Peer evaluation is an important quality management tool that supports the quality assurance system in higher education institutions, promotes institutional learning, and makes internal evaluation processes more objective. This practice, usually referring to the internal peer review process within the institutional quality assurance system recommended by both The Turkish Higher Education Quality Council (YÖKAK) and international quality agencies, enables a more effective analysis of self-evaluation reports and contributes to the dissemination of a culture of continuous improvement throughout the institution.
In this process, teams composed of academic representatives from different units within the university evaluate the internal evaluation report (for instance, the Unit Internal Evaluation Report – BİDR) prepared by another unit based on specific criteria. This feedback, which functions as an external observation, contributes to the quality improvement of the evaluated unit while also enhancing institutional awareness and the sharing of good practices among the members of the evaluating team.
At Hitit University, the peer evaluation process is implemented as a systematic practice aimed at internalizing the quality assurance system and strengthening inter-unit interaction. Each year, the BİDRs prepared by all units are reviewed by evaluation groups established at the university level; the evaluation teams are composed of academics from different faculties to ensure an interdisciplinary perspective.
Evaluators, within the framework of the criteria and sub-criteria determined by YÖKAK, assess each subheading separately by scoring and analyzing:
The strengths of the unit,
The areas open to improvement,
Whether the processes are addressed within the PDCA (Plan–Do–Check–Act) cycle, and
The adequacy of data-based practices.
At the end of the process, a written feedback report is provided to the evaluated unit. This report includes recommendations, examples of good practices, and areas for development for each criterion. Units review their internal processes based on this feedback, revise their action plans if necessary, and restructure their steps toward their strategic goals accordingly.
