Accreditation and Evaluation for Veterinary Education in Korea

Transcription

1 Accreditation and Evaluation for Veterinary Education in Korea Heungshik S. Lee, DVM, Ph.D Former Dean College of Veterinary Medicine Seoul National University, Korea Veterinary medicine has been challenged by the drastic change of global situation in politics, economy, society, culture, environment, etc. Depending on the new challenges, content of veterinary education also has been changed to fill up the demand. Recently, the veterinary education is faced with diverse problems such as food safety, food security, animal welfare, veterinary ethics, production of healthy animals, novel zoonoses, biotechnology, public health, etc. Veterinary medicine might get over such challenges simply by sufficient veterinarians with high capability in the areas. Therefore, veterinary school fostering veterinarians should have its excellence verified in terms of quality or quantity. The following is a history on the evaluation and accreditation of higher education in Korea. In the 1950s and 1960s, the Ministry of Education (MOE) took the initiative in higher education, limiting its role to the supervision and guidance of whether the education is performed, depending on social requirements. In such circumstances, high education institutes, subject to supervision, were highly passive and negative. However, from the 1970s to the 1980s, higher education was verified under the leadership of MOE, which was encouraged and supported under the education reform, but the response was not positive because the reform was led by the government. In other words, it was not a real evaluation and accreditation. After 1

2 finishing the period, the Korean Council for University Education (KCUE), a NGO and NPO, took the initiative in performing college evaluation, which prioritized the autonomy and co-operation of universities, leading to their active participation. However, all universities were not compulsorily subject to evaluation and certification because the Council s evaluation and accreditation had neither legal binding nor benefits in administrative or financial terms. In Korea, the first discussion on the accreditation system of veterinary education was occurred 15 years ago. Specifically, the discussion was made for the first time in 1995 to lengthen the period of veterinary education at the public hearing held by the Korean Veterinary Medical Association (KVMA) and the Korean Veterinary Education Association (KVEA). Thereafter, the period of veterinary education was extended from 4 to 6 years, but the implementation of accreditation system was deferred due to the public opinion that it was still premature. In 2005, JoongAng Daily Press evaluated the veterinary schools, and the KCUE certified veterinary education. Also, the introduction of accreditation system was proposed in late December 2005 at the symposium on the demand and supply of veterinarians of the KVMA. The introduction was again proposed in October 2007 at the strategy symposium of the Korean Society of Veterinary Science (KSVS), and in late December at the symposium on the veterinary specialist of the KVMA. Recently, the Special Act came into effect. Therefore, all Korean schools must publicly announce the accreditation such as its facilities, structure, administration, budget, professors, students, curricula, etc by the end of December every year in accordance with Clause 2, Article 11 of the Higher Education Act (Act No.9356) and the Special Act on the Information Disclosure of Educational Institutions (Presidential Decree No.21119). If not, the schools involved may be disadvantaged by the MOE in terms 2

3 of financial or administrative support. The requirements on the accreditation must be made by the public accreditation organization recognized by the MOE. In Korea, there are accreditation organizations on the education of medicine (KIMEE), dental medicine (KIDEE), nursing science (KABON), Korean traditional medicine (KOMEEI), engineering (ABEEK), business management (KABEA), architecture engineering (KAAB), and trade (KTEA). They evaluate and certify their own specialized fields. Besides, the KCUE performed evaluation and accreditation of all the fields including veterinary medicine, but all the evaluation and accreditation works were interrupted in late December 2008, as the Higher Education Act was revised. Consequently, there is no an evaluation and accreditation organization for veterinary education in Korea. Based on the history and background, the KVMA resolved to establish the evaluation and accreditation organization at General Meeting of the KAVA at February 28, Finally, KAVA set up the Preparatory Commission for the named Korean Accreditation Board for Veterinary Education (KABOVE) was led by the KVMA in April 15, Although the KABOVE was proposed by KVMA, the KABOVE is an independent organization. This organization will be operated as a NPO of the NGO for public purposes. Also, the board member will be included all area related to veterinary medicine such as representatives of education institutions, academic societies, industries, veterinary practitioners, research institutes, governments, etc. The INQAAHE defines the evaluation and accreditation of higher education and higher education institutions as follows: 3

4 Evaluation (of quality or standards) is the process of examining and passing a judgment on the appropriateness or level of quality or standards. Accreditation is the establishment of the status, legitimacy or appropriateness of an institution, programmed or module of study. In the meantime, the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) defines the accreditation of veterinary education as follows: Accreditation is a process by which an educational institution or program submits to a voluntary, non-governmental review to determine whether it meets accepted standards of quality. Additionally, Veterinary Schools Accreditation Advisory Committee (VSAAC) in Australia and New Zealand defines the accreditation more specifically than the AVMA: Accreditation of veterinary schools is an integral part of quality assurance procedures for veterinary undergraduate education in most of the major regional economics. In general, the process operates regionally and includes a number of countries in each system. Conclusively, evaluation and accreditation are closely related each other. Actually, evaluation is to measure and classify the education institutions and conditions of schools or specialized fields while accreditation is to evaluate those and recognize the adequacy of schools for the fostering veterinarians without hierarchy. Therefore, the organizations for education, accreditation and evaluation must be in complementary horizontal relations with each other to ensure the excellence of veterinary education and to enhance its social responsibilities. 4

