Transcript The Modernisation of Higher Education

The Modernisation of
Higher Education
Modernisation, Quality Assurance and
Transparency
Anthony Vickers
27th 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 Council
College 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.”