On February 5, 2014, the IQAA hosted a seminar on the topic: "Accreditation: external review, methodology of expert evaluation – international and national approaches"

The seminar was attended by representatives of Kazakhstani higher education institutions and TVET organizations. Overall, the number of participants was 206 people.

The programme of the seminar included the report of the Rector of S.Toraigyrov Pavlodar State University, Doctor of Economic Sciences, Professor Omirbayev S.M., "Principles of the external review and technology of writing the report on the visit".

The topics of European approaches to conducting the external evaluation of higher education institutions and study programmes, as well as the process of writing a report were covered in the report made by the President of the agency, Doctor of Pedagogical Sciences, Professor Kalanova Sh.M.

The next speaker, whose presentation caught great attention of participants, was Maiki Udam – Director of Development and International Cooperation at Estonian Quality Agency for Higher and Vocational Education (EKKA), Doctor of Social Sciences (PhD). Maiki Udam worked as a Head of the Department of higher education in the Ministry of Education in Estonia. In her presentation, Maiki Udam shed light on achievements and problems in the educational system in Estonia and shared the experience of conducting accreditation in Estonia.

The programme of the seminar included the presentation of materials, which determine the pecularities of the procedure of the initial review, criteria for evaluation and requirements to the report for the initial review, which were covered in the presentation of the Head of the academic and methodological department of Taraz State Pedagogical Institute, Dubsky Y.B. The specifics of the evaluation during different types of accreditation, requirements to experts involved in the procedure of initial external review, preparation of the expert conclusion for the self-evaluation report written by the educational organization were touched in the presentation of the executive director of the agency, Associate Professor, Mukatova M.I.

In course of the seminar, there was a discussion of projects of two documents – "Requirements to the procedure of writing external review in the framework of institutional and programme accreditation" and "Requirements to the expert conclusion on the self-evaluation report in framework of institutional and programme accreditation".

At the end of the seminar, participants were awarded with the certificates.

On February 6, there was a holding of the training workshop on the issues of organization and conduct of the National Ranking of higher education institutions - 2014. The representatives of the agency conducted the briefing on the formation of the package of documents for participation in the ranking of HEIs and on the areas of study programmmes.

At the end of the briefing, the President of the agency, Sh.Kalanova, responded to numerous questions from representatives of higher education institutions, who took active participation in the discussion of presented materials.