Registering a Qualification with SAQF (Saudi Arabia Qualification Framework)

In my previous article (https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/understanding-saudi-arabia-qualification-framework-saqf-usmani/) , I introduced SAQF mentioning that it has standards for institutions and program and that the institutions in the Kingdom have to take accreditation with SAQF and later they have to get their Qualifications (programs) registered by following certain standards.

In this article, I am going to discuss how a qualification may be registered under Saudi Arabia Qualification Framework. There are seven standards to meet in order to register a qualification. I have discussed them in brief with some conclusion at the end.

Standard-1 Eligibility: As mentioned before that applicants for qualification registration are required to register the institute first to make sure that providers of qualification have adequate resources to offer the qualifications.

Standard-2  Stakeholders Involvement: It is a common observation that many programs are prepared by a small group of faculty members borrowing contents from various sources. SAQF requires program to provide evidence as to how stakeholders were taken on board for preparation and review of the program. This guarantees that a program is based on market needs.

Standard-3 Qualification Purpose: This standard requires program to provide evidence that the program is based on market needs and has specific objectives to contribute to society. This is where the programs would face challenges as objectives need to be focused and measurable in the long run.

Standard-4 Qualification Title: This standard requires program to keep the title of the program in line with specific level of SAQF. This standard makes sure that all the qualifications offered in the kingdom are in line with national policy guidelines.

Standard-5 Qualification Components: This standard is quite crucial and challenging as it requires program to set learning outcomes of courses and program in line with SAQF levels. That means program and course learning outcomes should clearly identify the knowledge, skills and competencies to be achieved.  

Standard-6 Assessment of Learning Outcomes: This is the most significant standard as it makes it mandatory for the program to provide evidence of assessment of learning outcomes at the level of the program as well as at the level of courses in the program. This is quite challenging as the faculty in most cases is not trained enough to link assessment practices with learning outcomes. This standard would make it mandatory for each program to assess PLOs through direct and indirect assessment measures.

Standard-7: Entry Requirements, Progression and Transfer: This standard requires program to categorically mention the entry requirements and the policy of credit transfer in case a student moves from one institution to another for any reason.

Looking at these standards and looking at the standards for institutional registration it appears that these are the common yet not practiced standards. If implemented in letter and spirit, it would bring lasting impact on education sector in the Kingdom. Although SAQF is taking its roots though workshops at different institutions, they need to make an independent and interactive website with helpline for technical assistance and technical manuals for those seeking accreditation. This would give them wider visibility and it will attract more institutions to come into its folder for registration

Though I have provided a detailed introduction of the standards, feel free to get back to me for any assistance you may need for further understanding of SAQF standards.

Understanding Saudi Arabia Qualification Framework (SAQF)

Saudi Arabian Qualification Framework (SAQF) is a document aiming to integrate education, training and employment in a unified system. It has replaced the old National Qualification Framework (NQF) document. Educational Institutes in the Kingdom are required to register their institutions as well as the qualifications/programs they are offering on a set of standards. This article provides basic understanding of SAQF for an institution seeking accreditation with SAQF. There are two sets of standards i.e. standards for institution, standards for the program.

Standards for Registering Institutions :

The purpose of setting standards for institutions is to make sure that appropriate systems are in place to develop, manage, review and issue qualifications at various institutions in the kingdom.

Once the institutions get registered with SAQF through demonstrating evidence based compliance of standards, they would be eligible to move to the second level i.e. registering qualification (programs).

There are 07 standards for the institution registration. Each standard is further divided into one or more criteria (25 in total). Institutions have to demonstrate compliance to each criterion with specific evidence. SAQF provides guidance on understanding the criteria as well as the possible evidence to support compliance. However, these are just the guidelines and the list of evidence would depend on the institutional context.

1.      Standards for Registration of Qualification :

The purpose of these standards for registration of qualification is to make sure that there are effective systems in place to design, deliver, review and issue a qualification.

Thus all the institutions in the Kingdom are required to get themselves registered first as qualified institute for offering qualification, they would get their programs registered with SAQF by showing compliance to qualification registration standards.

There are 07 standards for the registration of qualification. Each standard is further divided into one or more criteria (21 in total). Institutions have to demonstrate compliance to each criterion with specific evidence. SAQF provides guidance on understanding the criteria as well as the possible evidence to support compliance.

