Under the section 57 (1), (2), and (3) of the VQA Act no1 of 2014, VQA may conduct quality audit of a registered provider or accredited course at any time to evaluate its effectiveness against the Vanuatu Quality Assurance Framework standards for registration and accreditation.
External quality reviews are qualitative reviews involving face-to-face interviews with senior manager and head departments of the institution. These reviews are designed to promote and maintain the continuous quality improvement of the registered PSET provider.
Prior to the external quality review, VIT was required to conduct a self-review and submit a report along with other relevant documents to be reviewed by the Audit Team members. The audit team members will be conducting interviews and site visit from 26th to 30th of August 2019 at the VIT premises. The audit team members include two international and two national review experts and 11 industry experts. The industry experts are selected in the industry area VIT delivers courses on.
The quality review will determine if:
- VIT continues to comply with the minimum Vanuatu Quality Assurance Framework (VQAF) standards for registration and with the conditions for its registration; and
- VIT continues to comply with the requirements of the accredited courses that it is delivering; and
- The outcomes of its education and training services meet the needs of its stakeholders; and
- Continuously improves its outcomes and its performance against the VQAF standards.
Upon completion of the external quality review, the audit team members will report the outcomes in the form of recommendations to assist the VQA Board in deciding whether or not to approve renewal of registration application for VIT, and the improvements VIT needs to take before applying for renewal of registration. VIT was registered under the VQA Act no1 of 2014 as Post-School Education and Training provider in December 2014 for a period of five years. The registration period will elapse on the 8th of December 2019.
The Quality Assurance system for Vanuatu’s Post – School Education and Training (Including TVET and Higher Education) established by the VQA as specified under the VQA Act No.1 of 2014 consists of:
- Registration of Providers;
- Course Accreditation;
- Approval to Deliver Accredited Courses; and
- Quality Audit of registered providers and the accredited courses.
All the providers delivering either technical or vocational training, University degrees, theological courses or any education and training activities in Vanuatu are required by the VQA Act to abide by the quality assurance system as specified above.
Currently VQA is registering 35 PSET providers and VQA believes there are 28 PSET providers that are still not complying with the VQA Act. The Chief Executive Officer of the VQA strongly encourages these providers to contact VQA for assistance in their registration and accreditation of their courses.