RI EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS PARTICIPATE IN QUALITY ASSURANCE WORKSHOP

Jakarta, July 31 (ANTARA) - More than 80 Indonesian education institution representatives have participated in a quality assurance workshop and panel discussion, hosted by the Australian Embassy here.

The embassy in Jakarta hosted the quality assurance workshop on Wednesday, July 29, 2007, to help build bridges between Australian and Indonesian higher education institutions.

An embassy media release made available to Antara on Friday said the workshop was conducted as a follow up to the signing in November 2008 of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the Australian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Education, Julia Gillard and the Indonesian Minister of Education, Bambang Sudibyo.

In recent years the education departments of both countries have developed closer relations and increased cooperation, particularly in the Higher Education sector.

In his opening remarks, Australian Ambassador to Indonesia Bill Farmer said the workshop "provided an opportunity for discussion and information exchange among education experts, colleagues and friends from Australia and Indonesia on quality assurance issues in their respective institutions."
The first speaker Robert Carmichael, an Audit Director at the Australian Universities Quality Agency (AUQA), delivered a presentation on current methods used to audit Australian higher education institutions.

Carmichael highlighted the principles and approach to quality assurance implemented by higher education authorities in Australia.

AUQA is an independent, not-for-profit national agency that promotes, audits and reports on quality assurance in Australian higher education.

It operates independently of governments and the higher education sector and is under the direction of a Board of Directors.

The second speaker Prof Dr Johannes Gunawan, Secretary of the Education Council of the Indonesian Directorate General of Higher Education and Chairman of the National Team on Indonesian Quality Assurance Systems, delivered a presentation on system requirements for implementing quality assurance frameworks by higher education institutions in Indonesia.

Gunawan briefed participants on how Indonesian National Standards of Education (NSE) quality assurance should be internally driven and institutionalized within each organization's standard procedure but could also involve inputs from external parties.