Abstract:

This paper reports on Quality Assurance in the context of Tempus ECOSTAR (Project number 543683-TEMPUS-1-2013-1-IL-TEMPUS-JPCR), which aims to establish a national framework for the teaching of English as a Foreign Language at Institutes of Higher Education in Israel. The ECOSTAR quality plan aims to oversee the process, development and implementation of the WPs and provide assistance/guidance to the WP leaders. First, we talk about the main objectives of the quality plan, duration and deliverables for each WP, and proposed methods for attaining them. We then describe the monitoring activities whose aims are to ensure that actions initiated as part of the ECOSTAR work packages (WPs) are compliant with external and internal (ECOSTAR-specific and project-specific) standards in force. In this light, data gathered from surveys and other data collection methods relating to achievement of the indicators are compiled and main points are discussed focusing on both achievements and weaknesses with the aim of remedying shortcomings and reviewing activities required to achieve the goals.