A preparatory meeting for the site visit to be conducted in November 2026 under the Institutional Accreditation Programme (IAP) of the Higher Education Quality Council (YÖKAK) was held on Thursday, 17 September 2026, with the participation of the heads of administrative departments.
The meeting was attended by Vice Rector for Quality Prof. Dr. Güven ÖZDEM, Vice Rector Prof. Dr. Hüseyin ŞAHİN, Chief Advisor to the Rector and Coordinator of Accreditation, Academic Evaluation and Quality Prof. Dr. Mustafa ŞANAL, Deputy Coordinator Asst. Prof. Dr. Hakan SİPAHİ, and Coordinatorship members Asst. Prof. Dr. Enis TAŞÇI and Lect. Osman Serdal KARAPINAR.
The opening emphasised that institutional accreditation is an external evaluation covering the entire quality assurance system of the institution. It was noted that the assessment is carried out across four areas — Leadership, Governance and Quality Assurance; Education and Training; Research and Development; and Social Contribution — through 14 criteria and 46 sub-criteria, and that all sub-criteria addressed in our University’s 2025 Institutional Self-Evaluation Report are publicly accessible together with their supporting evidence.
The presentation placed particular emphasis on the distinction between the third and fourth maturity levels of the YÖKAK rubric. Implementing a defined process corresponds to the third level, whereas measuring the outcome of that implementation and improving it with stakeholder participation corresponds to the fourth. This distinction illustrates what closing the PDCA cycle means in terms of institutional maturity.
Noting that administrative units are where the institution generates its evidence, the meeting underlined that every practice described during site interviews is expected to correspond to a decision, minutes, report or measurement. The evaluation team verifies the same information through triangulation along the lines of decision–implementation–result, document–staff–student and senior management–unit–stakeholder; answers are therefore best structured as situation, action and result, and should include a specific date, document name or figure.
In the session for administrative unit managers, questions address how process inventories, internal control and risk management practices are reflected in daily operations, how institutional software and the information management system are operated, and how work processes are linked to the strategic plan. In addition to the site visit, an online pre-visit will be conducted beforehand; its schedule will be shared with the units once confirmed.
The meeting also introduced the sixth file of the twelve-part “IAP Interview Guide” series prepared by our Coordinatorship for administrative unit managers. The guide explains the purpose behind each question and the elements an answer should contain, proposing a preparation approach based on the institution’s shared facts rather than ready-made answers.
The preparatory work carried out for the November 2026 site visit aims to establish a shared quality language across units, to extend an evidence-based working culture and to strengthen institutional memory.
Information on our University’s quality assurance activities, quality policies and institutional self-evaluation reports is available at kalite.giresun.edu.tr.
