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Academic monitoring and review overview

QAA Scotland worked closely with the Scottish Funding Council (SFC), Universities Scotland and NUS Scotland to develop an enhancement-led approach to quality in the Scottish higher education sector – the Quality Enhancement Framework (QEF). The strategy adopted has five main elements:

1. A programme of reviews at subject level, to be run by the institutions themselves (known as Internal Reviews of Learning & Teaching at St Andrews).
2. An institutional-level review (Enhancement-Led Institutional Review – ELIR). The University was last reviewed in 2011 when confidence was reported in all areas (the best possible result).
3. Improved public information on the quality of higher education.
4. A greater voice for student representatives in institutional quality systems, supported by the student participation in quality Scotland (sparqs) service.
5. A national programme of developing and sharing good practice in learning and teaching in higher education (quality Enhancement Themes).

In addition, a set of reference points was developed (the Academic Infrastructure). This is currently being reformulated by the QAA (in consultation with all HEs) into a new UK Quality Code; this, in effect, replaces the QAA Codes of Practice. The Quality Code will give all higher education providers a shared starting point for setting, describing and assuring the academic standards of their higher education awards and programmes and the quality of the learning opportunities they provide. Higher education providers are expected to use it to design their respective policies for maintaining academic standards and quality.

The Quality Code has three Parts, on academic standards, academic quality and information about higher education provision. Each of these is subdivided into Chapters covering specific themes e.g., Learning and Teaching, External Examining. Each chapter is currently at a different stage of development including extensive consultation. The stage of development for all chapters is provided in the schedule. All should be published by October 2013.

Each chapter is headed by an expectation against which each institution will be judged during ELIR; each chapter is supported by a number of indicators which provide further detail on the expectation.

At an institutional level, the TLA Handbook monitors a broad range of internal review processes and structures by receiving reports on the following:-

• External Examiners’ Reports
• Student Survey Results
• Annual Academic Monitoring
• Internal Review of Learning & Teaching
• Module Evaluation
• Professional Accreditation
• ELIR and Quality Enhancement
• SCQF compliance
• Bologna (European Higher Education Area)
• Collaborations & Exchanges
• Student Progression
• Grade Distributions

AMG also considers any other matter relating to the quality of the academic provision or student experience offered by the University and, where necessary, submits reports to the Teaching, Learning and Assessment Committee. The AMG reports to Court via the Academic Assurance Group.

The Director of CAPOD (and Learning & Teaching Quality Officer (LTQO)) is a member of the AMG and has responsibility for management of the above processes.

Schedule for UK Quality Code