Criterion 8 – Output and Outcomes
Requirements for AUNQA Criterion 8
8.1 Pass and dropout rates
The pass rate, dropout rate, and average time to graduate are shown to be established, monitored, and benchmarked for improvement.
Diagnostic questions
- Does the programme have an efficient system to monitor the pass rates and dropout rates of students?
- What does the programme think of the pass rates? If not satisfactory, what measures are taken to improve the pass rates?
- What is the dropout rate? Are there explanations for the dropout rate?
- Does the department know where the dropout students go to?
- What does the department think of the average time to graduate?
- What measures have been taken to promote graduation and to shorten the average time to graduate?
- What effects do these measures have?
8.2 Employability
Employability as well as self-employment, entrepreneurship, and advancement to further studies, are shown to be established, monitored, and benchmarked for improvement.
Diagnostic questions
- What percentage of graduates find a job within six months of graduation over the past five years? What percentage of graduates found a job within one year of graduation?
- What percentage of graduates are still unemployed one year after graduation?
- Do the graduates get jobs easily? What are the career prospects of the graduates over the last five years?
8.3 Research and creative work
Research and creative work output and activities carried out by the academic staff and students, are shown to be established, monitored, and benchmarked for improvement.
Diagnostic questions
- What types of research activities are carried out by the students? Are these activities aligned to the expected learning outcomes and the vision and mission of the university and faculty?
- What types of research activities are carried out by academic staff? Are these activities aligned to the vision and mission of the university and faculty?
- What is the level of research grants and how is it utilised?
- What is the number of research papers published? Are the research papers published in national, regional, and/or international journals?
8.4 Outcomes achievement
Data are provided to show directly the achievement of the programme outcomes, which are established and monitored.
Diagnostic questions
- Is the quality of the graduates satisfactory?
- Do the achieved standards match the expected standards?
8.5 Stakeholders’ satisfaction
Satisfaction level of the various stakeholders are shown to be established, monitored, and benchmarked for improvement.
Diagnostic questions
- What mechanisms are available for staff to express their satisfaction or dissatisfaction about the programme, resources, facilities, processes, policies, etc?
- What indicators are used to measure and monitor the satisfaction level of staff?
- What initiatives are carried out to raise the satisfaction level of staff? Are they effective?
- Does the department know what students think about the courses, programme, teaching, examinations, etc?
- How does the department cope with the feedback and complaints from students?
- What is the opinion and feedback of the graduates about the competencies that they have acquired?
- How is feedback from the alumni used to improve the programme?
- Are employers satisfied with the quality of the graduates?
- Are there any specific complaints about the graduates
- Are specific strengths of the graduates appreciated by the employers?
Scoring for TRSU QA
| TRSU QA score | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| Items showing QA practice | 1 item | 2 items | 3 items | 4 items | 5 items |
AUNQA scoring rubrics
A seven-point rating scale used for AUNQA assessment is described below.
1. Absolutely inadequate
The QA practice to fulfil the criterion is not implemented.
There are no plans, documents, evidences or results available.
Immediate improvement must be made.
2. Inadequate and improvement is necessary
The QA practice to fulfil the criterion is still at its planning stage or is inadequate where improvement is necessary.
There is little document or evidence available.
Performance of the QA practice shows little or poor results.
3. Inadequate but minor improvement will make it adequate
The QA practice to fulfil the criterion is defined and implemented but minor improvement is needed to fully meet them. Documents are available but no clear evidence to support that they have been fully used. Performance of the QA practice shows inconsistent or some results.
4. Adequate as expected
The QA practice to fulfil the criterion is adequate and evidences support that it has been fully implemented. Performance of the QA practice shows consistent results as expected.
5. Better than adequate
The QA practice to fulfil the criterion is better than adequate. Evidence supports that it (the QA practice) has been efficiently implemented. Performance of the QA practice shows good results and positive improvement trend.
6. Example of best practice
The QA practice to fulfil the criterion is considered to be example of best practices in the field. Evidences support that it has been effectively implemented.
