Version 4.0 of the AUN-QA Standards used for programme-level assessment includes the following eight criteria:
Expected Learning Outcomes
Programme Structure and Content
Teaching and Learning Approach
Student Assessment
Academic Staff
Student Support Services
Facilities and Infrastructure
Output and Outcomes
Unlike previous versions, Version 4.0 of the AUN-QA Standards integrates quality improvement requirements within each standard. For example, the quality improvement requirement for Standard 1: Expected Learning Outcomes is to ensure that students are able to achieve these outcomes by the time they graduate. Similarly, the quality improvement requirements for Standard 2: Programme Structure and Content aim to ensure that the curriculum is periodically reviewed, regularly updated, and aligned with the needs of the discipline and relevant stakeholders.
Quality improvement requirements serve as a mechanism for feedback to measure improvement, or as a cycle of planning, implementing, checking outputs against predetermined requirements, and then taking actions or making adjustments for the next cycle of improvement. Therefore, the concept of the PDCA (Plan–Do–Check–Act) cycle is embedded across all eight standards.
Version 4.0 of the AUN-QA framework was implemented in parallel with the document Guide Version 3.0 from October 2021 to September 2022 (the implementation of the guide was voluntary). The full implementation of this version has been carried out from October 2022 onwards.