Job Discussion Forums

grab-bag · Joined: 07 Dec 2006 Posts: 104

I've worked at a university that underwent CEA accreditation. My place was successful. Another place I worked at was not because they messed around too much. They're going to try the process again. Like the man said, CEA does not tell an institution to fire existing staff. Their job is to advise the institution to ensure that teachers' and lecturers' qualifications meet with their standards for accreditation.

It's a fact that some countries have different names for their degrees but they boil down to the same type of qualifications. We have teachers here who have degrees in English Language, English Language Teaching, English Language and Literature, TEFL, TESL, TESOL, Linguistics, Education, Language and Linguistics, Translation and Linguistics, Translation and Language, and English Language Education. Their qualifications and degrees meet CEA standards because they took degree courses which qualified them to teach English as a language or as a foreign language or they specialized in related fields such as language, linguistics or all of them. Our teachers come from over 14 different countries. They are more than qualified - of course our PhD holders are overqualified but there aren't too many language teaching jobs for PhDs out there. Its wrong to accuse CEA of telling an institution to get rid of teachers. That is not what they do. The job of CEA is just to recommend that teachers meet the CEA faculty standards for qualifications. CEA did not tell my previous institution to fire any of the teachers and we never did. It's too bad that a certain university in Qatar uses this excuse to get rid of teachers.

CEA website www.cea-accredit.org

redsoxman · Joined: 30 Apr 2007 Posts: 51

Very true. My place in the US was accredited a few years ago. Nobody was fired. We all met the standards. We worked very hard to meet the standards and it meant a lot of self analysis. It was discouraging at times to go through the process but we all learned a lot. CEA wants to help places meet standards, they are definitely not into firing teachers. My advice is just to work with them. They are very helpful people and know what they are doing. I'm now working in the UAE and have heard of only one place here that is accredited. I may be joining them.

eha · Joined: 26 May 2005 Posts: 355 Location: ME

'They are very helpful people and know what they are doing'

But maybe a bit naive as to the uses to which some institutions can put their 'accreditation'.

stickleback · Joined: 01 Jul 2008 Posts: 76

After QU spending almost 5 years and loads of money on getting accreditation, it's apparently all for nothing. With the huge new program change, the new courses will not be accredited. They would have to go through the whole process all over again as there will be many changes.
When some of the changeover committee members asked about CEA and accreditation, they were curtly told that it didn't matter and was no longer relevant! So after wining and dining the CEA ladies for years and winning accreditation last year, it is no longer relevant? This is what happens when places jump on bandwagons without planning ahead.

stickleback · Joined: 01 Jul 2008 Posts: 76

One important thing. The foundation uses a program called Accuplacer to place students in the 'accurate' level. This is a placement test, it was not designed as an assessment tool.

Apparently the new thing in QU foundation is to use the scores of this placement test as part of the students overall grades (10%). This is a very strange decision. Why are the results of a placement test being used as part of evaluation? How can this be justified to students?

They say the results were pretty bad so they had to fix them. How professional is that? Apparently this policy was forced on the testing team, they had no say.

Has anybody ever heard of such a thing? Has this been done elsewhere? I have never heard of this. Would CEA approve of this?

http://www.collegeboard.com/student/testing/accuplacer/accuplacer-tests.html

https://www.accuplacer.org/cat/

battleshipb_b · Joined: 14 Dec 2006 Posts: 189

Accreditation is a long hard process and not to be knocked.

It's being started in the magic kingdom and there's a lot of potential as other places are interested. From what I heard QU did a good job so it would be a shame if all these changes affects their status.

http://enews.ksu.edu.sa/2011/06/15/cea-visit/

mesquite · Joined: 04 Jan 2009 Posts: 80

There are three places in Qatar with accreditation:
QU
CNAQ
Academic Bridge (where I used to work).

It involves a lot of tough self-evaluation but worth it in the end.