Transcript Academic Registry

Welcome
The changing face of
quality assurance
Hilary Placito (Director of Quality and
Academic Support)
January 2013
Then
2
Now?
What is quality assurance?
Improvements
Analysis/judgements
3
System/procedure
Evidence
Key components of quality
assurance
• Academic standards – setting and
maintaining
• Quality of learning opportunities
• Enhancement
4
Quality assurance – the external
environment (1)
An ever-changing environment – previously QAA carried
out subject level reviews and institutional level audits
5
Inspection
Changed attitudes
Mistrust
place
Systems put in
Bureaucratic
Closing the loop
Tick-box-approach
Student views
Expensive
Evidence
Time-consuming
Equity
Quality assurance – the external
environment (2)
• Alongside audit and reviews the Quality Assurance
Agency introduced the various components of the
“academic infrastructure”
• The Framework for Higher Education Qualification
– aligns to Bologna process and the Dublin
descriptors
• Subject benchmark statements
• Programme specifications
• The Code of practice
• Following a national review the academic
infrastructure is now being re-formulated as the UK
Quality code for higher education
6
Quality assurance – the external
environment (3)
What do we have now?
• Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) carries out reviews of
institutions on a six year cycle, no more subject level
review
• Continued commitment to review being a peer process
not inspection
• Greater emphasis on quality enhancement
• Greater involvement of students – students are now on
the review panel
• Transparency
• Emphasis on public information
• Recent national consultation on a revised method for
institutional review – a risk-based approach
• National Student Survey (NSS)
7
Quality assurance – the external
environment (4)
QAA Institutional Review involves :
• Production of a Self-evaluation document by the
institution setting out how quality assurance works and a
Student Written Submission
• Two visits to the institution by the QAA review team over
a six week period
• Meetings during these visits with staff and students
• Reading the Self-evaluation document, Student Written
Submission and other documents
• Assessing from the written and verbal evidence, and
judged against the QAA Quality code, whether the
institution is managing its quality assurance processes
appropriately
• Published report – judgements, recommendations and
features of good practice
8
Quality assurance – the external environment (5)
• What effect does the external quality assurance environment have on us
at King’s?
• Our own quality assurance systems need to be in harmony with the
external environment
• Changes to the requirements of the external environment mean changes
to our systems
• Sometimes this is a simple matter of making adjustments to a process
• Sometimes this means introducing a new process
9
Quality assurance – the King’s approach (1)
• The College’s philosophy of quality assurance has been to embed it as
part of “normal” activity – it is the responsibility of everyone
• Quality assurance is best undertaken close to the place of delivery as it
engages those involved in the activity and allows it to become
developmental
10
Quality assurance – the King’s approach (2) governance
and management
• King’s operates a devolved structure in which the nine Schools of study operate with a large
degree of autonomy – this recognises the diversity of the Schools and the environment in
which they operate
• Schools have a responsibility to ensure the quality of their own activities but this autonomy
has to operate within an agreed framework – this framework is agreed by the committee
governance structure
• The challenge in such a structure is to
ensure an
appropriate balance
between central oversight and
local
decision making
11
Quality assurance – key features (1)
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Regulatory and policy framework
Process for the approval of new degree programmes which operates at School level
Annual reports from Schools to the College Education Committee
Review of degree programmes at School level every six years for approval at College level
Regulations and procedures for operating assessment with a common scheme for degree classifications
Involvement of External Examiners in the assessment process and use of their reports
Student views on teaching and teachers - Staff/Student Liaison Committees, student feedback
questionnaires
• Use of student-related data to analyse performance
• Induction and development of staff for their role in teaching
• Importance also of quality enhancement to make improvements
12
Quality assurance – key features (2)
• All the above features of a quality assurance framework are designed to
ensure academic standards and the quality of student learning
opportunities
• Underpinned by an infrastructure in terms of learning resources,
information technology and student support mechanisms eg personal
tutors, welfare support
• The challenge is to fit all the pieces of the framework together as part of
a coherent structure so that the evidence generated allows identification
of problems and solutions
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Programme
approval
Programme
review
Admissions
policies
Collaborative
provision
Assessment
policies and
regulations
Information
for students
Use of QAA
Quality Code
PSRB
guidelines
Academic standards
Learning opportunities
Student support –
academic and
pastoral
External
Examiners’
reports
Resources for
learning
Student
representation
Student
feedback
Student complaints
and appeals
Annual reports
Staff induction,
development and
reward
14
National Student
Survey
Analysis of
student
performance data
Current/future challenges (1)
• On-going balance between central oversight
and local autonomy in quality assurance
• Effect of increased tuition fees – are students
becoming more demanding in their expectations?
• Expansion of student numbers – ensuring that
resources can continue to meet the demand and that
all students still receive an excellent learning
experience
• Making better use of technology to support quality
assurance processes
• Increasing expectations of the professionalisation of
academic staff in their teaching role and ensuring
appropriate reward structures for teaching
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Current/future challenges (2)
• Increasing collaborative delivery – joint
degrees, partnership programmes, study
abroad
• Diversified curriculum - flexible and
distributed learning
• Diverse student body
• Information explosion
• Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs)
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