Project of establishing an internal system for quality assurance at the Faculty of Pharmacy - Assiut University

Faculty of Pharmacy

Assiut University

Project of establishing an internal system for quality assurance at the Faculty of Pharmacy - Assiut University

Project of establishing an internal system for quality assurance at the Faculty of Pharmacy - Assiut University


Project Number: AST/3/08
Project duration: 18 months
Project Director: Prof. Dr. / Dean of the Faculty
Project start date: 9/12/2004

Project goals:


The project aims at evaluating university performance, developing the educational and research process, community service and environmental development, as well as obtaining institutional accreditation for the faculty for all its academic programs through sub-objectives that ensure the success of evaluating the educational process by measuring performance indicators for the inputs and outputs of the educational process (faculty staff - staff - students - graduates ......... etc) and include:
1- Spreading the culture of the quality of the educational process among faculty members and faculty students by organizing panel discussions, workshops and training courses that are concerned with developing university performance and ensuring quality, in order to raise awareness in the faculty community of the importance and mechanisms of quality assurance.
2- Designing and preparing forms or tools necessary for evaluation to include evaluation mechanisms and standards and procedural steps for implementing the quality assurance system.
3- Exchanging experiences and ideas for developing pharmaceutical education with similar centers and units in the faculties of pharmacy in Egyptian, Arab and International universities and benefiting from them in achieving the desired development.
4- Determining the strengths and weaknesses in the capabilities and study programs offered by the faculty, presenting appropriate proposals and means to overcome them, setting action plans with timing and levels, and determining the necessary capabilities for them.
5- An integrated description and report of the program and academic courses, and the creation of a database and integrated files for all study programs and courses for all academic degrees offered by the faculty, in preparation for the adoption of what is consistent with international standards and the competent local and global bodies.
6- Follow-up on the development of the various departments of the faculty for their programs to bring their graduates to a distinguished level among the graduates of the corresponding faculties in other universities in order to achieve competitiveness for them in the local, Arab and international labor market.
7- Working to find channels of communication with national and international organizations concerned with evaluating and assuring quality in university education to exchange experience in order to improve the performance of the educational process in the faculty.
8- Preparing and following-up training programs that contribute to the application of internal quality assurance mechanisms and the professional growth of faculty members, in particular training programs on completing program and course files and in using the Internet and advanced technology in the educational process in accordance with the standards of the National Committee for Quality Assurance and Accreditation to ensure sustainability.
9- Follow up on performance evaluation in the new university education systems, such as open education and distance education.
10- Establishing and strengthening an internal unit that has the ability to assure quality in university performance.
11- Ensuring sustainability.
12- Submitting an annual report to the faculty with the standards of the National Committee on the college’s performance in the field of education, postgraduate studies, research, and professional and community services.
13- Preparing the faculty for the development stage leading to progress for accreditation.

First: Establishing a Quality Assurance Center:
Faculty Council Decision No. 421 dated 10/26/2004 to establish the Quality Assurance and Accreditation Center and allocate Room No. 504 on the fifth floor of the Administrative Building as the headquarters of the Quality Assurance and Accreditation Unit
- Faculty Council decision dated 10/30/2004 to form the Board of Directors of the Quality Assurance and Accreditation Unit.

Second: The media to introduce the project, the unit, the objectives and the importance inside and outside the faculty:

1- A symposium was held for all faculty members and their assistants in the faculty on 4/27/2005, in which Prof. Dr. Ibrahim Shafi`, the former Vice President and Director of the Quality Assurance Center, lectured to introduce the project and answer its questions.
2- gave three lectures on the project on 10/30/2004, 1/11/2004, and 3/11/2004.
3- Inviting Prof. Dr. Ibrahim Shafi, the former Vice President and Director of the Quality Assurance Center, on 1/11/2004 to review some questions related to some project points, such as writing reports on academic courses and the faculty syllabus. His Excellency answered all these questions.
4- Making a leaflet containing a brief summary of the project and its objectives and distributed to all faculty members and their assistants in the faculty, in addition to the scientific departments participating with the faculty in teaching.
5- Creating a web page for the project within the page of the faculty of Pharmacy, its address is http://acc.aun.edu.eg/fac_ pharmacy

Third: Training and participation in workshops outside the college:
1- Participation in a workshop for training the trainers (TOT), which was held in the administrative building of Assiut University from 3-7/7/2004.
2- Participation in quality assurance workshops from 7-8/9/2004 which was held at the Faculty of Agriculture, Cairo University.
3- Participation in a conference on quality management and accreditation of higher education in the Arab countries from 24-26/11/2004

Fourth: Compilation of what is related to international standards for faculties of pharmacy

Fifth: The activities of the center that have been carried out
A weekly meeting of the Follow-up Committee is held on an ongoing basis to review the activities of the various committees and take appropriate decisions, including:
1- Determining the needs assessment for all committees.
2- Public seminars were held to which all those related to the profession of pharmacy were invited. Various opinions on the project and proposals for some questions were discussed.
3- The Program Specifications and Reports Committee prepared a questionnaire for students and a questionnaire for pharmacists.
4- Inviting the Course Coordinators to explain how to fill out the form for the Course Specification.
5- A workshop was held in the presence of Prof. Dr. Nabil Makled on 12/30/2004. The discussion revolved around the description of the academic courses and the faculty program.
6- A workshop was held in the presence of Prof. Dr. Nabil Makled on 23/5/2005 in order to answer the questions of the committee sent by the center and to find out the latest progress of the unit's work.
7- Conducting meetings with the heads of the administrative and organizational structure of the faculty.
8- A description of the curricula for the different subjects has been completed.
9- The Program Specifications report has been prepared.
10- A draft annual report on the faculty activities in the field of university performance evaluation has been prepared.
11- The Documents Committee has compiled and prepared the necessary documents for external review.
12- The faculty submitted its first annual report 2000/2005.
13- A field visit was made by the Peer Auditors Committee on November 5-8, 2006 to follow up on what was mentioned in the report.
14- The faculty submitted the second annual report 2006/2007.
15- A follow-up visit was made by the Peer Auditors Committee on October 31, 2007.
16- A field visit was made by peer reviewers on April 23, 2008 to follow up on what was mentioned in previous reports on the clinical pharmacy program.