Comparison of German and American Higher Education Accreditation Systems and Implications for Quality Management of Higher Education in China

At the present stage,China’s higher education has experienced continuous reform and enhancement,the scale of education has jumped to the forefront,and the quality of education has been continuously improved,which has made gratifying achievements.The development of China’s higher education has entered the critical node of improving quality and efficiency,and the importance of quality management as the central link in improving the quality of higher education is self-evident.Accreditation as an effective means of quality assurance,in Germany and the United States has formed a mature and perfect system and procedures.Therefore,analysing and learning from the quality management system of higher education in Germany and the United States has an important reference value for promoting the further development of quality management of higher education in China.

Big data challenge for monitoring quality in higher education institutions using business intelligence dashboards

As big data becomes an apparent challenge to handle when building a business intelligence(BI)system,there is a motivation to handle this challenging issue in higher education institutions(HEIs).Monitoring quality in HEIs encompasses handling huge amounts of data coming from different sources.This paper reviews big data and analyses the cases from the literature regarding quality assurance(QA)in HEIs.It also outlines a framework that can address the big data challenge in HEIs to handle QA monitoring using BI dashboards and a prototype dashboard is presented in this paper.The dashboard was developed using a utilisation tool to monitor QA in HEIs to provide visual representations of big data.The prototype dashboard enables stakeholders to monitor compliance with QA standards while addressing the big data challenge associated with the substantial volume of data managed by HEIs’QA systems.This paper also outlines how the developed system integrates big data from social media into the monitoring dashboard.

Innovation and Practice of Internal Quality Assurance System in Higher Education Institutions -- Taking Jingzhou Vocational and Technical College as an Example

Continuously improving the internal quality assurance system and promoting the innovative development of higher vocational education is a challenge that every higher vocational institution must solve on the road of diagnosis and improvement.To address the current dilemma of building internal quality assurance systems in higher education institutions,this study utilizes a case study approach.This study takes Jingzhou Vocational and Technical College as the research object for research.Conclusion:The excellent diagnosis and reform model and the effectiveness of diagnosis and reform in this school can provide new strategic ideas for the practice of diagnosis and reform for the high-quality development of higher education in Hubei.

Practical Strategies to Improve the Quality of Teachers in Higher Vocational Colleges in the New Era

In this paper,practical strategies are proposed to improve the quality of teachers in higher vocational colleges.Research and analyses have shown that the key to improving the quality of teachers in higher vocational colleges lies in the improvement of professionalism,subject knowledge,and teaching ability.Thus,the following practical strategies are proposed:strengthen teachers’moral development,establish a teacher training system,focus on curriculum construction and teaching method innovation,and strengthen the teaching quality monitoring and evaluation mechanism.These measures can effectively improve the quality of teachers in higher vocational colleges and promote the development of higher vocational education.

Analysis of Professional Quality Cultivation Strategies for Infant and Child Care Service Talents from the Perspective of Collaboration of Medical Care,Parenting,and Education,and Integration of Industry and Education

The collaboration of medical care,parenting,and education aims to integrate nursing,midwifery,infant and child care services,and management with speech and hearing rehabilitation technology,among other elements related to the infant care industry chain.This integration targets pediatrics talent training in nine infant care positions,including nursing,infant health care and management,and child rehabilitation,to ensure that the capabilities and quality of professional talents can meet the health care needs of infants and young children.This article briefly explains the background of the“collaboration of medical care,parenting,and education,and integration of industry and education.”It analyzes the necessity of cultivating infant and child care service talents based on the perspective of“collaboration of medical care,parenting,and education,and integration of industry and education.”Based on this perspective,we conducted an in-depth study of the cultivation of professional qualities of infant and child care service talents.

Towards Breaking through Bottlenecks of Developing Higher Education Curriculum from the Perspective of Constructing Quality Evaluation System

With the effective measure of curriculum maturity,curriculum development of higher education makes a breakthrough in the bottleneck period,ultimately providing an external driving force for the effective study on substance of quality evaluation system in the development of higher education curriculum.The research shows that the development of higher education curriculum should make a comprehensive analysis of quality evaluation by following the principle of sustainability,which encourages the quality-oriented innovation of higher education curriculum,thus forming a substantive breakthrough in curriculum development.

Research on Quality Assurance System of Talent Cultivation in Higher Vocational Colleges from the Background of Enrollment Expansion

The enrollment expansion of higher vocational education is not only a strategic measure to alleviate the structural contradiction of employment,but also an important support for economic transformation and upgrading.How to deal with the expansion of enrollment and ensure the quality of training is an important task of higher vocational colleges at this stage.Based on the development requirements of the new era,it is of great practical significance to build a perfect quality assurance system of talent training.

