Universidade Nasional Timor-Lorosa’e (UNTL) meets with SEAMEO INNOTECH for quality management

On 14 December 2018, Prof. Dr. Francisco Miguel Martins, Rector of Universidade Nasional Timor-Lorosa’e (UNTL), accompanied by his colleagues, visited SEAMEO INNOTECH to discuss about the collaborations of the two institutions.  

After signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) back in October, this meeting served as a venue to concretize plans for the identified collaborative projects. Given the context of UNTL and current education situation of Timor-Leste, the two institutions agreed to focus on two things: internal quality assurance of UNTL and teacher training. 

Mr. Benito Benoza, manager of SEAMEO INNOTECH’s Knowledge Management and Networking Office, facilitated the discussions alongside other representatives from varying offices. One solution identified to address the needs of UNTL is for INNOTECH to provide technical assistance on the areas of concern. 

Given that UNTL has just recently established its internal quality system, they hope to benchmark and learn from the practices of the Center in ensuring the quality of its products and services. Improving on their quality system, as emphasized by Dr. Francisco, would allow UNTL to produce better programs and help upgrade the quality of education in the country.

Dr. Francisco has also highlighted the need to improve the capacity of their professors, particularly in pedagogy and developing learning design. Experienced on managing online courses and face-to-face training programs for teachers, INNOTECH shared its Off–the–Shelf courses, namely GURO21, TEACHeXCELS, and SUPEReXCELS which are online courses for teachers and school heads to improve on their 21st century teaching-learning skills, instructional leadership, and supervision respectively. These courses may be contextualized to fit in the needs of UNTL and Timor-Leste. 

The two institutions hope for these projects to materialize starting January 2019, which is the start of academic year in Timor-Leste. Other collaborative projects that are still up for discussions are the sharing of e-resources through integration of online libraries and the joint-research project on Timo-Leste education.

Universidade Nasional Timor-Lorosa’e (UNTL) or the National University of Timor-Leste is the country’s major institution of higher education.