5 As a result, we can expect the improvement of veterinary education will be improved in terms of quality by the introduction of the accreditation system in Korea. The expected effects are the autonomous evaluation for quality of education, the self-evaluation for fostering excellent veterinarians, the integral and efficient regulation in demand and supply of veterinarians, the qualitative management corresponding to the quantitative increase of veterinarians, the expansion of staffs and facilities for education, the establishment of the guarantee system for social needs, the reinforcement of international competitiveness, the strategy building against the opening of veterinary markets, etc. On the other hand, we have to consider the negative effects of the evaluation and accreditation system, such as the errors of accreditation and evaluation by non-experts, the conflicts of interests between evaluators, the hierarchy by evaluation results, the imposition of uniform programs, the differentiation between accredited and non- accredited schools, the excessive financial and time costs for preparing for accreditation, the disclosure of schools various internal information, etc. However, such problems will be fully settled depending on the how to operate the accreditation and evaluation system. In other words, every evaluation will have to be publicly prepared by experts after sufficient training. The accreditation and evaluation must contain Why evaluate?, What evaluate? How evaluate?, When evaluate?, Who evaluates?, How evaluate results?, etc. Evaluation must be made for the following purposes: 1. To enhance the excellence of veterinary education; 2. To increase the efficiency of education after graduation; 3. To improve the social responsibilities of professionals; 4. To satisfy consumers rights to know; 5

6 5. To enhance the autonomy of schools; 6. To meet societal needs; 7. To strengthen international competitive power; 8. To specialize and differentiate each school; 9. To improve educational environments and conditions. Then, what shall be evaluated and accredited by the system? The criteria and standards are as follows: 1. School operation system (administration, operating system, finance, developmental strategy, current globalization status, etc.); 2. Education objectives and curricula (basic, clinic, and applied veterinary science); 3. Lecture methods and evaluation (learning evaluation and results); 4. Students (guidance system, welfare, and career guidance); 5. Professors (professor vs student ratio, research, and academic activities); 6. Facilities and appliances (education, research and support facilities); 7. Industrial-academic co-operation (funding, technical transfer, and business startup); 8. General staff (administrative affairs, academic affairs, students, and hospitals). However, accreditation have to be made in combination with the relative assessment according to the standards or the absolute assessment of deciding YES or NO, the quantitative assessment of making decisions according to the standards, and the qualitative assessment of taking various factors into full account. Accreditation and evaluation are made by self-survey and on-site survey. They are composed of the following procedures. 1. Application for accreditation and evaluation; 2. School self-evaluation; 6

7 3. Written evaluation; 4. On-site survey; 5. Comprehensive evaluation; 6. Judgment of accreditation. The accreditation may be divided into two categories; full accreditation and conditioned accreditation. The full accreditation is granted when an institution is met with the education standards for veterinary medicine, but, if there is any insufficiency in the education standards of veterinary medicine, the conditioned accreditation is granted. Re-inspection has to be made within a certain period in case of the conditioned accreditation. When accreditation is not granted, application is made for evaluation in three years and re-evaluation is made. The cycle of evaluation and accreditation may be diverse: 3, 5, 6, 10 years according to country or field. The five-year-cycle is recommended to the veterinary education of 6-year-system, like medicine, dental medicine, and Korean traditional medicine. However, two or fewer schools may be evaluated each year according to the sequence of application. The evaluation team may be composed of a total of nine persons: two emeritus professors, three professors on service, two practitioners, one pedagogist, and one industrial official. The results should be used for the guideline of every veterinary school to reach certain standards or higher under the preposition because the objective of accreditation and evaluation is autonomous control to foster the distinguished veterinarians satisfied by societal demands. The results will recommend the veterinary school involved to improve its education conditions and curricula in terms of quality. Also, education consumers can easily take the information on the education abilities and qualitative standards of the school involved. Furthermore, the businesses, institutes, and clinics involved can use the results for 7

8 the additional points and special recruitment, like Accreditation Board for Engineering Education of Korea (ABEEK) for engineering, Korean Association of Business Education Accreditation (KABEA) for business, and Korea Architectural Accrediting Board (KAAB) for architecture in the recruiting of new employees. In addition, the results can be used as reference materials for screening by research-funded organizations. Also, they can be provided as materials for governmental administrative and financial support pursuant to Clause 2, Article 11 of the Higher Education Act (No.9356). The success of the evaluation and accreditation is ensured by the active participation of all veterinary schools, the establishment of the reasonable standards, the fair and clear procedure for the evaluation and accreditation, etc. Lastly, it is also important to make veterinary education institutes participate in active co-operation and support and to secure international collaboration. In this regard, it is greatly expected that the AAVS will play a significant role. 8