The 2018 APQN Annual Conference (AAC) and Annual General Meeting (AGM) were held in Nagpur, India on March 23-25, 2018. This year theme is Capacity Building for Next General Quality Assurance of Higher Education. The event invited prominent scholar Keynote Speaker Dr. Sid Nair, Executive Director of Tertiary Education Commission (TEC) from Mauritius, and other plenary and workshop speakers from Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Philippines, Russia, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand, United Kingdom and many more. A total of more than 105 international and local guests participated in this rewarding event as experts share the insights in staff capacity building in different aspects of higher education as well as other quality assurance related issues.

The Awarding Ceremony of 2018 APQN Quality Award took place during the Gala Dinner on the first day of the event. The winners of the four award categories are as follows:

Award Category 1: APQN Award of International Cooperation in QA:
1. National Institution for Academic Degrees and Quality Enhancement of Higher Education (NIAD-QE), Japan
2. Higher Education Evaluation Center of the Ministry of Education (HEEC), China
3. Korean Council for University Education (KCUE), Korea
4. National Centre for Public Accreditation (NCPA)

Award Category 2: APQN Award of Staff Capacity Building:
5. Higher Education Evaluation and Accreditation Council of Taiwan (HEEACT)

Award Category 3: Successful Hosting APQN Annual Conference:
6. Shri Shivaji Education Society Amravati’s Science College
7. Dhanwate National College

Acceptance to APQR:
8. Certification Association “Russian Register” (RR)
9. National Centre for Public Accreditation (NCPA)

 
HEEACT on Staff Capacity Building

For the past decade, Higher Education Evaluation and Accreditation Council of Taiwan (HEEACT) has dedicated immeasurable amount of effort into cultivating its staff and ensuring everyone received the courses that are constructive to his/her daily responsibilities as well as expanding boundaries, on top of the fundamental and advance knowledge on the operation and mission of the organization. By establishing close and recurrent working relationships with HEEACT’s top management and working staff, human resources are able to directly remedy the team’s weakness and convert it to strength.

Currently, HEEACT has a total of 48 staff members: 2 research fellows, 7 specialized administrators/coordinators, 14 QA officers, and 25 research project coordinators (excluding top management of Board of Directors, Executive Director, Dean of Office, and adjunct research fellows). Out of all the staff members, 40 have Master’s and Doctoral degrees and 16 have a degree in Education. By offering basic and professional courses aligned to the current statuses of government policies, technological and higher education global trends, as well as stating an incentive system, HEEACT is trying to strike a balance between being academically driven, culturally inspired and practical, and will continuously expand its courses with current issues and trends that promote both career and personal growth.