Five programs of Azerbaijan State Oil and Industry University (ASOIU) have been selected by the Foundation for International Business Administration Accreditation (FIBAA), one of the famous accreditation organizations in Germany and Europe, as being in line with European Standards and accredited for a five-year period. ASOIU applied to FIBAA independently in order to get accredited. ASOIU is the first higher education institution among Azerbaijani universities to have applied independently for accreditation.
After fully evaluating the programs, FIBAA decided that there are self-defined quality objectives for the development of ASOIU BA Programs. Hence, five programs of ASOIU – B.Sc. in Business Informatics, B.Sc. in Computer Engineering, B.Sc. in Industrial Engineering, MBA in Computer Information Systems and MBA in Operations Management – have been considered as being in line with European Standards and accredited for a five-year period.
FIBAA is an international agency for higher education accreditation and expertize. Founded in 1994 by leading German, Swiss and Austrian trade and industrial companies, FIBAA has accredited 1900 study programs in Europe and in many other countries around the globe. FIBAA is the member of the European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education (ENQA), the European Consortium for Accreditation (ECA), the Central and Eastern European Network of Quality Assurance Agencies in Higher Education (CEENQA), the International Network for Quality Assurance Agencies in Higher Education (INQAAHE), the European University Association (EUA) and other organizations and the co-founder of some of such agencies. During the procedures for the accreditation of study programs, FIBAA uses the expert evaluation (peer review) method, highly appraised in academic circles. The quality evaluation is conducted by competent and independent international experts.
There are special quality measures and standards to undergo an accreditation. During this process, the accreditation commission investigates on spot the material and technical, legal and regulatory documents of the higher education institution, its faculty staff, assessment of students’ knowledge and other points, identifies whether the institution and the personnel it is preparing meet the national education standards and allows to continue the staff training for that program.
Education plans were drafted in accordance with the accreditation requirements of the programs, modules were prepared for each discipline, relevant textbooks were published, laboratories were supplied with necessary equipment, quality assurance and attestation centers were created. Seminars and trainings were organized for lecturers; project participants were sent to an internship at the European universities. Experts regularly gave their recommendations regarding the accreditation process to be held at ASOIU. Thus, within this project, certain work has been carried out to ensure that both the university and the academic staff meet the modern requirements. New programs prepared according to the specializations to be accredited were taught to the teachers of these specializations, and various trainings were held in this area.
At these meetings, compliance of the qualification of teachers and employees with international standards, students’ ability to express their opinions in English, coherent speaking, knowledge and practical skills, world outlook were tested through an interview. Students’ GPA was also taken into account.
Accreditation of programs enables students to easily pursue their studies in Europe. In addition to education, this will also give students a great opportunity to work at international companies in their qualification. Because their programs will be recognized abroad right away and without any issues.
FIBAA representatives were at ASOIU on October 24-26, 2017 for the primary accreditation of BA programs. Within this period, the delegation consisting of seven members became familiar with the training and training materials, exam performances, exams and final theses, assessment results, sample research papers for each education program, information brochures of education programs, yearly activity reports, students and other documents and carried out a review. They held meetings and discussions with the heads of BA programs cooperating with Georgia State University and the University of Siegen.
Notably, earlier, three programs taught at ASOIU – Process Automation Engineering and Electric Power Engineering in Bachelor’s degree and Energy Management (in the oil industry) in Master’s degree were accredited as being in line with European Standards.
Work is underway at ASOIU in this area, and preparatory activities are being carried out for the accreditation of more programs in the future.