Performance of QA practice shows very good results and positive improvement trend.
7. Excellent (example of world-class or leading practice)
The QA practice to fulfil the criterion is considered to be excellent or is an example of world-class practices in the field. Evidences support that it has been innovatively implemented.
Performance of the QA practice shows excellent results and outstanding improvement trends.
How to write a response to the criterion requirements
- The response should describe a QA practice that the program do to fulfil the criterion. The QA may be a PDCA (plan-do-check-act) process to ensure the quality, and include documentation, evidence and result of the implementation.
- The response should illustrate clearly what the QA mechanisms or instruments are; when, where, by who, and how they are implemented and managed to fulfil the criteria.
- The response should identify and evaluate problems or issues that are not addressed, and indicate how the problems will be dealt with. The diagnostic questions in each of the criterion requirements may help identify the problems.
- To be concise and factual, the response should focus on information or data (or objective evidence) that directly addresses the criteria, and provide trends and statistics to show achievement and performance.
How the QA practice fulfil the criterion
Quality assurance practice should have QA plan that evaluates and may modify organization’s procedures to ensure that they provide the desired results. It includes documentation for the planning, implementation and assessment procedures for a project, process or any QA activity. To fulfil requirement 1.1 Outcomes formulation, for example, the QA plan should provide information to answer the following questions.
- What procedure does the program use to formulate the expected learning outcomes?
- Is a learning taxonomy used to write the statement of LOs? What taxonomy and how is it used?
- Is the taxonomy used for program or course learning outcomes, or both? Why?
- What are the objectives in terms of the quality of the learning outcomes (e.g. transparency, ease of assessment, the extent of alignment, enabling hierarchy, effectiveness, clarity to the stakeholders)?
- What is the process used to ensure that the quality objectives are met?
- What is a method used to measure the achievement of the quality objectives?
Operational Result
8.1 The pass rate, dropout rate, and average time to graduate are shown to be established, monitored, and benchmarked for improvement.
The number of students in each cohort (enrollment year), percent of students who graduated within certain time limits, and percent of students who dropped out at various stages are as follows:
|
Number of Students who were admitted and enrolled per Academic Year |
|||||||
|
Admission Year |
2017 |
2018 |
2019 |
2020 |
2021 |
2022 |
2023 |
|
2017 |
5 |
5 |
5 |
4 |
4 |
3 |
2 |
|
2018 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
|
2019 |
8 |
5 |
3 |
0 |
0 |
||
|
2020 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|||
|
2021 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|||
|
2022 |
2 |
2 |
|||||
|
2023 |
2 |
||||||
|
Total |
5 |
6 |
14 |
10 |
7 |
5 |
6 |
|
Change |
1 |
8 |
-4 |
-3 |
-2 |
1 |
|
The expected time to completion of the MBA program is 2 years.
The standard procedure that the Department follows upon a student’s resignation is to discuss the resignation at the program committee meeting in order to assess the potential cause of the resignation. In such instance, the program committee will convene on the matter and attempt to find the most viable solution and state the conclusion regarding the cause of the absence / suspension / resignation for the records in the meeting minutes (where possible) and include remarks on how such situation can be avoided or remedied in the future.
8.2 Employability as well as self-employment, entrepreneurship, and advancement to further studies, are shown to be established, monitored, and benchmarked for improvement.
The program has a system and mechanism of student employability to monitor and further develop the system based on the outcomes. We send emails to our graduate with links to Google Form-based surveys regarding their current employment to receive the updated information from them. We will endeavor to use a more systematic approach to monitor the alumni’s career progress in the future. Examples of such endeavors will include but not be limited to:
1) creating a more comprehensive data collection form
2) identifying socially active alumni to function as the focal point for information regarding other alumni in their social and professional networks, and
3) making periodic requests for copies of the alumni’s resumes.
We will then analyze the obtained information. Potential uses of the analyses outputs include 1) identification of opportunities for new and on-going collaborations,
2) introduction to new students to the Program, 3) identification of opportunities for institutional capacity building and expansion of collaborative network, and 4) organization of symposium and other academic activities.
