Academic Quality Assurance Framework (AQAF)
Academic quality assurance is a critical process for any educational institution to maintain the highest international standards and meet the national expectations and requirements. It focuses on student learning by enhancing the academic programs quality and continuously improving the quality of teaching and learning process. In this context, King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals (KFUPM) strives to achieve its mission and goals, as well as meeting the highest international and national educational standards. The Academic Quality Assurance Framework (AQAF) plays a vital role in this regard. AQAF is developed mainly in order to monitor and assess the student learning and teaching processes, and consequently enhance their quality. It supports the academic programs at the University to successfully achieve their missions. Furthermore, AQAF gives a feedback on whether the curriculum as a whole provides students with the knowledge, skills and values that they should possess in accordance with the program educational objectives and intended students’ outcomes.
AQAF manages and monitors academic quality aspects in the University throughout different integrated quality assurance processes. In annual basis, a self-assessment process is conducted involving assessment at all levels: course, program, college, and institution. A number of documents need to be reported at each level by the concerned entities using specific templates, discussed with relevant people and submitted to the upper administrative level in timely manner according to a predefined assessment calendar for review and/or evaluation. For clarity, each template is associated with guidelines that describe each item in the template in details and examples if necessary. To ensure the continuous improvement, the assessment loop is closed within each level. AQAF also has identified the responsible person or unit for each task in the framework.