Institutional self-assessment in public health education

Health professions education should aim to produce graduates who are competent, capable of performing effectively within their workplace and health system, and able to continue learning and adapting throughout their careers to evolving health needs, policies and technologies. To achieve this, a deliberate effort is needed to assure the quality of education through regular assessments and improvements of its structure, processes and outcomes against agreed quality standards or criteria.

Two key elements of any Quality Assurance (QA) system are: (1) The development of well-articulated standards, or criteria, by which the quality of education is defined in terms of its structure, processes and outcomes; and (2) The periodic assessment of a faculty or academic programme against the agreed standards or criteria. Assessment can be done in a number of ways, such as through continuous monitoring, periodic self-assessment, external evaluation or peer review.

The three main objectives of institutional self-assessment are:

·          To undertake a self-critical examination of the institution’s/programme’s performance in education, research and community service

·          To launch or strengthen an internal quality improvement process by encouraging teamwork, transparency and innovation

·          To provide a basis for external quality assurance mechanisms, such as accreditation and/or peer review

Self-assessment is the first step towards a quality improvement process, which is an internally driven practice of bringing stakeholders together; reviewing quality standards or criteria and adapting them if needed and possible; assessing progress in achieving standards as well as mission-based goals and objectives; and developing strategies and actions to improve together.

This session will summarize the guidelines and tools being developed by WHO, in collaboration with WFPHA, and describe the process under way to validate them in public health schools.