Workshop on quality assurance in education

Tuesday, 29 March 2011 00:01 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

It was last week that the government announced that it was going ahead for a bill in parliament to establish a “Sri Lanka Qualifications Framework, Accreditation and Quality Assurance Board” and under the new framework, all non-state higher educational institutions will be regulated. These institutions will be required to obtain registration and provide education within the criteria of standards to be announced for compliance.

In view of the upcoming regulatory requirements, a one-day workshop on “Quality Assurance in Education: Aligning local programmes with international standards” has been organised by the Graduate School of Management (GSM). This will be held from 9 a.m to 5 p.m on Thursday, 31 March, 2011 at the World Trade Centre (Level 10, East Tower). The workshop will examine three steps required for preparing for quality assurance: diagnosing current situations and gaps, developing common understanding within each educational institution of QA procedures, and developing strategies and action programmes for adoption. The workshop will also discuss the importance of quality assurance in view of public acceptance of higher education qualifications.

The workshop will be conducted by Prof. Gunapala Nanayakkara, Managing Director of Graduate School of Management and Senior Professor of Management at University of Sri Jayewardenepura, and Prof. Colin Peiris, Director of Quality Assurance of the QA Council of University Grants Commission. Relevant case studies and discussions will be lead by Dr. Amal Harsha de Silva, Director of Health Services, Western Province, Dr. Kithsiri Edirisinghe, Managing Director of International Institute of Health Sciences (IIHS), Dr. Ranjith Cabral, Senior Education Management Consultant, and David Samuel of AusTrade, Australian High Commission in Sri Lanka.