Achievements

Internal System for Quality Management at the Faculty

The Faculty of Arts established an internal system for quality management for the purpose of improving the Faculty’s teaching, research and community services in accordance with standard local and national benchmarks. This system assists in following up performance, detecting obstacles, determining fields and proposals of development, and re-prioritizing them in accordance with current and future needs, and then monitors the carrying out of policies and suggestions of development.

Stages of Establishing the Internal System for Quality Management at the Faculty:

Stage One:

Preparing the general structure for planning the internal system of the Faculty’s quality management;

Stage Two:

Specifying the status quo condition of the quality internal system at the faculty;

Stage Three:

Setting development plans of the elements of the internal system of the quality

• Elements of the quality management internal system;
• Management, training and enhancement;
• Faculty mission and strategic targets;
• Academic standards and educational programs;
• Quality-based educational opportunities;
• Postgraduate studies, researches and academic activities;
• Community participation;
• Awareness, publicity and publications;
• Documentation, information systems and internal revision;
• Receiving and handling complaints and suggestions and implementing solutions.

A Self-Study of the Faculty’s Potential for Quality and Accreditation

Stage One: Preparing the general structure of planning and executing the self-study necessary for evaluating and developing the faculty’s performance;

Stage Two: Describing, documenting, diagnosing the status quo and determining points of weakness and strength of the main activities under study;

Stage Three: Determining the areas and suggestions of development and the mechanisms of carrying out these suggestions in relation to the main activities under study;

Stage Four: Setting performance assessment indications in each of the activities under study;

Development through Participation

The faculty adopts a plan of development through participation, including the following:

• Developing the potentialities of faculty members;
• Exams assessment system;

Development of the Faculty Exam System 

• A unit of exams assessment has been established in virtue of the decree of the Faculty Council no. 183 dated on 12/4/2010 for the purpose of improving the quality of education and learning through the development of assessment systems and exams at the faculty to achieve the targeted educational outputs of the academic programs, in conformity with the academic standards as one of the requirements of quality and accreditation.

Targets of the Exam Assessment Unit

• Cooperation with the academic departments to form the standards and aspects of the students’ evaluation in the various academic programs and providing the necessary piloting studies;
• Adopting advanced mechanisms for the management of the assessment systems in the academic programs to ensure accuracy and transparency and to adjust the educational process from start to end;
• Forming question banks in different specializations in light of the stated targets and standards for each specialization and adding them to the faculty database;
• Setting a students’ database, including all related information and exam results, and making it available at exams sessions to facilitate quick and accurate decision making.

Surveying the Students’ Feedback Regarding the Educational Process

• Designing questionnaires for this purpose
• Data analysis
• Implementing outcomes
• At the end of each semester, the academic departments receive the questionnaires’ feedback on lectures, tests, exams, books, references, students’ welfare, potentials, facilities, and management.

Implementation of Educational Technology

An ongoing process is carried out to provide several offices and classes with data show and overhead projectors to improve the teaching methods and to transfer some curricula into e-learning.

Faculty Website and Quality Unit Website

A new website has been launched for the faculty and the unit, including a brief introduction of the faculty, academic departments, faculty members’ curriculum vitae and research, academic programs, postgraduate studies, conferences, seminars, faculty bulletin, quality unit. This website is updated through artsquality@helwan.edu.eg.

Faculty’s Library

Recently, the library has been automated and transferred from manual system into electronic one, enabling users to search and make use of the utilities available inside the library automatically. Through the university, the library has subscribed in several international databases which provide full texts of academic articles published in world scientific journals, in addition to launching a survey to view the opinions of the users in the facilities available through the library for the sake of developing and improving these services.

Language Labs

The Faculty of Arts has four labs, equipped with educational technologies used in teaching languages and curricula applications. Two other labs will be added according to the faculty’s strategic plan to cater for a larger number of students and to support the units of special purposes.

Computer Labs

To increase the capacity of large classes, there are six labs fully equipped with modern technologies, used in teaching languages; curricula applications; all these computers and devices are provided with internet access.

Faculty Special Units

• Center for students with special needs (visually disabled)
• Specialized Language Center

Monitor Student Complaints

A committee has been formed, responsible for student complaints, and supervised by members of the quality unit. The task of the committee is to receive, investigate and follow up student complaints, and the procedures taken to resolve them in coordination with the scientific departments and students’ affairs. There are procedures and facilities to ensure privacy and confidentiality, such as:

• Student complaint box;
• Circulating the email of the tripartite committee in the quality unit related to complaints reception;
• Investigating the complaints submitted to the unit, classifying them according to their topics, and re-arranging them in virtue of the priorities specified by the specialized committee.

Alumni

• The alumni office has been established to link the quality of the alumnus with the market’s needs;
• Preparing a database of institutions and businessmen to continually support alumni;
• The Faculty of Arts holds an annual job forum for graduate students;