Quality Improvement Fund (QIF) Director

السلطة الوطنية الفلسطينية            Palestinian National Authority
وزارة التربية والتعليم العالي         Ministry of Education & Higher Education
وحدة مشاريع البنك الدولي           World Bank Projects Unit
 

Tertiary Education Project & Tertiary Education Project- Additional Financing

The Ministry of Education & Higher Education (MOEHE) has received a grant from the World Bank, International Development Association (IDA) towards the cost of Tertiary Education Project. The projects aims at (i) improving the policy making environment for tertiary education management, governance and quality assurance; (ii) increase internal and external efficiency of tertiary education institutions as a first step towards achieving sustainability; and (iii) create incentives and provide the basis for improvements in quality, relevance and equity of tertiary education institutions in order to meet the socio-economic needs of the Palestinian population.
As part of the project, a Quality Improvement Fund (QIF) has been designed to help tertiary education institutions improve the quality of their institutional and academic functions. The QIF is established on a competitive basis, open to eligible tertiary institutions in Palestine. A QIF Manual has been developed to describe the structure and process of the QIF. As further described in this QIF Manual, the QIF will be administered out of the MOEHE by a small staff accountable to a centralized Board representative of appropriate stakeholders.

The World Bank has approved additional fund (AF) of 4.2 million dollars to implement projects to support the teacher education strategy. The agreement for the additional fund program was signed in July 2009 and the program is expected to be completed by Dec 31. 2012.

The Ministry announces the following consultancy, to be financed as part of the project:

Position: Quality Improvement Fund (QIF) Director, Full–time contract

Main Tasks and Responsibilities:

Being in charge of daily administrative operations of QIF. This involves, among others, managing the QIF administrative office, participating in the recruitment, training and coaching of QIF staff, assisting QIF Board in the preparation and launching of call for proposals, and facilitating the
submission of proposals by TEIs for the review process, and devising an efficient data storage system which ensures quick retrieval and the confidentiality of QIF proposals and evaluations;
-Reporting and communicating with the members of the QIF Board, through the Chairperson of the Board, on the status of Project proposals review and evaluation by external peer reviewers. Provide staff support to the QIF Board relevant to notification, implementation and followthrough of review process of all received proposals;
-Serve as technical secretariat for QIF Board meetings;
-Provide timely advice and training programs for tertiary institutions as to the nature of the QIF and the application process. Be available to tertiary institutions as they develop proposals and undergo the application, review and selection process;
-Effectively disseminate news and eventual changes and innovations in the QIF to the tertiary education community of West Bank and Gaza;
-Develop and effectively manage the process for the receipt and review of QIF proposals such as:
-Provide the QIF Board with a summary overview of the application including whether the institution is eligible; whether all the elements of the application are provided fully; whether the
application is responsive to one or more of the fund priorities; and rate the proposal on the criteria for evaluation ;
-Notify applicants of deficiencies in the application for purposes of correction prior to its submission to the Board for decision making
– or – notify applicants of recommendations made by the QIF Board to revise the application for subsequent potential funding;
-Monitor the progress of funded projects through site visits and quarterly reports.
-Work in consultation with the Project Coordinating Unit (PCU) for purposes of follow up on management of fiduciary aspects and procurement throughout the duration of each grant.
-Notify applicants of grant decisions and ensure a smooth and positive working relationship with all tertiary institutions involved in QIF grants.
-Propose to the QIF Board a transparent appeal mechanism for the rejected proposals.
-Receive and deal with appeals from institutions whose proposals are rejected. This would entail, first, an internal review of the proposal and the intervention of a third external reviewer.
Draft the Annual QIF Report and present it to the QIF Board. Provide timely support to the Chair of the QIF Board for eventual presentations of the Annual Report to the Council of Higher Education (CHE), project technical committee and other public and private institutions.
-Participate in selecting peer reviewers who will review and evaluate the received proposals from the TEIs.
-Facilitate all Project-related missions, in coordination with the PCU.

Minimum Required Qualifications
-The sound implementation of the QIF relies on the transparency and objectivity of its decisions, therefore, the QIF Director must be an experienced Professional with a demonstrated impeccable record, transparency in his/her decisions, and objectivity in conducting his/her
professional tasks
-Advanced University degree in Education, Administration, Planning of Education, Management, Sciences,, Engineering or relevant field from an accredited university.
-At least 5 years of experience working in the context of tertiary education, 3 years of which in policy, project management, and monitoring and evaluation; and demonstrated leadership among
academic and TEI management community
-Highly skilled in communications, leadership, management, writing and evaluating proposals, office & project management, and computations;
-Demonstrated knowledge of the Palestinian Tertiary Education system.
-Has self initiative, is dynamic in establishing relationships and constant site visits to TEIs, hardworking, and capable of working well in teams;
-Excellent command of spoken and written English;

Place of Work:
The post shall be based at MOEHE headquarters in Ramallah,

Interested qualified applicants are requested to send their Curriculum Vitae and a cover letter to the following address no later than, June 28th , 2011:

Ministry of Education and Higher Education, Project Coordination
Unit /PCU PO Box 576, Al Ma’ahed Street
Curriculum Centre Building- Near Ministry of Planning
Ramallah, West Bank
Tel: 00972 2 2969352 00972 2 2969366
E-mail: [email protected]

Minister of Education
& Higher Education
Ms. Lamis M. Alami