8.3 Research and creative work output and activities carried out by the academic staff and students, are shown to be established, monitored, and benchmarked for improvement.
The program has a research and innovation plan and a meeting to follow up the research and innovation work of instructors before the start of the academic year to know the research needs and innovations of the faculty . Program instructors are encouraged to conduct cross sectional research and explore external research funds from various sources. The research progress is monitored periodically in order to know the results before the end of the academic year and send the results to the research department of the university.
As for students, the thesis course is designed to conduct research in the real world business problems. The students become graduate only after presentation of final thesis in front of internal and external committee members as well as journal publication of the part of the thesis. The instructors in seminar course and business research course support students to pass through the different stages of research work. The students are required to submit research proposal during seminar course for evaluation.
8.4 Data are provided to show directly the achievement of the programme outcomes, which are established and monitored.
We have established the program learning outcomes (PLOs) as mentioned earlier, and we have identified the courses in which the students are required to pass in order to achieve these outcomes. The coursework of the Program essentially required the students to have achieved the PLOs at the basic level as an individual and collectively. We have also created a rubric for assessment of MBA students’ achievement as part of their thesis / dissertation defense scoring process. During thesis defense, our grading rubric also include all PLOs in the student’s program in order to double-check PLOs achievement at the individual level during the final culmination of their studies. We have also regularly survey our students and alumni with regard to PLOs achievements, and we use the findings to identify areas for improvement at the program level during program committee meetings.
8.5 Satisfaction level of the various stakeholders are shown to be established, monitored, and benchmarked for improvement.
The Master of Business Administration has a number of routine satisfaction assessments for staff, students, alumni, and employers of alumni. The results of the satisfaction assessment surveys are reported to the curriculum committee during the meetings.
Staff:
A satisfaction survey is sent to all staff by e-mail once in a year, and include satisfaction with the workplace, resources, job description, salary and fringe benefit, relationship among staff, working environment, and overall system.
Students:
Students’ feedback towards the coursework are gathered at the end of the semester through MIS system. Students grade the satisfaction towards the subject and instructor using that survey. The program is planning to initiate end of course feedback to ask the students to identify strong points, weak points, and give comments. Faculty members then will prepare written responses to the students’ feedback and comments at program committee meetings.
Alumni:
Satisfaction surveys were sent to graduating students after their thesis examination. The survey includes items related to curriculum management, role of instructors in organizing pedagogical activities, and thesis advisor.
Alumni’s employers:
The program has a plan to send satisfaction surveys sent to supervisors of MBA alumni at one year after graduation to assess satisfaction of the alumni’s employers. The survey will include assessment of whether the alumni had the desired skills according to the stakeholders’ expectation and PLOs. The program will start sending this survey from next academic year (2024).
Evidence
| ID_Evidence | Name_Evidence |
| 8.2-1 | Graduate employment survey |
| 8.3-1 | Graduate publication (Miss Wipawan) |
| 8.3-2 | Research and academic work by faculty members |
| 8.4-1 | PLO achievement survey- Graduate |
| 8.5-1 | Staff satisfaction survey |
| 8.5-2 | Student satisfaction survey |
| 8.5-3 | Graduate satisfaction survey |
Self-Assessment
| Requirements | Result | Score |
| 8.1 The pass rate, dropout rate, and average time to graduate are shown to be established, monitored, and benchmarked for improvement. | / | 1 |
| 8.2 Employability as well as self-employment, entrepreneurship, and advancement to further studies, are shown to be established, monitored, and benchmarked for improvement. | / | 1 |
| 8.3 Research and creative work output and activities carried out by the academic staff and students, are shown to be established, monitored, and benchmarked for improvement. | / | 1 |
| 8.4 Data are provided to show directly the achievement of the programme outcomes, which are established and monitored. | / | 1 |
| 8.5 Satisfaction level of the various stakeholders are shown to be established, monitored, and benchmarked for improvement. | / | 1 |
| Overall | 5 | |