Soochow Completes Self-Organized Quality Evaluation by External Reviewers

A five-day school-wide evaluation conducted by Soochow itself from March 23^rd to 27^th, 2020, concluded successfully for 19 departments and units across the University. Graded and commented by experts in education from outside SCU, the evaluation reports are to be submitted to the Higher Education Evaluation and Accreditation Council of Taiwan (HHEACT) in September for further review, and Soochow will receive final results by December.

The Ministry of Education (MOE) announced in April 2017 the suspension of its evaluation on colleges and departments, and from then on it would be up to each school to decide whether and how to conduct their own evaluations. To guarantee the quality of teaching, SCU President Wei-Ta Pan decided to adopt the self-organized quality evaluation and submitted the application to the HHEACT in March 2018.

Under the “Measures for Self-Organized Quality Evaluation by External Reviewers,” Soochow set up quite a few task forces and committees for the departments, degree programs and general education courses to conduct, promote and supervise the quality assurance of the evaluation. The University also held multiple training sessions and workshops to assist the planning process and to make sure the evaluations would proceed well for each unit.

This self-organized quality evaluation focuses on three major aspects: "development, management, and improvement of the department", "teachers and their teaching" and "students and their learning" with a total of 19 units (50 programs or courses) involved.  After the implementation plan was reviewed and approved by the Promotion Committee and the Steering Committee, it was sent to the HHEACT in March 2019 and approved on June 26^th, 2019.

It is the University’s hope that by regularly conducting the evaluation on its departments, degree programs and general education courses, the quality of teaching and the effectiveness of students' learning in Soochow can be improved and perfected.