The Modernisation of Higher Education

Modernisation, Quality Assurance and Transparency

Anthony Vickers27th June 2012

Quality Assurance

“Quality means doing it right when no one is looking.”

Henry Ford

Presentation Summary

• The National Qualification Framework for England, Wales, and Northern Ireland

• Defining Quality Assurance (QA)/Enhancement(QE)

• The role of the QAA

• QA at the University of Essex

• Professional & Statutory Bodies (PSB)

• Questions

The National Qualification Framework for England, Wales, and Northern Ireland

http://www.qaa.ac.uk/england/credit/creditframework.asp

Some Definitions

Quality Assurance“A planned and systematic pattern of all actions necessary to provide adequate confidence that the product optimally fulfils customers' expectations, i.e. that it is problem-free and well able to perform the task it was designed for.”

http://foldoc.org/

Quality Enhancement"taking deliberate steps to bring about continual improvement in the effectiveness of the learning experience of students.“

QAA's Handbook for enhancement-led institutional review: Scotland (April 2003)

The Role of the UK Quality Assurance Agency

• The primary responsibility for academic standards and quality in UK higher education rests with individual universities and colleges, each of which is independent and self-governing.

• QAA checks how well they meet their

responsibilities, identifying good practice and making recommendations for improvement.

• They also publish guidelines to help institutions

develop effective systems to ensure students have high quality experiences.

• http://www.qaa.ac.uk/aboutus/WhatWeDo.asp

UK QAA Responsibilities

They meet their responsibilities by:

• conducting reviews of universities and colleges• publishing reports on the confidence that can be placed in

an institution's management of standards and quality• providing guidance to universities and colleges on

maintaining academic standards and improving quality, in line with the Academic Infrastructure

• investigating causes for concern about academic standards and quality

• advising governments on applications for degree awarding powers and university title

• engaging with European and wider international developments.

• http://www.qaa.ac.uk/aboutus/WhatWeDo.asp

QA/QE @ The University of Essex

Overview The individual procedures for quality assurance and enhancement at the University are designed to interconnect in order to create a rigorous but not overly burdensome whole. 

This can be demonstrated by this chart.

Approval of new modules

http://www.essex.ac.uk/quality/pages/newcourseapproval.htm

Approval of new courses

Annual monitoring

The purpose of annual monitoring is to ‘consider the effectiveness of the programme in achieving its stated aims and the success of students in attaining the intended learning outcomes’ (QAA Code of Practice).

Internally, annual monitoring and periodic review are the two ways we monitor and review our provision. 

These processes are designed to feed into one another, with annual monitoring reports becoming one of the key documents for periodic review, providing over time a clear history of the development, evaluation and quality enhancement of schemes.

Periodic Review

Periodic Review is a University level procedure designed to reapprove academic courses on the basis of an evaluation of the previous five years of their operation. 

The procedure for Periodic Review consists of two stages.  Stage 1 (covering QA procedures for all departmental provision) and Stage 2 (concerned with re-validating provision). 

Courses will normally be subject to Periodic Review once every five years. 

Programme Specifications

• In the UK Programme specifications are a means of providing transparent information about programmes of study in higher education, in a consistent, accessible format.

 • Each programme specification identifies the learning

outcomes for an award, of which a student should demonstrate positive achievement, and the relationship of that programme to the Framework of Higher Education Qualifications (FHEQ). 

Programme Specifications

http://www.essex.ac.uk/programmespecs/progspec.asp?prog=BENGH610++10

External Examiners

The University of Essex has two types of External Examiners, whose roles may be summarised as follows:  (a) Award External Examiners. Award External Examiners are required to attend Boards of Examiners and have overarching responsibility for the standards of awards. Award External Examiners will also be Module External Examiners. (b) Module External Examiners. Module External Examiners attend only those Boards of Examiners for which they are also Award External Examiners. Otherwise their responsibilities are confined to particular modules.

 

Award External Examiners

The core duties of an Award External Examiner at the University of Essex are: (a) to comment on the standards of the award and the quality and coherence of the course;  (b) to judge the overall standards of student performance; (c) to attend examination boards as required and judge the extent to which the determination of awards is sound and fair; (d) to produce an annual report to the Vice-Chancellor, summarising their findings in relation to the above, and a summary report for publication.  In fulfilling these duties the Award External Examiner is expected to review the award, including its structure, assessment and the overall profile of student achievement.

Professional and Statutory Bodies (PSB)The following academic units in the University have one or more degree schemes subject to PSB accreditation:

Essex Business School:

Board of Accreditation of Accountancy Educational Courses (BAAEC)

Art History and Theory:

Cultural Heritage National Training Organisation (formerly Museum Training Institute). MA in Gallery Studies only.

Biological Science:      Institute of Biomedical Sciences and the Council for Professions Supplementary to Medicine (For the BSc in Biomedical  Science)

E15:

National Council for Drama Training

Psychology:

British Psychological Society

CSEE: British Computer Society Institution of Engineering and Technology

Law:

Law Society/Bar Council

School of Health and Human Sciences:

Nursing Midwifery CouncilCollege of Occupational Therapists (COT).Central Council for Education and Training in Social Work (CCETSW), via the East Anglian Post Qualifying Consortium

The Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET)

Learning Outcomes

• UK SPEC (The UK Standard for Professional Engineering Competence)

This Engineering Council Standard describes the value of becoming registered as an Engineering Technician (EngTech), Incorporated Engineer (IEng) or Chartered Engineer (CEng). It describes the requirements that have to be met for registration, and gives examples of ways of doing this.

• IET Learning Outcomes

The learning outcomes specified for IET accredited programmes have been developed to provide for variety and flexibility in the design of programmes and encourage innovation while maintaining a core understanding of engineering principles.

Example IET Learning Outcomes

University of Essex - Example Learning Outcomes

• Programme Specification Level

Specify, design, implement, test and document an electronic system.

• Module level

Work as an individual to specify, design, construct and test a system to meet a project requirement.

Transparency @ Essex

http://www.essex.ac.uk/courses/

“Quality means doing it right when no one is looking.”