From Internal Evaluation toward Quality Assurance in Distance Higher Education of Iran

Iranian higher education (HE) includes two headquarters named Ministry of Science, Research and Technology and Ministry of Health and Medical education; it also contains about 1500 universities and HE institutions. There are presence and distance courses in HE. But because of the existing variety and flexible courses in distance education it attracts considerable notice to itself. This kind of education is mainly fulfilled through Payam-e-nour University (PU). Therefore, expansion of this education necessitates an evaluation of its quality and assurance system. PU with having 45 involved departments4 is considered among universities providing distance education. Results of doing internal evaluation (IE) in departments of this university indicate the requirement of university attention to its input, process and output quality. Considering the diffuseness in educational region and centre of this university, existence of inequality in educational, studious and professional service exposure is unavoidable; however these cases with the mechanism of evaluation and accreditation could be recognized, and through their recognition or reduction, quality improvement would be possible. Hence, after reviewing of Iranian HE, with emphasizing on internal evaluation, achievements of one decade quality management in HE in general and in distance education in particular will be discussed.