  • Work closely with Academic and Administrative Departments and is responsible to provide training and guidance to ensure that new policies, procedures, report, analysis, surveys, and programs developed by the university by any department fulfill accreditation requirements;

  • To oversee all the related matters of his/ her department operationally and strategically such as employment affairs, departmental budget estimate, human resource requirements, equipment/ resources requirements;

  • To prepare an annual report on the progress of the activities of the department and submit it to the Vice Chancellor;

  • To produce and follow up various instructional materials to serve the development plans of the department;

Policies_Procedures

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