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AUDITORS - Judging
The auditors must come to a conclusion about whether
the evidence advanced by the faculty in support of the Quality Principles,
the Capacity Components, and Internal Audit was in fact verified.
The auditors also must make a separate determination of whether
the evidence of institutional commitment is sufficient to support
the claim that the institution is committed to the program.
One of the following four audit opinions is given
by the auditors in their Audit Report about the overall trustworthiness
of the Inquiry Brief and about each element (1.0
– 4.0) and the seven
components of 4.0. The meaning of the audit opinions pertaining
to the Brief are:
1. Clean opinion: An element is
assigned a clean opinion when the evidence in the Inquiry Brief
that bears on it is found to be trustworthy.
2. Qualified opinion: An element is assigned a
qualified opinion when some of the evidence in the Inquiry Brief
that bears on it has significant errors, but overall the evidence
for the element is found to be trustworthy.
3. Adverse opinion: An element
is assigned an adverse opinion when a significant portion of evidence
in the Inquiry Brief that bears on it cannot be confirmed
and verified.
4. Disclaimer opinion: An element
is assigned a disclaimer opinion when it is not possible to verify
a significant portion of the evidence in the Inquiry Brief
that pertains to an element owing to missing data, limited access
to information and informants, and/or evidence that the findings
in the Inquiry Brief are not genuine.
The auditors must determine whether any errors they find in the
Inquiry Brief are trivial
or are of some consequence to the meaning of the text.
Auditors’
heuristics
Auditors’
judgment of commitment
Overall auditors’ opinion. If no element
received an adverse or disclaimer opinion, the auditors give the
Inquiry Brief a clean audit opinion overall if 90% or more of the
targets are verified, and they give it a qualified opinion if at
least 75% of the targets, but less than 90%, are verified. The Brief
can go forward to the Accreditation Panel only with a clean or qualified
opinion (i.e., only if at least 75% of the targets are verified).
Otherwise it is returned to the program faculty for reworking and
resubmission.
Return to Activities of the
Auditors
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