Date: 17-18 October, 2018
Venue: National Academy for Educational Research-Taipei Branch (International Hall), Taiwan
Hosted by: Higher Education Evaluation and Accreditation Council of Taiwan (HEEACT)

2018 HEEACT International Conference : a great success!

Higher Education Evaluation & Accreditation Council of Taiwan (HEEACT), in conjunction with the Ministry of Education, proudly hosted the HEEACT International Conference 2018 on October 17^th and 18^th in Azaleas city, Taipei, Taiwan. The theme of this year was “Quality Assurance 4.0 in Higher Education: Innovation and Transformation”. It was an honor to have all 18 renowned speakers, in which 9 were experts and professionals in charge of different quality assurance agencies in various countries. The main deliberation focused on the new role and trends of quality assurance in a changing higher education landscape. This conference not only provided all participants with an opportunity to share QA experiences and knowledge as well as explore new higher education development.

During the two days, many speakers echoed the overall theme that quality assurance should be more comprehensive at both national and institutional levels to assure that the best processes and practices are implemented by the education providers for quality education. A total of seven sessions explored the new and future roles and trends of QA systems, national and global perspectives of accreditation and qualification, formal and non-formal education contexts, and new policy formation in Taiwan.

Especially thanks to Dr. Susanna Karakhanyan, the president of the International Network for Quality Assurance Agencies in Higher Education (INQAAHE), and Prof. Dr. Bjorn Stensaker, Director of the Centre for Learning, Innovation, and Academic Development (LINK) and Professor at the University of Oslo, served as the conference’s keynote speakers. Both of them shared insights into the latest QA trends from different perspectives (QA agency and Institution). Moreover, they were joined by esteemed guests and colleagues from Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, New Zealand, Australia, the Netherlands, Japan, and across Taiwan in sharing quality assurance knowledge and experiences in the exploration of higher education development.

Besides the sessions, Executive Director of HEEACT, Prof. Dr. Angela Yung-Chi Hou, warmly signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Ms. Pauline Tang, CEO of THE-ICE to increase mutually beneficial cooperation between the two parties in working towards enhancing external quality assurance in both jurisdictions and improving higher education through mutual understanding, information exchange and transparency, recognition, collaboration, and use of each other’s expertise.

Last but not least, HEEACT gladly thanks all speakers and guests who attended for making the 2018 conference a great success and is already looking forward to next year’s event!