UK higher education: quality assurance at home and abroad Carolyn Campbell The Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education

Overview Context The higher education system The quality assurance of UK higher education The work of the Quality Assurance Agency The academic infrastructure for quality The quality assurance of collaborative provision The Code of Practice The audit of overseas partnership links Future developments

The UK higher education system 170 universities and colleges of higher education higher education corporations with legal power to award degrees >2 million students, >12% of who are international characterised by increasing diversity and innovation in the delivery of learning and teaching

Quality assurance in UK higher education External QA is largely a phenomenon of the last ten years Politically driven Accountability led Twin track: audit/assessment Audit – institutional management of quality and standards Assessment – reviews of subjects New processes moving focus to institutional audit /review

The quality assurance of UK higher education: principles Put responsibility for assuring quality and standards clearly within institutions Place certain specific obligations on institutions Require institutions to publish full, accurate and verifiable information about quality and standards for students and others

The quality assurance of higher education in the UK: the landscape Implementation of the ‘academic infrastructure’ for quality and standards Published information about quality and standards in individual institutions Student surveys New QAA processes: Institutional audit in England and Northern Ireland Enhancement led institutional review in Scotland Institutional review in Wales

The Quality Assurance Agency (QAA): some facts Founded in 1997 A not-for-profit company owned by the ‘representative bodies’ (RBs) – Universitiesuk and the Standing Conference of Principals A Board of Directors: 6 independent, 4RB nominees, 4 Funding Council nominees; independent Chairman Two offices: Gloucester (HQ) and Glasgow (Scottish Office) 130 staff organised into four groups Budget c £9M, from institutional subscriptions and funding councils’ contracts

What does QAA do? Develops and maintains the ‘academic infrastructure’ Reviews institutions and programmes through audits and subject reviews (including overseas and collaborative activities) Advises government on applications for degree awarding powers and university title Offers advice on academic quality and standards matters

What is the academic infrastructure? In 1996, the National Committee of Inquiry into Higher Education recommended an explicit framework within which UK higher education would deal with quality and standards. Has resulted in: Two qualifications frameworks (England, Wales and Northern Ireland; Scotland – a credit and qualifications framework); Subject benchmark statements – currently 65; Code of Practice for Quality Assurance: 10 sections; Programme specifications (produced by institutions).

The Code of Practice….. is concerned with an institution’s management of quality and standards is based on widely agreed good practice comprises a series of sections (10 in total), each with a set of precepts (principles) associated guidance

Code of Practice: section 2: collaborative provision Is concerned with the wide range of partnership arrangements which UK higher education institutions enter into with other institutions or organisations at home or overseas Is based on the key principles that collaborative arrangements should widen learning opportunities without prejudice to the standard of the award (qualification) or the quality of what is offered to the student arrangements for assuring quality and standards should be as rigorous and open to scrutiny as those for programmes provided wholly within the responsibility of a single institution.

Implementing the Code of Practice From August 2000, institutions were expected to be able to demonstrate broad adherence to the precepts in Section 2. Since 1997, QAA audit teams visit overseas partners of UK institutions to make enquiries about how the quality and standards of UK awards and programmes offered to students outside the UK are safeguarded. More than 100 links have been reported on and overseas audit visits have been made to more than 20 countries.

QAA overseas audits: features Voluntary participation of UK higher education institutions and with agreement of partner organisations Focus is the partnership – not a review or audit of the overseas partner Cover a range of programmes and subjects, levels of awards, types of partnership and mix of partners Result in published overseas audit reports

QAA overseas audits : the process (1) Request to UK institutions for information on collaborative provision in a range of countries Selection of country destinations and partnerships for audit Provision of a Commentary by the higher education institution: Describing the way in which the partnership operates Discussing the effectiveness of the means by which the institution assures quality and standards in the link Indicating the extent to which the particular link is representative of its procedures and practice in all its collaborative provision Referring to the way their arrangements meet the expectations of the Code

QAA overseas audits: the process (2) Visit by audit team members to the UK institution to discuss its arrangements in the light of its Commentary Visit to the overseas partner to gain further insight into the experience of staff and students to supplement the view formed by the audit team from the Commentary and from the UK visit. QAA overseas audit report covering The establishment and management of the collaborative provision The quality of learning opportunities and student support The assurance of the standards of awards (qualifications) Conclusions

Future developments The experience of institutions’ use of the Code, the findings from overseas audits and the increase in the use of flexible learning arrangements have contributed to the current review of Section 2 of the Code and of the QAA Guidelines for the Quality Assurance of Distance Learning A revised version of Section 2 of the Code, with a separate section on flexible and distributed learning, is in the process of development has been circulated for public comment In parallel, the process for the audit of collaborative provision (at home and abroad) is also under review

For further information…… including the outcome of the consultation on the revised Code and overseas audits keep watching……….at……..

Key findings of the first new institutional audits in England have indicated the importance of continued attention to the robustness of the quality assurance of partnership arrangements