Committee from the Dominican Republic's Ministry of Higher Education visits the ACSUG

A committee that was created by the Dominican Republic's Ministry for Higher Education, Science and Technology in order to develop a National Quality Assurance System made a visit to the ACSUG in order to gain its support for consultation and implementation of a quality improvement system in that country. This committee is being chaired by Dr. Saturnino de los Santos, Vice-Minister of Certification and Development of Teaching Careers, with other members including Dr. Radhamés Mejía, Ex-Chancellor of the APEC University , Dr. Roberto Reyna, Ex-Chancellor of the Autonomous University of Santo Domingo (UASD), and Dr. Laura Abreu, an educational consultant for the cited Ministry.

During an intensive day of work at the ACSUG, a variety of informational sessions took place regarding the quality management processes developed by the ACSUG at both the national and international levels: verification, monitoring, quality certification, and the quality assurance system. The Ministry of Higher Education is hoping to take advantage of potential synergies offered by working on its processes for quality control and improvement with agencies from other more experienced countries, and to learn from any mistakes that may have been made there in order to avoid repeating them. To explore the potential for such synergies, the ACSUG and this committee jointly coordinated a workshop held at the University of A Coruña, where the hosts were the Chancellor Dr. Julio Abalde and Vice-chancellor Dr. Nancy Vázquez, who explained the shift in perception experienced by that university before and after it received its own accreditation.

Between these two working days the committee was invited for a visit to the offices of the Government of Galicia by its Minister of Culture, Education, and University Organization, Dr. Román Rodríguez, who explained the efforts made by his administration towards improving university quality, as well as the fundamental role that the ACSUG has played in accomplishing that mission.

The most immediate result expected from this visit to Galicia will be the signing of an agreement for institutional collaboration between the Dominican Republic's Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Technology and Galicia's Ministry of Culture, Education and University Organization, as well as a second agreement between the visiting Ministry and the ACSUG to promote close collaboration on the implementation of a national Higher Education Quality system in the Dominican Republic.