On April 27, the TKU Graduate Institute of Educational Policy and Leadership is set to hold a symposium that will explore quality assurance mechanisms used in both local and overseas universities.

The symposium opening ceremony will be hosted by the President of Tamkang University, Dr. Flora Chia-I Chang, and will feature opening remarks from Academician and Minister without Portfolio Ovid Tseng. The morning session of the symposium was jointly hosted by President Chang, the Executive Director of the Foundation for International Cooperation in Higher Education of Taiwan (FICHET), Dr. George J. Jiang, and the Head of the ROC Bureau of Education, Tengjiao Lin. Subsequently, the afternoon session, which involved an open discussion, was hosted by the Ministry of Education’s Higher Education Department Director, He Zhuo-Fei, and was attended by Wang Bao Jin, from the Higher Education Evaluation and Accreditation Council of Taiwan, as well as Dr. Hsun-Fang Kao, the Dean of the TKU College of Education. In total, 180 scholars and students are set to take part in the event.

The Director of the Graduate Institute of Educational Policy and Leadership, Chan Yang Ying, explained: “We specially invited educational scholars from abroad as well as professors from local educational evaluation institutes. This way, we not only get a better insight into the quality assurance mechanisms employed by overseas universities, but also gain a better understanding of assessments exploring the nature of learning in higher education”.

The morning session will consist of special lectures by three foreign scholars, including Dr. Helka Kekäläinen, England’s Dr. Sue Law, and America’s Dr. James Earl Davis. Topics explored will include “External Quality Assurance and Students’ Learning Outcomes: Example of FINHEEC”; “Exploring Changes in UK Higher Education”; and “Reconsidering Institutional Diversity and Learning Outcomes for Students in Higher Education”. The afternoon session will consist of six thesis presentations.