The University Quality Commission convened on Wednesday, 23 September 2026 in the Senate Meeting Hall, with the participation of Rector Prof. Dr. Yılmaz Can, to review the stage reached in preparations for the Higher Education Quality Council (YÖKAK) Institutional Accreditation Programme (KAP).
Alongside the Rector, the meeting was attended by Vice Rector for Quality Prof. Dr. Güven Özdem, Accreditation, Academic Evaluation and Quality Coordinator and Chief Adviser to the Rector Prof. Dr. Mustafa Şanal, and members of the Quality Commission.
Speaking at the opening of the meeting, Rector Prof. Dr. Yılmaz Can shared his assessment of the place institutional accreditation holds in the University’s approach to management. Noting that the process is seen as an opportunity for every activity carried out — from education and teaching to research, from the management system to community engagement — to become measurable and traceable, he stated that the expectation of the administration is clear and said, “Every practice we describe must have a decision behind it, an implementation and a measured result.”
Recording that the aim is to make quality assurance a natural part of daily operations, Rector Can emphasised that the gains will remain permanent after the visit is completed to the extent that this understanding takes hold. He said that what is expected from all units of the University is that they take ownership of the process as part of their own work.
Stating that the level of preparation set out at the meeting is the result of work carried out meticulously over a long period, the Rector thanked the members of the Quality Commission, the staff serving on unit quality commissions and the Accreditation, Academic Evaluation and Quality Coordinatorship for the work they have produced, the digital tools they have developed and the coordination they have established with the units. Noting that institutional accreditation is a team effort that will be carried forward with the contribution of every unit, he said, “As the Rectorate, we will continue to provide the support needed at every stage of the process.”
Following the Rector’s address, Deputy Coordinator Dr. Hakan Sipahi presented the agenda to the commission and set out in detail the work carried out as part of the institutional accreditation preparations. The presentation covered the structure of the assessment, which comprises four areas, 14 criteria and 46 sub-criteria; the difference between the third and fourth maturity levels in the rating key; the evidence-based answering of interview questions; and the path to be followed during the pre-visit and the site visit. The scope and distribution schedule of the preparation materials for the units were also shared with the commission.
The presentation continued with an introduction to the applications recently launched by the Coordinatorship, which form the digital counterpart of the same preparatory approach. The first of these was the ISER Interactive Explorer, developed for the 2025 Institutional Self-Assessment Report. The Explorer allows the report to be examined criterion by criterion, shows the maturity level declared for each sub-criterion and provides direct access to 399 evidence files, enabling evaluators and units to reach the information they seek in a single step.
The Quality Screen, which aims to make the concepts more accessible, carries the same content into visual form. Two series are presented together on the page: the Quality in One Minute series, which covers quality assurance and accreditation concepts in one-minute episodes, has reached fifty episodes, while the eight-episode series showing GİMER processes step by step was published this month. The episodes are kept openly accessible for use in unit meetings and orientation programmes.
The Giresun University Communication Centre (GİMER), the subject of the video series, enables complaints, requests for information, demands, suggestions and expressions of satisfaction to be received through a single channel. Operated under the Directive that entered into force by the decision of the University Senate dated 10 September 2026, the system assigns a reference number to every application, monitors response times and resolves applications within the Plan-Do-Check-Act cycle. A Role-Based User Guide covering each of the six roles separately has been prepared and made available to the units.
The document infrastructure underpinning these applications is provided by the Quality Data Management System (KVYS). The system, in which directives, procedures, job descriptions, forms and policy documents are managed from a single centre, holds more than seven hundred internal and external documents, each identified by a document number. Thanks to the permanent links built on this number, references made from the University’s institutional pages resolve to the current version of the document, so that units always reach the text in force.
Through this work, carried out ahead of the YÖKAK Institutional Accreditation Programme site visit to take place in October–November 2026, it is intended to establish a shared language of preparation among the units, to monitor quality assurance practices on an evidence-based footing and to reflect stakeholder participation in institutional processes on a regular basis.
