THE ACCREDITATION PROCESS AT THE SCHOOL OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES, MUĞLA SITKI KOÇMAN UNIVERSITY IN TURKEY
Eda ÜSTÜNEL* (Muğla, Turkey)
It will be argued throughout this paper that “the current ‘English deficit’ (Koru and Akesson 2011) in Turkish universities is prevalent in virtually all aspects of university activity and that it seriously undermines the quality of the universities, their ability to compete globally, and the ability to contribute to the economic development of the country” (British Council 2015, p. 41). Due to this ‘English deficit’ in Turkish universities, both the quantity and quality of research produced in Turkish universities are likely to be undermined. In addition to that, the ability of Turkish academics to access the research in their fields to support the quality of their teaching and their own research publications is also undermined.
Research
Research is both the key indicator of the quality of universities and a key factor in national economic development. The latest Scimago research review places Turkey 20th in the World rankings (www.scimagojr.com/countryrank.php). While these figures are impressive, neither review shows the spread of the research across the universities in Turkey. Moreover, the extent to which academic research is accessible to faculty members and students in Turkish universities is a further question to be addressed. The overwhelming majority of all academic research is published in English. Barnett et al. (2012) suggest that 85 per cent of all the journals indexed in Scopus are published in English.
The Bologna Process
The second main cause of university globalisation has been the Bologna process, which was originally signed by 29 countries in 1999 and which now has 49 signatories. Turkey signed up in 2001, along with Croatia, Cyprus and Liechtenstein (Yağcı 2010, Füruzan 2012, Yakışık 2012). The main aims of Bologna are European harmonisation of higher education across five main areas:
- “degree structure (the three-tier bachelor, masters, doctorate system)
- recognition of degrees and study periods
- joint degrees
- social dimension – access to higher education, gender issues, lifelong learning, etc.
- quality assurance” (British Council 2015, p. 43).
Turkey has generally performed well in the first three areas of the Bologna process, but has made little progress with lifelong learning (Westerheijden et al. 2010, Yağcı 2010). All of the universities, which completed institutional profiles during the fieldwork for this Project, stated that they were Bologna-compliant, although two said that compliance was “in progress”. More than half singled out the European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System (ECTS) as evidence of their compliance, “although this has not replaced the older credit system and work still needs to be done to measure credits in terms of student workload and learning outcomes” (Füruzan 2012, p. 108; Yağcı 2010, pp. 591-592). Nearly all universities were positive about the Bologna process, mentioning the advantages of course documentation, learning outcomes, student participation in evaluation, international collaboration and mobility.
Quality Assurance (QA)
The second area of the Bologna process, which has been problematic in Turkey (and which has impacts on English language teaching) is quality assurance. In the absence of a full national system, universities have either developed their own internal QA systems or have joined external/international systems. International systems are more widespread, with schemes from the UK (Pearson Assured and BALEAP), the Council of Europe (EAQUALS) and the USA (CEA). The four accreditation schemes mentioned here – Pearson Assured, EAQUALS, CEA and BALEAP – have different aims and methods: “Pearson Assured is available for any educational programme whereas the other three are specific to English language teaching; all schemes involve inspection but not all require classroom observation; all schemes require fees but the fees differ widely” (British Council 2015, p. 45). The steps taken in the accreditation process suggest commendable initiative, considerable work and documentation, the meeting of international standards, and a high level of transparency.
References
Barnett, P. and C. Lascar. 2012. Comparing unique title coverage of Web of Science and Scopus in Earth and Atmospheric Sciences’ [http://www.istl.org/12-summer.
refereed3.html]
British Council. 2015. The State of English in Higher Education in Turkey. Ankara: TEPAV.
Füruzan, V. 2012. ‘Adaptation to the Bologna Process: The Case of Turkey’’. Excellence in Higher Education, 2, pp. 101-110.
Koru, S. and J. Akesson. 2011. Turkey’s English Deficit. Ankara: TEPAV.
Yağcı, Y. 2010. ‘A different view of the Bologna Process: the case of Turkey’. European Journal of Education, 45/4, pp. 588-600
Yakışık, H. 2012. Can the Bologna Process Improve Turkish Education System? (accessed 13/04/2015)
Westerheijden, D, E. Beerkens, L. Cremonini, B. Kehm, A. Kovac, P. Lažetič, A. McCoshan, N. Mozuraityté, M. Souto Otero, E de Weert, J. Witte and Y. Yağcı. 2010. The Bologna Process Independent Assessment: The First Decade of Working on the European Higher Education Area, Volume 2 – Case Studies and Appendices, Chapter 6 Turkey, Kassel: Center for Higher Education Policy Studies, pp. 93-10.
*Assoc. Prof. Dr., Muğla Sıtkı Koçman University, Faculty of Education, Department of English Language Teacher Education, Director of the School of Foreign Languages
