Director for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, QAA

Alastair joined QAA in January 2020 as Director for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. He is also the lead for QAA’s European engagement. Alastair is an ENQA Agency Reviewer and on the ENQA Reviews Committee, which quality assures agency review reports.

Before joining QAA, Alastair was Director of Quality Assurance at Healthcare Improvement Scotland, where he was responsible for all quality assurance work in the NHS and the regulation of independent healthcare. Previous to this, he was the Chief Operating Officer and Director of Inspection for Education Scotland, with responsibilities including running all aspects of the organisation and being responsible for the independence, quality, delivery and future direction of all Education Scotland’s scrutiny work from nurseries to further education.

Alastair joined HM Inspectorate of Education as an HM Inspector in 2000 after having worked in community learning and development (adult learning, youth work and building the capacity of communities to tackle issues for themselves) in both the local authority and voluntary sectors.

Director of Membership, Quality Enhancement & Standards, QAA

Ailsa is Director of Membership, Quality Enhancement & Standards at QAA. This includes responsibility for key sector reference points such as the UK Quality Code, qualifications frameworks and Subject Benchmark Statements. Ailsa’s role also involves creating and promoting a quality enhancement offer for QAA Members, particularly those based in England. She led QAA’s support for the sector through preparation of COVID-19 guidance, advice and associated resources.

Until 2020, Ailsa was Head of Quality & Enhancement at QAA Scotland, which involved overseeing the review and enhancement activities designed and delivered in close association with the Scottish university sector and its students. During her career at QAA, she has managed review and audit work in a number of nations and using a variety of review methodologies at institutional and subject level.

Ailsa also has links outside the UK including with the Academic Quality Agency for New Zealand Universities, the European Quality Audit Network, Quality and Qualifications Ireland (QQI) and the University of Limerick.

Director of Collaborative Academic Partnership, Staffordshire University

Diane has over 25 years of experience working in the higher education sector across three different universities and is currently the Director of Collaborative Academic Partnerships at Staffordshire University. This role includes strategic responsibility for the development and management of the university’s academic partnerships in both the UK and Internationally. 

Diane has overall responsibility to ensure that all University partnerships comply fully with UK quality expectations and the academic standards and the students experience in partnership organisations are maintained at the same level as for the University. Currently the University has over 30 partnerships with around 8,000 students studying in partnership arrangements. Diane’s experience of partnership work spans the many countries including UK, Bahrain, Bulgaria, China, Georgia, Greece, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Myanmar, Oman, Philippines, USA, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Vietnam and Zimbabwe.

Diane’s area of expertise is around the due diligence of partnerships. She is often requested to participate on partnership approvals/reviews for other UK universities as an external consultant and has been a British Accreditation Council (BAC) Inspector for four years. Diane is an Executive Member of the Council for Validating Universities where she is active in organising conferences and workshops for their members to provide advice and guidance on best practice across the sector.

Vice-President Education, Students’ Association, Heriot-Watt University

Alexander recently completed his term as Vice-President Education for Heriot-Watt University Students' Union and is in his second term as the Enhancement Themes Student Lead, SHEEC member and member of QAA Scotland’s Strategic Advisory Committee.

Alexander has been involved in the student movement and academic representation for five years, both locally and nationally, and has a keen interest in the pedagogic benefits of blended learning, alternative assessments and supporting diverse learning communities. He is excited to see the paradigm shift in learning and teaching that allows students from all backgrounds to engage in quality assurance processes in new and innovative ways.

Director, The national Accreditation Agency for Higher Education (BAN-PT), Indonesia

Professor Basaruddin is Director of the Executive Board of the National Accreditation Agency for Higher Education - Indonesia (BAN-PT). He is also a Professor of Computer Science at the University of Indonesia and the President of The Association of Quality Assurance Agencies in the Islamic World (IQA).

