Özet:

 Over the past two decades the Arab region has witnessed a remarkable development in the area of distance higher education. Arab Open University (AOU), with the main campus in Kuwait and branch campuses in Bahrain, Egypt, Kuwait, Lebanon, Jordan and Saudi Arabia, is distinct from other single mode universities in the Arab region, in terms of adopting broad regional educational goals. AOU has concluded agreements of cooperation and affiliation with the United Kingdom Open University (UKOU).          In the context of growing importance of ODL in the Arab region, Quality Assurance (QA) is fundamental to reinforcing the credibility, attractiveness and competitiveness of the distance higher education system in the Arab region. Each Arab State should establish a mechanism for evaluating the quality of its distance higher education at the systemic, institutional, programme, personnel and outcomes levels. However the research reveals that most of the distance education institutions in Arab region have not developed any scientific and systematic procedures for QA of their academic activities and processes. Having closer ties with distance and open universities worldwide, Arab Open University (AOU) has developed its own quality assurance mechanism with QA units set up at all the branches of the University. AOU quality assessment is conducted by academic assessment and accreditation commissions of the concerned Arab countries and OU Validation Service of UKOU that enjoys complete parity with all the universities in UK and other parts of the world. A considerable progress has been made in embedding a comprehensive quality culture across the University and all the stakeholders are clear as to the importance ‘quality’ has both for the AOU and the future of open or blended learning across the Arab world. AOU is therefore in a good position to offer guidance to other distance education institutions in the Arab Region, endeavoring to establish their own quality assurance frameworks.          After briefly highlighting the present scenario of ODL in the Arab region and the QA mechanisms followed by the ODL institutions in the region, this paper examines in detail the QA policies, procedures and accreditation system at AOU. A number of general lessons have been drawn out for the effective functioning of QA policies and procedures and creation of an effective culture of quality in ODL operations in the Arab world. The study is based on the information collected on main quality assurance parameters of AOU and other ODL institutions in the Arab world.

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