External Audits of NUS, NTU and SMU

Ms Ellen Lee asked the Minister for Education (a) what are the costs incurred for each of the past three external quality audits of NUS, NTU and SMU; and (b) whether the Ministry will consider shortening the external audits of the autonomous universities from once every five years to once every three years.

The Quality Assurance Framework for Universities (QAFU) helps to enhance the quality of our universities through a systematic process involving institutional self-learning and external review. Under this framework, an External Review Panel is convened to conduct an independent evaluation of each university's self-assessment report and recommend areas for improvement by the university. The panel comprises independent local and

Page: 164

international industry leaders, professionals and eminent academics. The universities are required to address the recommendations raised by the panel by following up with concrete action plans.

The QAFU is conducted once every five years so as to allow the university sufficient time to implement their action plans from the previous external audit. When QAFU was first launched in 2003, the intention was to do the audit once every three years. However, the feedback from members of the External Review Panel was that a three-year cycle was too short, as it did not allow enough time for the universities to implement the necessary changes after each round. A decision was subsequently made to conduct the audit once every five years instead.

The costs of each audit carried out on NUS, NTU and SMU between 2009 and 2011 ranged from $120,000 to $170,000. An audit typically lasts for five days and the bulk of the costs incurred is attributable to honoraria for the panel members, as well as air tickets, accommodation and local transportation for the international panel members.