Assuring Quality in Higher Education in a Confucian Collectivist Culture: The Vietnamese Experience

Quality assurance(QA)has been introduced and developed into Vietnam for almost 15 years.The importation of such a concept from other countries with different cultures may result in resistance in some ways.This study explores QA arrangements at three institutions of higher education(HE)in Vietnam,a Confucian heritage country,as perceived by academic leaders,QA practitioners,and academics to respond to QA policies from the government.The methodological approach taken in this research is a multiple case study.A qualitative approach was used to explore QA practices at three institutions.Data collected from documentation and in-depth interviews were analyzed for patterns and themes.It was found that centralism and large power distance of a Confucian collectivist country such as Vietnam significantly influenced the government’s attempts to reform HE for quality improvement.Culturally appropriate measures from the bottom level with long-term strategies should be considered to assure and improve quality,including the shift to decentralization in HE.

Accreditation System of Distance Higher Education in the U.S. and Its Implications for China

Distance higher education is an important component of the Chinese higher education.How to enhance the quality of distance higher education is one of the key issues to be addressed in the research areas of distance education and higher education.As a crucial step to quality improvement,the constitution of accreditation system in distance higher education balances the benefits of all parties involved.This paper explores the American accreditation system of higher education and distance education and concludes with suggestions for the constitution of the Chinese quality assurance system:1)establishing third-party institutions to share part of the government roles;2)constituting the accreditation system;3)setting up appropriate standards;4)publicizing results of quality assurance work;and 5)building internal quality assurance mechanism.This paper is aimed to provide some reference to the constitution of accreditation system of distance higher education in China,facilitate the solution of quality problems in distance education,and promote the continuous improvement and development of distance education in China.

A Tailor-made Data Quality Approach for Higher Educational Data

Purpose: This paper relates the definition of data quality procedures for knowledge organizations such as Higher Education Institutions. The main purpose is to present the flexible approach developed for monitoring the data quality of the European Tertiary Education Register(ETER) database, illustrating its functioning and highlighting the main challenges that still have to be faced in this domain.Design/methodology/approach: The proposed data quality methodology is based on two kinds of checks, one to assess the consistency of cross-sectional data and the other to evaluate the stability of multiannual data. This methodology has an operational and empirical orientation. This means that the proposed checks do not assume any theoretical distribution for the determination of the threshold parameters that identify potential outliers, inconsistencies, and errors in the data. Findings: We show that the proposed cross-sectional checks and multiannual checks are helpful to identify outliers, extreme observations and to detect ontological inconsistencies not described in the available meta-data. For this reason, they may be a useful complement to integrate the processing of the available information.Research limitations: The coverage of the study is limited to European Higher Education Institutions. The cross-sectional and multiannual checks are not yet completely integrated.Practical implications: The consideration of the quality of the available data and information is important to enhance data quality-aware empirical investigations, highlighting problems, and areas where to invest for improving the coverage and interoperability of data in future data collection initiatives.Originality/value: The data-driven quality checks proposed in this paper may be useful as a reference for building and monitoring the data quality of new databases or of existing databases available for other countries or systems characterized by high heterogeneity and complexity of the units of analysis without relying on pre-specified theoretical distributions.

Cloud Computing at a Cross Road: Quality and Risks in Higher Education

The key determinants of cloud computing provide a convincing argument for HEIs and its stakeholders to adopt the innovation. These benefits reflect the essential quality characteristics of the cloud, such as Broad network Access;Measured Service;On-demand Self-Service;Rapid Elasticity;and Resource Pooling. However, there are also risks associated with the cloud, leading to non-adoption, such as Confidence, Privacy, Security, Surety and Trust. Understanding the impact of these factors can support multiple stakeholders, such as students, lecturers, senior managers and admins in their adoptive decision of CC in their respected institutions. Using the Multiview 3 (MV3) methodology, a research model was proposed to explore the key qualities and risks that determine the adoption or non-adoption of CC by UK HEIs from multiple perspectives. An exploratory qualitative study was conducted on 32 University stakeholders across 2 UK Universities. The findings suggest that security, privacy and trust are the key determinants to non-adoption as participants felt that the cloud cannot fully guarantee the safeguarding of sensitive information. Determinants to cloud adoption include improving relationships between students and teachers via collaborative tools, in addition to proposing cloud apps for mobile devices for accessing virtual learning materials and email securely off-campus. In conclusion, University stakeholders are still at a cross-road when it comes to cloud adoption, but future advances of the cloud may help to steer their decision to adopt this innovative technology given its overwhelming potential.

