Dr Stephen Jackson and Ms Jane Holt, Director and Deputy Director respectively of the Reviews Group of the Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) for Higher Education, UK, visited Macao Polytechnic Institute (MPI) on 16 April 2014, presenting the institutional review report to MPI and expressing their congratulations over the successful Institutional Review (IR) that MPI has recently undertaken. During the visit, Dr Jackson noted MPI’s systematic way of developing its quality assurance systems and practices and the constructive arrangements made during the review visit, which enabled the review group to gain a better understanding of the Institute.

The delegation was warmly received by Professor Lei Heong Iok, President of MPI. During their meeting, Professor Lei expressed his appreciation of QAA’s comments and suggestions, helping MPI to further enhance its management of academic standards and quality adhering to international standards and providing better learning experiences for its students.

QAA’s Institutional Review on MPI was conducted last year while the result was announced internationally on QAA’s website in February this year. This is the first internationally recognised institutional review ever undertaken by a higher education institution in Macao. In conjunction with QAA’s IRENI approach, the same judgement results were reported for some of the UK’s best universities such as the University of Oxford and Queen Mary University of London. QAA adopts international standards in its Institutional Review and looks at multiple aspects of an institution in order to make fair judgements. Apart from document review which covered the self-evaluation documents and some 200 relevant pieces of evidence, a one-week site visit was also conducted in order for the review team to meet with MPI’s students, graduates, management, faculty, administrative staff and employers. In MPI the review team examined a number of different things such as the Institute’s educational aims, vision and objectives; specialities and self-enhancement endeavours; programme design and delivery; students’ learning and student support; and career opportunities. The review reports confidence in MPI’s academic standards, students’ learning opportunities, information provided about its education provision, and enhancement of learning opportunities, thus demonstrating that MPI meets international standards.

Dr Stephen Jackson (left 5th) and Ms Jane Holt (left 4th) together with MPI’s Board of Management and Quality Assurance Task Force

Dr Stephen Jackson (left) presents the Institutional Review report to MPI