At the beginning of the meeting, Dr. Nekoofar, gave a presentation on the French Evaluation Agency for Research and Higher Education (AERES). He mentioned that AERES is an independent organization founded in 2007 and has the responsibility of accreditation of universities, programs, and research units in France.
The main mission of AERES is Evaluation of research centers, universities, Higher Education Institutions, and evaluation trends of staff, he added.
This evaluator institution is accredited by High level organization in Europe such as European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education (ENQA) and European Quality Assurance Register for Higher Education (EQAR). The last evaluation of AERES is available at http://www.aeres-evaluation.com website.
Moreover, Dr. Nekoofar introduced AERES indicators and he mentioned that this institution evaluates organizations and research centers according to some criteria such as: scientific output, scientific reputation, engagement with economic, cultural and social environments and taking part in education based on research. More details of indicators are available on the AERES website.
Afterward, Dr. Younesian expressed that before the beginning the accreditation process in research centers, preparation of research centers to make sure they are ready for the evaluation is necessary. He also mentioned that we should do more research about the world reputation of AERES institution.
It is worth mentioning that Didier Hussin, president of AERES, along with a visiting group will visit TUMS in future days.
At the end of the meeting, each of the participants mentioned their points of views about AERES and accreditation of TUMS research centers.
Translated by Mohammad R. Bahadorkhani