Students at FNU’s College of Humanities and Education.
The Academic Quality Agency for New Zealand Universities (AQA) has commended Fiji National University and the School of Education for a number of its practices implemented as part of the ongoing review of its programmes.
In a statement, AQA has acknowledged the considerable progress made by FNU’s teacher education programmes while responding to Fiji’s national priorities in education and support towards students’ progress.
In 2019 FNU invited AQA to undertake a review of teacher education programmes offered by the School of Education under the University’s College of Humanities and Education (CHE).
The AQA supports universities in achieving standards of excellence in research and teaching by conducting institutional audits of the processes in universities which underpin academic quality and by identifying and disseminating information on good practice in developing and maintaining quality in higher education.
While releasing the programme review report, the Agency stated that “the School of Education at FNU is delivering teacher education programmes that are responding to Fiji national priorities for education and is committed to supporting student progress.”
The Agency further stated the panel that conducted the programme review “commended the University and the School of Education for a number of its practices and made recommendations in areas that it considers will assist the School and the university in delivering teacher education programmes of an international standard.”
The overall objectives of the review were to assess whether the programmes meet the standards expected of teacher education qualifications internationally, whether programmes deliver on their claimed graduate attributes (learning outcomes) and whether programmes meet professional and/or employer expectations.
The teacher education programmes included in the review were Bachelor of Education (Primary), Bachelor of Education (Secondary), Graduate Certificate in Education and Higher Education Certificate Teaching in Technical and Vocational Education and Training programmes offered by the College and which had completed a full cycle during the review period 2017 – 2019.
The report outlines three important areas – commendations, affirmations and recommendations in the following areas:
According to Dean CHE, Dr Eci Nabalarua, this exercise was carried out in line with FNU’s Strategic Plan of external programme audit and international accreditation.
“While FNU is self-accrediting, having programmes that are internationally recognised or accredited provides an important way of guaranteeing quality to stakeholders and making the qualifications internationally portable.”
She also said that the University engaged AQA for this review because their process is recognised by other international quality assurance agencies and this will be instrumental in attaining international recognition.
Dr Nabalarua said now that the University has received the review report, an implementation plan template will be drawn up and the School of Education will work through in filling this prior to submission to the Senior Management Group for endorsement.
She added the time frame to implement the recommendations could range from 12 to 18 months depending on the nature of each recommendation.
The review report can be viewed online here.