You measure what you value: how a Middle Eastern Polytechnic developed a sustainable review and improvement framework

You measure what you value: how a Middle Eastern Polytechnic developed a sustainable review and improvement framework

Bahrain Polytechnic (BP) was established in 2008 to fill a gap in the Kingdom’s labour market for work ready graduates. Around that time newspaper reports highlighted a lack of quality and consistency in some private universities in Bahrain. Bahrain’s Qualifications and Quality Assurance Authority was in development so, in the absence of national guidelines, BP developed its own Quality Assurance Model to gain stakeholder confidence in the quality of its education. This comprised a Quality Management System with policies and procedures, and a self-review loop. The government was quick to redress quality concerns threatening the reputation of Higher Education in the Kingdom and today there are many external auditing agencies, each with their own paradigms and criteria. However, evidence that accountability audits produce quality improvement where it matters most - in the classroom - is lacking. An essential element in this failure is the dissolution of trust. This case-study tells of BP’s journey towards a more efficient and effective Self-Review model that shifts the focus from accountability and control to improvement and sustainability by taking into account Bahrain’s cultural context and the Polytechnic’s unique curricula and building on existing relationships to engender trust and commitment.

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