Sayed Ahmad Javid Mussawy spent the summer working to develop quality enhancement and accreditation procedures with the Ministry of Higher Education in Afghanistan. He describes his experience below:

Summer 2016 was a fun and productive experience. I call it fun because I had the privilege of spending all summer with my lovely family and friends. Meanwhile, it was also a learning experience—I was able to work as a short-term technical assistant with the University Support & Workforce Development Program (USWDP) funded by USAID. Among the many activities I was involved in during my three-month assignment, I most enjoyed working in two areas: Quality Enhancement and Accreditation (QEA) and Curriculum Development & Employability Skills.

In regards to QEA, I worked closely with the USWDP department of academic leadership and planning to design a peer review manual that will be used to train peer reviewers who will assess universities as part of a pre-accreditation process under the Ministry of Higher Education.

At the same time, I conducted a mini qualitative study exploring individuals’ experiences with QEA.  I used semi-structured interviews with institutional QEA committee members. Given the time limit, I targeted the four central public universities, which function as “mother universities” providing support to newer higher education institutions. My preliminary findings suggest that the QEA process has had some positive effects on faculty and staff performance.

Along with two other local technical assistants, I worked to developed two manuals—Curriculum Development & Revision and Embedding Employability Skills in the Curriculum. This was an interesting process because I gained experience in working in a collaborative team and in developing educational manuals.

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Javid is a 2^nd semester doctoral student at CIE, focusing on leadership and management as well as policy development and implementation issues in higher education in developing countries. He completed his Master’s degree at CIE in 2009 and has held various academic and senior administrative positions in Afghanistan.