National Accreditation Board (LAN) & Malaysian Qualifications Agency (MQA)

Malaysia's rapid economic growth has triggered the demand for a highly skilled and knowledgeable workforce. Amongst the steps taken to address this demand is the formulation of a liberal education policy. The Most Honourable Prime Minister himself has constantly emphasized that Malaysia is ready to be the regional hub of higher education.

Higher education in Malaysia has achieved the criterion of being a strategic export commodity. This development was welcome by the Private Sector which responded by setting up higher education institutions autonomously or in collaboration with either local public higher education institutions or foreign private higher education institutions. To ensure the healthy development of private higher education, Parliament passed two Acts in 1996, namely the Private Higher Education Act (Act 555) and the National Accreditation Board Act (Act 556).

The Private Higher Education Act (Act 555) seeks to control the management and establishment of private higher education institutions so as to provide quality in higher education for its students.

The National Accreditation Board Act (Act 556) functions to ensure that all courses of study and training programmes offered achieve a standard acceptable to the norms and conventions of a higher institute of education.

Members of the National Accreditation Board (LAN) were officially appointed on 15 May 1997 . The Board headed by a Chairman / Chief Executive with nine others as members formulate policies, procedures, standards and other matters pertaining to the quality of courses of study being offered or will be offered by private higher education institutions.

LAN will soon be integrated into a new agency namely the Malaysian Qualifications Agency (MQA). The Government has on 21st December 2005 decided to adopt the Malaysian Qualifications Framework (MQF) as a platform for Quality Assurance (QA) in higher education. Therefore, LAN, the Quality Assurance Division for Public Universities as well as the Quality Assurance Division for Polytechnics and Community Colleges will be merged and a new agency will be established, namely the Malaysian Qualifications Agency (MQA) to resume its roles.

The Act 556 and other related Acts, policies and regulations will be reviewed to support the establishment of the MQA and implementation of MQF. MQA will retain the role of professional & other statutory certification bodies in the accreditation of programmes for the purpose of licensing or registration of practitioners.

The Functions of LAN

LAN's Role In Assessing Courses of Study
LAN processes the application of courses of study and quality assurance of the courses offered by the PHEIs. It then submits its recommendations to the Minister whether to approve or reject the application by the prospective education provider to conduct that course of study.

LAN's Main Function: Formulating Policies, Monitoring and Quality Assurance
LAN acts as a quality assurance body by providing effective and efficient quality monitoring services of the courses of study offered by the PHEIs throughout Malaysia . Quality assurance is one of LAN's missions to make education at Malaysian PHEIs as one of quality and of international standard, thereby contributing towards human development and helping to produce individuals of high caliber.

LAN's primary functions include:

• to formulate policies on the standard and quality control of:
• courses of study; and
• certificates, diplomas and degrees of private higher education
• to monitor, review and oversee the standard and quality of:
• courses of study; and
• certificates, diplomas and degrees of private higher education
• to determine the level of achievement for the national language and the compulsory subjects specified in the Private Higher Educational Institutions Act 1996 as prerequisites to the award of certificates, diplomas and degrees; and
• to advise and make recommendations to the Minister for his approval of courses of study to be conducted by private higher educational institutions with regard to:
• the suitability of arrangements relating to the educational facilities elevant to the courses of study; and
• the standard and quality assurance of the courses of study
• to accredit courses of study offered by the PHEIs which meet the set standard and quality.

MALAYSIAN QUALIFICATIONS AGENCY (MQA)

On the 21st December 2005, the Cabinet has approved the establishment of a new agency, the Malaysian Qualifications Agency (MQA), in order to implement the Malaysian Qualifications Framework (MQF) as a basis for quality assurance in higher education as well as a reference standard for national qualifications.

The National Accreditation Board (LAN) will be merged with the public university Quality Assurance Division, Ministry of Higher Education as well as polytechnics and community college Quality Assurance Division to form the MQA as a strategy to integrate quality assurance system for both public and private higher educational institutions in Malaysia as well as training/skill based providers.

Therefore, the LAN Act (Act 556); and other relevant acts as well as policies need to be reviewed and amended to support the implementation of MQA/MQF.
The MQA functions are as follow:

• To cooperate with all stakeholders including professional and statutory examination bodies to develop criteria and standards as a national reference for qualifications;
• To conduct programme and institutional quality assurance process for approval, monitoring and enhancement;
• To accredit courses which meet the set standard and quality for professional registration purposes);
• To facilitate the recognition and articulation of qualifications equivalency;
• To register the qualifications which has gone through the quality assurance process in the Malaysian Qualifications Framework;
• To conduct training regarding the quality assurance;
• To be a reference center for qualifications by providing the information of recognized qualifications and institutions; and
• To establish an international quality assurance networking for mutual recognition

What is MALAYSIAN QUALIFICATIONS FRAMEWORK?
Malaysian Qualifications Framework (MQF) is a description of the national education system which describes all qualifications and learning achievement in higher education and facilitates the articulation of equivalency among those qualifications.

The MQF is a unified system and a reference point for all national qualifications. It classifies qualifications according to nationally agreed criteria and international good practices for levels of learning attained.

It also links qualifications in flexible learning pathways that allow individual progression, thus supporting life long learning. By having clear criteria and standards, the MQF will facilitate the recognition of our qualifications overseas.

The MQF will inspire public confidence in the standards and quality of qualifications as well as facilitates mutual recognition of qualifications because it operates within the boundaries of explicit criteria and standards as well as transparent policies and procedures which conform to internationally accepted guidelines.

The MQF has eight levels of qualifications in four sectors of education. The four sectors are (a) Ministry of Human Resources sector, (b) Polytechnics & non-degree granting colleges sector, (c) life long learning sector, and (d) university sector.

The eight levels of qualifications consist of : MQF Levels 1 to 3 are for Skills Certificates awarded in the skills training programs. Vocational and Technical Certificates from polytechnics are also at levels 1 to 3. Diplomas and Advanced Diplomas in both the Technical and Vocational sector as well as Skills sector are at MQF Levels 4 and 5 respectively. The Bachelor with Honours (MQF Level 6) is the first tertiary qualification followed by the Masters (MQF Level 7) and PhD/doctoral (MQF Level 8).

The levels are differentiated by learning outcomes that capture the general characteristics or competencies in various domains of learning that students are expected to demonstrate upon successful completion of a program or upon an assessment of competences.

In conclusion, the setting up of MQA to replace LAN will help to accelerate the growth Malaysian Higher Education as well as to become a major player in the international provider of higher education.

Contact Details:

The Chief Executive
National Accreditation Board (Lembaga Akreditasi Negara - LAN)
13th Floor, Menara PKNS - PJ
17, Jalan Yong Shook Lin, 46050 Petaling Jaya
Selangor, Malaysia
Tel: 603-7968 7002/7011     Fax: 603-7956 9496/7954 9215
Email: akreditasi@lan.gov.my     Website: www.lan.gov.my