Prof. Dr. Hasan Ali Bıçak, Board of Trustees Advisor at Final International University, chaired an international team of experts for the evaluation of a university’s Accounting, Finance, and Tourism programs, upon the invitation of the National Center for Academic Accreditation and Evaluation (NCAAA) in Saudi Arabia.

For the first time, NCAAA, which has until now assessed and accredited each program separately, implemented a new practice by conducting the evaluation process for three programs simultaneously. With this approach, it aims to assess a greater number of programs within the same timeframe, without compromising quality, addressing the backlog of programs awaiting evaluation.

Between May 10–12, the meetings were held online, with two international experts appointed for each program under the chairmanship of Prof. Bıçak. The team of experts included Prof. Sherif Said A ElBarrad (Canada), Dr. Faisal Abdullah Al Hudithi (Saudi Arabia), Dr. Mohammed Sameer Saharti (Saudi Arabia), Dr. Fathi Mohamed Bouzidi (Tunisia), Dr. Mansour Talal Abid Alansari (Saudi Arabia), and Dr. Enas Fares Yehia (Egypt). All experts involved in the evaluation process are specialists in the fields of Accounting, Finance, and Tourism, and also serve as Deans or Associate Deans at their respective universities.

As part of the practice, initiated during the COVID-19 pandemic, of conducting site visits via online meetings, the evaluations of the Accounting, Finance, and Tourism programs were also carried out through virtual sessions. However, subsequently, one of the Saudi members of the Expert Team visited the university in person to inspect its learning resources, facilities, and equipment, and prepared a separate report. Throughout the evaluation of all three programs, five NCAAA standards — (1) Program Quality Assurance, (2) Teaching and Learning, (3) Students, (4) Faculty Members, and (5) Learning Resources — and 48 criteria were meticulously assessed.

To date, Prof. Bıçak has chaired over 45 institutional and program-based university evaluations on behalf of numerous national and international quality assurance bodies, primarily in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Lebanon, Oman, Turkey, Kosovo, and Serbia. In December last year, he also chaired international expert panels evaluating the MBA programs of two other universities in Saudi Arabia.