The external expert commission

External Expert Commission of the Eurasian Centre for Accreditation and Quality Assurance in Higher Education and Health Care (ECAQA) of the Republic of Kazakhstan

External Expert Commission (EEC) is appointed by the Eurasian Centre for Accreditation and Quality Assurance in Higher Education and Health Care (ECAQA) to conduct institutional or specialised (programme) accreditation for compliance with the applicable ECAQA accreditation standards during a site visit to an organisation of higher, postgraduate or continuing and non-formal education and/or research (hereinafter referred to as an educational organisation).

EEC objectives:

• Evaluate completeness and reliability of the results of self-evaluation of an educational organisation or educational programme seeking accreditation;
• Prepare the report on the results of external expert evaluation of the educational organisation or educational programme for compliance with the ECAQA accreditation standards;
• Develop recommendations on the improvement of activities of the educational organisation or educational programme;
• Submit the external evaluation report and develop recommendations to ECAQA Accreditation Council in accordance with the standards for institutional or specialised (programme) accreditation of medical educational organizations, training and simulation (clinical skills) centres, organizations of continuing and non-formal education, and organizations of higher and postgraduate education.

Formation of the External Expert Commission (EEC)

• EEC is formed for each educational organisation and/or educational programme seeking accreditation.
• The composition of the EEC is formed in accordance with the Regulations on the ECAQA External Expert Commission and includes a chair, certified accreditation experts with relevant professional training, international experts (representatives of the academic and research community of ECAQA partner organisations and associations), employers (representatives of practice and work) and students (master students, PhD students, residents, trainees).
• The composition of the EEC (in relation to expert qualifications) is formed in order to comprehensively cover the main activities of the educational organization seeking accreditation, or key aspects of the educational programme in accordance with the standards and criteria of institutional and specialised (programme) accreditation.
• EEC members are selected on the basis of no conflict of interest with the educational organisation seeking accreditation and adherence to confidentiality and ethics in the external evaluation.

EEC conducts the external evaluation of an educational organisation or an educational programme within 2.5-4 days in accordance with the provisions of the ECAQA Guidelines for External Evaluation or the ECAQA Interim Guidelines for External Evaluation of HEIs and Educational Programmes that are limited to emergency situations. A site visit to the educational organization seeking accreditation is carried out in accordance with the site visit programme that is developed by the ECAQA with the participation of the EEC chair, and then agreed with the leadership of the educational organisation and approved by the ECAQA Director General. The approved site visit programme is provided to the educational organisation no later than 10 days before the date of the site visit. The activities of the site visit programme should cover all key areas of the institutional activities of the educational organization seeking accreditation or aspects of the implementation of the educational programme in order to enable EEC members to validate the self-evaluation report and obtain maximum evidence of compliance with the accreditation standards.

Upon completion of the site visit and the external evaluation of the educational organisation or educational programme, the EEC presents a report on the results of the visit which includes an analysis of the information obtained during the study of the self-evaluation report and the implementation of the site visit programme activities, justified conclusions and recommendations for improvement to the educational organisation and recommendations on the accreditation period to the Accreditation Council. The EEC report is prepared by EEC members on the basis of the Guidelines for Report Preparation of the External Expert Commission.