SAQF would certainly bring several positive changes. Institute would review their level of preparation before offering a qualification. Even if the resources are available at the institute, registration of qualification itself would guarantee that the program is well thought-out and has potential to prove its significance to the recipients.

Program-Course Mapping- A must for Faculty

For ages, I wanted to initiate a series of monologue related to higher education Quality. A systematic and didactic piece of writing is never appealing to education community. Thus I decided to take a less formal way of expressing various issues using monologues. The issue might be a known fact for you but this would not be the case for everyone. It is least necessary to agree with what I express here. However, your feedback will certainly help me identify further areas in future.

Being a faculty member, do we ever wonder why the course we are teaching is included in the program? Do we ever ask ourselves how a course is included in a program and how does various courses lead to formulation of a program. In practice, we teach a course because we studied the course in the same or similar program. However, none of us ever wonder how I am contributing to a program. This is mainly because when a program is initiated in any institution, similar programs are reviewed and either the same or similar courses are included in the program. Thus a new program is ready.

Here we need to understand a mechanism called Program-course Matrix (mapping of courses with Program). When a program is designed or proposed, the first thing is to formulate program mission and objectives . These objectives lead to identification of the required competencies/skills/learning outcomes of a specific program. Once Program learning outcomes (PLOs) are identified, courses which will contribute to achieving the learning PLOs are identified and put in a matrix. This mapping matrix decides the place of each course and the level of contribution of the courses. 

This matrix must be provided to each faculty member who is teaching a course so that the faculty may see the role of the course in a program and how the course should be designed to contribute in achieving the program learning outcomes.  

If you are not a faculty member but have some managerial position in institute of higher education, make sure that faculty members are aware of this mapping and have a copy of the same as well. Only in that case, you are entitled to ask them how they are contributing in the overall success of the program.

The next question is, how to achieve the desired role of courses?? Come back again soon with the answer.....................................

Dos and Dont's of Writing Self Study Report for NCAAA Accreditation

Following are the few dos and donts to be considered while writing Self Study Report for Institutional or program accreditation. They are general but focus more Saudi Higher Education System.

1.       As per format of NCAAA.

a.       Familiar with SSRI and its requirements.

b.      The role of colleges and program in SSRI

2.       Respond to what is asked

a.       Read each section and underline what is required.

b.      Don’t provide or explain what is not asked.

3.       Is logical ( Statements are supported by evidence)

a.       Any claim/good practices/argument must be evidence based.

b.      There should be logical connection between write up and evidence.

4.       Consistent in Data:

a.       figures & numbers are repeated in different sections. They must be the same in all sections.

b.      Better assign data accuracy to a committee and each committee for SSR should consult that committee for data.

5.       Consistent in format, argument and claims.

a.       Each committee must be provided with formatting guidelines like the one in research paper submission.

b.      Reference to evidence must be consistent throughout.

6.       Contains full picture of the program/institution.

a.       While reading SSR, it should provide a complete picture of the institute.

7.       Do get evidence singed by the source.

a.       Keep a file of evidence and get each evidence signed by the provider.

b.      If email, print and keep it in the same file. It is not for NCAAA but for your reference.

8.       Your write up must match your web contents.

a.       Consistent data of website and SSRI

9.       Don’t put too many evidences.

a.       For each standard, decide what is KEY evidence and what is general evidence.

b.      List all KEY evidence and see how many are available

10.   Don’t combine the write up without reading.

a.       There should be coordination committee to combine the write up of each committee.

b.      Each member of Coordination committee must read and see if the write up is consistent.

