Internal Quality Assurance Assessment Report (İKGDR-2022) 

MiAK Architectural Education Accreditation - Quality Assessment Unit (MiAK-KDB)

The Quality Assessment Unit reports the studies carried out in 2022 by examining the following documents within the scope of Article 3 of the KDB Directive.
a) Minutes of MiAK and MiAK-MAK meetings: 
After the corrections are made, the minutes are transferred to the decision book, signed, and archived as digital and paper copies.

b) Accreditation decisions: 
Accreditation decisions were made at two MiAK-MAK meetings in 2022. At the October 3, 2022, meeting, accreditation decisions were made for two programs "6 years", 3 programs "6 years conditional", 1 program "3 years", and 1 program "2 years with supervision". At the November 18, 2022, meeting the accreditation decision was made for 1 program for "6 years" and for 2 programs for "3 years". A program has appealed its accreditation decision, and the appeal process is being continued by the "Appeals Committee" and the MAK.

c) Evaluation process documents of the two programs: 
Self-assessment reports and annexes, institutional visit, and related documents, Visiting Team preliminary report, and final reports for the programs for which a "6-year" and one "2-year supervised" accreditation decision was made were examined.  In these evaluations, it was seen that there was no process that was contrary to the "MiAK-MAK Processes Document", MiAK-MAK Conditions Document, ethical rules and guidelines used, that would affect the final evaluation and that there was no process other than the defined rules. 

d) Annual activity report: 
The first-period activity report was examined. It includes a period of two years. 1. Introduction, 2. Corporate Information, 3. MiAK 1st Term Studies and Activities, 4. MiAK-MAK 8. Term Studies, 5. MiAK Association and MiAK Economic Enterprise Mail Status, 6. Results The activities carried out in the relevant sections are indicated. It can be monitored publicly on the website (link: http://www.miak.org/?p=sayfalar&sayfaid=115).

1. The compliance of MiAK activities with regulations and guidelines on issues such as institutional structure, sustainability, continuous improvement, participation, standards, reliability, education, transparency and archiving,
1.1. Sustainability:
MiAK and MiAK-MAK activities are managed by the announced calendars and processes. Efforts are being made to support the participants and the coordination office for sustainability. For this purpose, sufficient distribution of duties has been made within the MiAK Board of Directors and MAK.

1.2. Continuous improvement:
MiAK and MiAK-MAK processes and documents are constantly being improved and developed. In this context, the "MiAK-MAK Processes Document" and "MiAK-MAK Conditions Document" were worked to be updated. The MiAK Board of Directors has established two new commissions to further improve processes. "Publication Commission", "International Relations Working Group" was established and started to work like other committees, commissions, and working groups. Work on the English version of the website is about to be completed. An English version will soon be available. Preparations for thematic analysis are ongoing.

1.3. Participation:
It has been determined that new members have been accepted. There is a sufficient level of evaluators. Invitations are made to further increase the number of evaluators and candidate evaluators and observers are encouraged to apply. There is an online application facility on the website to facilitate evaluator applications. It would be appropriate to encourage the participation of student observer candidates in the evaluation processes and to work for their active participation in the visiting teams.

1.4. Standards:
Documentation is about to be completed for MiAK and MiAK-MAK studies to be consistent. It is known by all MiAK and MiAK-MAK components that it is necessary to ensure that the programs continue their self-assessment studies by preserving their originality, especially in the accreditation processes, and that all processes should be maintained consistently. For this reason, it is constantly checked that all studies are carried out within the framework of current MiAK and MiAK legislation to be consistent.   In some applications, it is recommended to carry out studies to bring behaviors that do not comply with the accreditation schedule into compliance with the legislation. 

1.5. Reliability:
For reliability, “ASSOCIATION FOR ACCREDITATION OF ARCHITECTURAL EDUCATION (MIAK) ETHICS CERTIFICATE (2021) was accepted by the decision of the MiAK Board of Directors on 15.02.2021 and this document includes “Conflict of Interest”, “MiAK Code of Ethics”, “MiAK Confidentiality and Ethical Rules Statement”. The MiAK Confidentiality and Code of Ethics Statement was signed by all components involved in the visit and it was determined that a secure process was being tried to be established.

1.6. Education:
"Visiting Team Workshop" and "Program Information Workshop" are held. It was determined that workshops were held in 2022 and within this framework, especially the applicant programs and the program participants who will apply in the future benefited from the education in the workshop. In the Visiting Team Workshops, presentations were made to answer the possible questions of the visiting team members and observers about the processes and conditions, and answers to their questions were created. 

1.7. Transparency:
All studies are carried out on written documents and in a transparent manner, and studies are carried out to complete the missing documents and processes.

1.8. Archiving:
The MiAK Coordination Office meticulously carries out the archiving of digital and paper copies. It has been determined that initiatives for more archival capacity for the development of digital archives are ongoing.

2. Strengths and aspects open to development

2.1. Strengths:
a) MiAK is authorized to carry out accreditation activities between the dates of 01.11.2021 to 17.11.2023.
b) Increasing the awareness of accreditation in architecture departments,
c) Providing a motivation to improve the quality of education in the departments,
d) Availability of a sufficient number of evaluator pools,
e) The high number of applications,
f) Having strong support from the Chamber of Architects is among its strengths.

2.2. Aspects Open to Development:
g) Lack of strategic plan and performance indicators,
h) Failure to receive sufficient feedback from the visiting institutions of the visiting team,
i) Weak processes of increasing student participation, informing students before the visit, strengthening communication between students
j) Lack of thematic analysis are aspect open to development.

3. Improvement studies on the previously identified developmental aspect.

Failure to share the Annual Report with the public: The annual report was shared with the public on the website.
Lack of clear complaint mechanism: The study of complaints about MiAK processes, MiAK members, and accredited programs is on the agenda with the preparation of the " Appeal Committee Directive". 
Failure to share accreditation documents of the programs on the website: As the programs publish their accreditation reports on their websites, links are provided on the MiAK website.
Failure of visiting teams to efficiently receive feedback on the process: The process document is being updated to receive more efficient feedback from the visited institutions for the visiting team.

4. Evaluation and recommendations:

Documents defined in the Quality Unit Directive; a) MiAK and MiAK-MAK meeting minutes; b) Accreditation decisions; c) Documentation of the evaluation process of the two programs; d) The annual activity report has been examined. Except that the Annual Report is biennial instead of annual, there is no contradiction to the written processes. As stated in the Quality Unit Directive: a) Sustainability: b) Continuous improvement; c) Participation; d) Standards; e) Reliability; f) Education; g) Transparency; h) Archiving, in the evaluations made under these headings, strengths and areas open to development have been determined.
Strengths and areas open for improvement are listed under the title of “2nd Strengths and areas open to improvement” in this report.  
As aspects open to improvement: a) Lack of strategic plan and performance indicators, b) Insufficient feedback from the visiting team from the visited institutions, c) Increasing student participation, informing before the visit, strengthening the communication between the students and the weakness of the processes have been evaluated as open aspects for development.
It has been determined that studies have been carried out for improvements, and the works carried out in the “3rd Improvement studies on the previously identified areas open to improvement” section of this report are listed.  
It is recommended to carry out studies on strategic plans, performance indicators, and thematic analysis reports and to conclude them.

MiAK - Quality Assessment Unit  - 30.01.2023

Prof. Dr. Selahattin Önür 
Prof. Dr. Nur Esin 
Prof. Dr. Orhan Hacıhasanoğlu