He was the Dean of the Faculty of Computer Science at the University of Indonesia (2004-13), Secretary of the Board of Higher Education (2003-05), the Chair of the Development Council of the Board of Higher Education (2015-17), and the President of the ASEAN Quality Assurance Networks (AQAN) (2017-20).

In addition, Professor Basaruddin is an expert in higher education development. He served as an international consultant in the areas of higher education management, higher education funding and financing, as well as quality assurance in higher education. As a consultant, he has worked in various countries such as Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Jordan and Mongolia. In recognition of his past experiences and contributions, he was awarded an honorary doctoral degree in Higher Education Quality and Management by the Management Science University of Malaysia in 2019.

President, National Authority for Quality Assurance and Accreditation of Education, Egypt

Professor Eid has been President of the National Authority for Quality Assurance and Accreditation of Education (NAQAAE), Egypt since 2014. During this time, NAQAAE has become one of the renowned agencies in the region, and a member of several international networks. She led her team in national and international projects, focusing on enhancing quality assurance and joint accreditation, leading to the recognition by the World Federation of Medical Education in 2019. She has led many national projects such as the Egyptian NQF and participated in several international projects such as the TVET II reform (EU-Egypt), HAQAA I&II initiatives (EU-AU), ACQF and UNESCO-Shenzhen.

Originally a professor of Planning at the Faculty of Engineering at Ain Shams University, Professor Eid then held the positions of Head of the Department (2007-09) and Vice-Dean (2009-11). She is an executive board member of the Association of Arab Universities Council for Quality Assurance and Accreditation, the Association of the Quality Assurance Agencies of the Islamic World, the Arab Network for Quality Assurance Agencies for Higher Education, and the National Training Academy in Egypt.

Deputy Executive Director (Academic), Hong Kong Council for Accreditation of Academic and Vocational Qualifications

Dr Hong has over 30 years of academic and administrative experience in higher education. He is currently the Deputy Executive Director (Academic) for the Hong Kong Council for Accreditation of Academic and Vocational Qualifications (HKCAAVQ). His early career focused on academic planning, development, management, ICT in education, and teaching in several UGC-funded institutions in Hong Kong. This experience has allowed him to bring insight and changes to the planning, delivery and quality assurance of self-financed local and transnational education programmes in Hong Kong.

Dr Hong is often invited by government agencies, international quality assurance bodies, local self-financed institutions, and overseas universities to share his expertise on quality assurance and enhancement in higher education.

He is currently leading the digital transformation journey of HKCAAVQ for accreditation and assessment services, which entails robotic process automation, blockchain-enabled digital credentials and a collaborative accreditation management system with course providers.

Commissioner, Commission of Academic Accreditation (CAA), Ministry of Education, United Arab Emirates

Professor Rowland-Jones is a Commissioner at the Commission for Academic Accreditation (CAA) at the Ministry of Education in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The CAA is the UAE Federal Government Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education and works collaboratively with relevant authorities in the Emirates and internationally. The CAA has a key leadership role in securing and developing the quality of higher education in the UAE and undertakes licensure of HEIs in the UAE and accreditation of their award-bearing academic programmes.

In 2019, Professor Rowland-Jones chaired the revision of the UAE National Standards for Licensure and Accreditation, which included the introduction of the ‘risk-based approach’ to institutional licensure. In 2020, he led the development and implementation of memoranda with QAA, AACSB and HKCAAVQ to support professional relationships within a collaborative framework.

Professor Rowland-Jones has over 20 years’ experience of higher education quality assurance, accreditation and validation in Europe, Asia and the Middle East. He is the former Head of School of Operations and Information Management at the University of the West of England and Head of Wrexham Business School at Glyndŵr University.

Professor Rowland-Jones is a certified EFQM assessor. He is a specialist reviewer for the Hong Kong Council for Accreditation of Academic and Vocational Qualifications, and the Oman Academic Accreditation Agency. He is also the former Chief Examiner for the Chartered Quality Institute in the UK where he developed national and international education qualification frameworks for the Institute.