External Quality Assessment of Educational Institutions: From the Best Practices of the Target Country to Higher Quality Practices

Abstract

This research aimed to 1) benchmark external quality assessment of educational institutions practices of the target countries, and 2) propose guidelines for the development of external quality assessment of educational institutions. The research was conducted in two phases. The first phase of the research was conducted through a qualitative-oriented multi-case study by analyzing related documents of external quality assessment systems of educational institutions in the target countries namely South Korea, New Zealand, the Netherlands, and Malaysia. These countries were specifically selected since they have similar educational systems and external quality assessment systems to Thailand. In the second phase, the focus group discussion of nine experts was used. The experts were specifically selected based on their expertise and experience regarding external quality assessment of educational institutions. The research findings are as follows: 1) from benchmarking, it is found that there are both similarities and differences in external quality assessment of educational institutions practices of the target countries, and there are some appropriate aspects that can be used as guidelines for improving the external quality assessment of educational institutions in Thailand; 2) for proposing guidelines for the development of external quality assessment of educational institutions, it is found that (1) policy making and guidelines should be conducted in the ministry level, (2) external quality assessment processes should comprise 4 stages namely Assessment preparation (pre-site visit), Area assessment (onsite-visit) , Following-up after the standard practice assessment and adjustment basing on the result from area assessment, and Reflection of the ONESQA performance; 3) The external quality assessment and using assessment result ability should be enhanced; and 4) There should be practices following the implementation of the assessment results from the ministry level.