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| Participants at the BAC workshop at the Almond Bay Conference Centre.(BGIS) |
A self evaluative report is a critical part of the registration process which the Barbados Accreditation Council (BAC) demands of educational providers at the post secondary and tertiary levels.
This was stressed today, as the BAC workshop on Preparing An Effective Self Evaluative Report for the Registration Process got underway at the Almond Bay Conference Centre, Hastings, Christ Church.
Explaining that this type of report sought to encourage and facilitate introspection of tertiary providers for quality improvement, Executive Director of the Council, Valda Alleyne, said criteria had been established to allow providers to undertake self evaluation against their own peculiar situation, based on evidence, to determine whether or not they had satisfied the requirements for registration.
She said: "From that self introspection, you produce a self evaluative report which is submitted to the Council for its review and verification of your operations. We want to assure you that the self evaluation is not a BAC-owned process."
According to the head of BAC, any organisation, individual or institution offering education and training, to persons over the age of 16, must register with the Council. Registration, she said, sought to assure the public that a tertiary educational provider met certain standards set by the BAC to operate in Barbados. These included: Governance and Administration; Admissions policies; Students Assessment; Student Support; Learning and Information Services.
Emphasising that the BAC must be the guardian of the tertiary educational sector by ensuring that current and prospective students were not taken advantage of by providers Ms. Alleyne said that all tertiary educational providers should be prepared to show that they were prepared to operate in Barbados in an ethical manner by meeting the Council’s registration requirements.
It was noted that educational entities must ensure that there exists a Student Handbook or "Prospectus"; a detailed programme/course of study or curriculum that outlines for example, the expected learning outcomes; contact or credit hours; and the expectations of the students as well as the provider; and must issue the stated qualification to students who meet the assessment criteria indicated in the provider’s Student Handbook or other public literature either in print or electronically.
"The implementation of such internal quality management systems must become the "way of doing business" in Barbados’ tertiary educational sector as citizens are increasingly demanding their rights as consumers of education." Ms. Alleyne maintained.