Using LinkedIn Network: My Experience

You might have read a similar post on this network before or you might have had similar feelings for what I am going to write here. This post is about "use of LinkedIn network".
I started using LinkedIn long before it was so famous. Since the beginning, I wanted to grow my network so I searched like minded people and increased my network. But for couple of months, I have developed a feeling that some people are either using it for marketing purpose or they just click on all the suggestions made by LinkedIn to connect.
I did an experiment few months ago. whenever I received a connect request and noted that this connect request has few common friends, I used the feature of "get introduced" of LinkedIn and requested the common connection to introduce the person who sent me connect request. The results were obvious. One person responded that he just added this common connection bcz he received a connect request from that side and he does not know him. other few even could not respond to whether they know the person or not. On the other hand, I received few connect request with similar work scope in Quality, as soon as I received, I got a msg from this newly connected person offering consultancy services for his company.
LinkedIn is a great source of developing a network but its use requires understanding the scope as well. A network of 500+ does not mean the person is quite popular or is a well known professional in his field. It may be that the person clicked on sent request option from his email address book which contained 300+ addresses. It may be the case that person sent requests to all suggestions made by LinkedIn for growing network. Similarly, 500+ might mean your company has assigned you a marketing task and you added all possible ppl in order to send them unsolicited offers of your product.
There is no harm in sending a connect request but there are few considerations.
1. The person you are requesting falls within your professional work domain at present.  Common features like "training or similar interests" are not good criteria for selection. Similarly, even if you know the person but you two have different work scope, better connect on FB for socialization.
2. 2nd criteria of your request may be that the other person may facilitate you as mentor or may help you in the growth of your career. Even in that case, your area of work should be similar.
3. If you are sending connect request for marketing purpose, inform the person on accepting the request and before making any marketing offer.
4. Do not accept connect offer as and when received. Do analyze the scope of the other person in the same way you do before sending any connect request.
I might appear to you too critical in my views but I want to be honest rather than tricky. I know many people are doing the same thing as proposed here. But I feel that there is still a large number of LinkedIn population which will find this article useful for effective use of LinkedIn.

How to Write Section-G of Self Study Reports of the Program

Important Note:

Section-G of SSR of the Program.

Section-G is the crux of SSR and requires great care in writing. Remember that it is not important to write for each standard. What is more important is to MEET each standard in its essence. It simply means that the program should first meet the standard and then respond to each criteria. Remember that each response must be supported by evidence (where applicable).

It should be noted that Self Evaluation Scale Report (SESR) Comprises of Section-G. This report is based on standards given in section-G. Each standard and criteria is scored (star scoring). Thus, it is suggested to first rank each standard on STAR then answer the standard in SSR. This would help you write SSR effectively.

We will be discussing each standard separately in the next post.

Dr Usmani

Stage-1 of Writing SSR of the Program

Important Note:

It is important to note that SSR is written for program as well as for institutions. It is a must to choose the right template of NCAAA for writing SSR. SECONDLY, remember that NCAAA has changed the template for writing SSR slightly. The new template is available in the revised handbook of NCAAA. Following guidelines are as per the new template of for program/institutions.

In the following, we will be discussing stage-1 of writing self study report of a program.

Stage-1: (Section A to F of Program SSR)

This stage comprises of Section A to F of self study report. 

Section A: This section comprises of 10 sub section. Begin with introduction and provide the information required in Section-A. It is better to use the heading of each and answer it accordingly.

Section-B: Requires not only the summary of Self Study Process, it also requires provision of data of students and faculty at different level. It is important to complete this section with care as the same data may be required/correlated in other sections.

Section:C: This section is important as it requires program mission, objectives and KPIs. This may be repeated in following sections but providing them here would help you stay focused throughout the report.

Section-D: This section requires the changes in external and internal environment that might affect the program. It may include mission, objectives, method of delivery etc.

Section-E: This section requires tabular presentation of data. It asks for changes made since last SSR. Then it requires 3 tables namely Apparent Program Completion Rate, Year to Year Progression, Comparison of Planned and Actual Enrolment. This section is important as it requires data supported by evidence. Thus it is suggested to provide data and keep the evidence ready for verification. The same data must be used in the following sections if required.

Section-F:  This section requires further elaboration of section C where we have mentioned program objectives. For each of the goals or objectives, it is required to show the indicators that were identified to monitor performance (KPIs), the result that was achieved, and a comment about the result. Thus it should look like this:

Objective # 1: ***********************

KPIs for the Objective: ******************************

Results of KPIs: ***************************************

Comments: *************************************

Once you complete section A to F, use the check-list to make sure that each sub section of the template has been addressed. 

Now you are ready for section-G of SSR. 

For questions or comments, please email: wahid.usmani@gmail.com