Mission Statement

MISSION:

Ensuring the introduction of international quality principles and standards for quality assurance and enhancement of quality of higher education, given the needs of the national education and healthcare systems and with the involvement of all stakeholders to maintain public confidence.

VISION:

The leading accrediting agency that fosters regional quality assurance in higher education and healthcare professionals training improvement to ensure their achievement of competencies and professionalism to meet the needs of community.

STRATEGIC GOAL:

Modernization of the quality assurance system in health professions education through the enhancement of internal and external quality assurance mechanisms at the institutional and national levels, increasing the competitiveness of health professionals and healthcare in country and internationally.

Eurasian Centre for Accreditation and Quality Assurance in Higher Education and Healthcare (ECAQA) - is specialized agency for quality assurance and quality improvement of Health Professions Education in Kazakhstan.

ECAQA is a non-governmental, non-profit organization. It is independent in developing its principles, set of specific Standards for Medical, Public Health, Dental, Nursing, and Pharmaceutical Education, procedures and guidelines for quality assessment process as well as in accreditation decision making.

ECAQA is making its contribution to establish reliable and transparent national accreditation system on health professional education.

All main groups of stakeholders a rewell represented in the ECAQA Accreditation Council.

ECAQA is based on the fundamental principles of the WHO/WFME Guidelines for accreditation of medical education, Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in the European Higher Education Area (ESG, Part 2,3) and involvement of all relevant stakeholders in accreditation process.

VALUES:

Voluntariness/Freedom – institutional/programmatic accreditation is voluntary, peer-review process of quality assurance and QAA recognizes the academic freedom and institutional autonomy of HEIs

Responsibility – clearly defined responsibility of QAA and HEIs and the involvement of principal stakeholders, provision of appropriate resources for innovation and training reviewers/experts

Transparency – self-assessment and external evaluation process are carried out fairly and transparently, providing access to relevant information that is available for principal stakeholders

Independence - external evaluation, decision-making process based on the published standards and procedures taking into consideration the outcomes both the institutional self-assessment and external evaluation, the reliable information and data as well as the QAA is independent of the third parties

Efficiency – external evaluation is based on international quality principles and established standards that are focus on process, content, and outcomes that allowed improving internal quality assurance mechanisms, support the development of a quality culture and ensure the link between IQA and EQA

Public information - decisions on accreditation is announced and made public, it is posted on the QA agency’s website