Use of Component Integration Services in Multidatabase Systems: A Feasible Solution for Integrating Academic Institutions or Commercial Industries

The book chapter is an extended version of the research paper entitled “Use of Component Integration Services in Multidatabase Systems”, which is presented and published by the 13th ISITA, the National Conference of Recent Trends in Mathematical and Computer Sciences, T.M.B. University, Bhagalpur, India, January 3-4, 2015. Information is widely distributed across many remote, distributed, and autonomous databases (local component databases) in heterogeneous formats. The integration of heterogeneous remote databases is a difficult task, and it has already been addressed by several projects to certain extents. In this chapter, we have discussed how to integrate heterogeneous distributed local relational databases because of their simplicity, excellent security, performance, power, flexibility, data independence, support for new hardware technologies, and spread across the globe. We have also discussed how to constitute a global conceptual schema in the multidatabase system using Sybase Adaptive Server Enterprise’s Component Integration Services (CIS) and OmniConnect. This is feasible for higher education institutions and commercial industries as well. Considering the higher educational institutions, the CIS will improve IT integration for educational institutions with their subsidiaries or with other institutions within the country and abroad in terms of educational management, teaching, learning, and research, including promoting international students’ academic integration, collaboration, and governance. This will prove an innovative strategy to support the modernization and large expansion of academic institutions. This will be considered IT-institutional alignment within a higher education context. This will also support achieving one of the sustainable development goals set by the United Nations: “Goal 4: ensure inclusive and quality education for all and promote lifelong learning”. However, the process of IT integration into higher educational institutions must be thoroughly evaluated, identifying the vital data access points. In this chapter, Section 1 provides an introduction, including the evolution of various database systems, data models, and the emergence of multidatabase systems and their importance. Section 2 discusses component integration services (CIS), OmniConnect and considering heterogeneous relational distributed local databases from the perspective of academics, Section 3 discusses the Sybase Adaptive Server Enterprise (ASE), Section 4 discusses the role of component integration services and OmniConnect of Sybase ASE under the Multidatabase System, Section 5 shows the database architectural framework, Section 6 provides an implementation overview of the global conceptual schema in the multidatabase system, Section 7 discusses query processing in the CIS, and finally, Section 8 concludes the chapter. The chapter will help our students a lot, as we have discussed well the evolution of databases and data models and the emergence of multidatabases. Since some additional useful information is cited, the source of information for each citation is properly mentioned in the references column.

Importance-performance analysis: Revisiting a tool for the evaluation of clinical services

The importance-performance analysis method (IPA) is used in market research in order to measure the level of customer satisfaction. The aim of this study was to evaluate and highlight the use of IPA as a management tool to measure quality of dental services. We suggest that this method can be easily implemented in a dental educational setting, as a performance outcome measure that includes patient input. The study was conducted in a dental service through a valid questionnaire, SERVQUAL. This instrument explores levels of service quality perceived by patients. It was conducted in four companies in Brazil in 2011 (derived from different industry segments;two from textiles, one from hospital care and the other from the manufacturing industry) in two States (S?o Paulo and Minas Gerais). These companies were covered by the same dental managed care organization which contracted with independent dentists to provide care. The study was divided into two stages: the first, in which beneficiaries answered the questionnaire prior to receiving dental treatment, and the second when the same beneficiaries answered after completing their dental treatment. Data obtained from SERVQUAL generated graphs that were used to characterize the IPA matrix using several dimensions of care. The Assurance Dimension had the highest average in both expectation and perception. The Reliability dimension showed the value of the most negative GAP among the dimensions, and the best value occurred in the Responsiveness dimension. The IPA tool may be effective in Dental Medicine since it highlights the key points to be improved in the delivery of dental services in a clinical setting.

Total Quality Management at Algerian Higher Education Institutions to Promote Our Roles in Comprehensive Development

The aims this study to know the reality of the role for Total Quality Management(TQM)to need of Algerian Higher Education Institutions(AHEI)in apply the Total Quality Management(TQM)to promote the Comprehensive Development(CD),and this approach to enhance their roles in the comprehensive development,the efficiency of the training process,global changes and their needs to adopt a new educational policy in line with the global transformation competition,and the requirements of sustainable development,in this study was used a questionnaire composed of(75)items distributed on(08)areas,This is for confirmation the need to adopt philosophy of Total Quality Management(TQM)as a strategy imposed by the nature and the stage experienced for Algerian Higher Education Institutions(AHEI),And deal with the nature of the changes and challenges imposed by certain factors such as Globalization and the knowledge revolution,through all this inevitably to apply the Total Quality Management(TQM)in our Algerian Higher Education Institutions(AHEI).

Advances in the Health Training Process Quality:Links between Education,Service and Community

This study proposes to discuss the experience lived by Pró-Saúde and PET-Saúde team of FACISA/ UFRN together with the Municipal Health Department of Santa Cruz/RN from a critical-reflexive perspective about the interaction between education, service and community as well as advances in approach and the strengthening between the school and Primary Health Care. This is an exploratory study with an experience report approach of the Pró-Saúde and PET-Saúde team from 2012 to 2014. The integration of these programs in experimental scenarios of the Unified Health System and the strengthening of the proposed training of human resources capable of the current healthcare system were observed. Thus, contributions in health in undergraduate courses and practices of health services are important, since the approach to the reality of the population and their social needs contribute to the vocational training quality.