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The definitive source of information about the University's policies and procedures. Click here to access it.
These describe what is taught and learnt, how, and at what stage in a student's career. The content of the curriculum, the rate at which students are introduced to new concepts and skills, and the methods of teaching, learning and assessment used are the most important aspects of standards. External reference points, such as subject benchmark statements, the Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework level descriptors and reports from the University's external examiners, are used to ensure that the academic standards set by the University are appropriate.
There are two ASCs, one for undergraduate matters and another for postgraduate matters. The ASCs work closely with the University Committee on Teaching and Learning (UCTL). UCTL is the forum for development of policies and procedures, and the ASCs do much of the work associated with putting these into practice. Key quality assurance functions of the ASCs include: scrutiny of proposals to introduce, withdraw or amend courses or programmes (a task shared with the College Teaching and Learning Committees); and overview of the Schools' response to student course evaluation forms, external examiners' reports and internal teaching review reports. The ASCs are also responsible for regulating students' terms of study, as set out in the various degree regulations, and for supervising the University's systems of academic guidance and support for students.
The University of Aberdeen’s unit which provides help and support to all staff on matters related to teaching and learning as well as providing generic staff development opportunities. Offers one-to-one consultancy for staff, bespoke workshops on all matters related to teaching and learning and delivers the Postgraduate Certificate in Higher Education Teaching. Access the CLT homepage here, or to view all support units click here.
Location: University Office
Contact: Jen McLean - j.mclean@abdn.ac.uk, ext. 3030
The three College Teaching and Learning Committees, chaired by the College Directors of Teaching and Learning, oversee teaching-related matters at College level. Although the CTLCs must work within the regulations and policy framework prescribed by Senate, they do have considerable autonomy to introduce strategies and take actions that are specific to individual Colleges. A key function of all three CTLCs, working in conjunction with the Academic Standards Committees, is to scrutinise proposals to introduce, withdraw or amend courses and programmes.
ELIR is similar to the process of Internal Teaching Review (ITR), but it examines the institution, not its constituent teaching departments. ELIR provides a check on an institution's quality assurance procedures. More importantly, it provides a formal focus for its programme of quality enhancement, defined as
"taking deliberate steps to bring about continuous improvement in the effectiveness of the learning experience of students."
The University's arrangements for ITR, publication of public information and student involvement in quality processes will be subject to scrutiny; as will the use we have made of the quality enhancement engagements. In this way, the ELIR itself draws together the various aspects of the new quality framework. ELIR will be conducted by an external, peer-review team, made up of academics, academic managers, and students, supported by staff from the Quality Assurance Agency (QAA Scotland). The review proceeds as follows:
The review process is intended to be constructive and consultative rather than confrontational. Although ELIR is to operate within specified sector-wide criteria (e.g., the agreed vision of what makes for a quality higher education sector), individual institutions will have the opportunity to negotiate the terms of appraisal, and to highlight specific initiatives of particular relevance (e.g., by way of the case studies attached to the Reflective Analysis). The University of Aberdeen is scheduled for ELIR in 2004/2005. The outcome of ELIR will be a public report on the University's overall ability to provide its students with a high quality learning experience.
The Higher Education Academy is an independent organisation dedicated to improving teaching and learning in the UK's higher education institutions. It is funded by the Higher Education Funding Councils and by the HEIs themselves. The HEA was formed in May 2004 by merger of the Institute for Learning and Teaching in Higher Education (ILTHE), the Learning and Teaching Support Network (LTSN) and the Teaching Quality Enhancement Fund National Coordination Team (TQEF NCT).
The Higher Education Academy will:
The HEA acts as the UK's professional body for HE teaching staff. It accredits training programmes for HE teachers (including the University of Aberdeen's Postgraduate Certificate in Higher Education) and maintains an official Register of Practitioners, consisting of staff who have demonstrated their professional competence and commitment to the satisfaction of the HEA's accreditors. How to become a Registered Practitioner
The HEA undertakes a wide range of thematic work that covers general (i.e., not discipline-specific) aspects of teaching and learning (as managed previously by the LTSN's Generic Centre). Thematic work includes guidance on good practice in assessment, curriculum, employability, learning & teaching, professional development, quality enhancement and widening participation. To access the HEA thematic work, go to: http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/scotland/ourwork/thematicareas
Consists of 24 Subject Centres covering all academic disciplines that provide free online resources supporting most areas of course and programme design. Each Centre is staffed (not just a virtual presence), and will answer questions online or will travel to Institutions to provide specific development and support. Subject Centres also provide small grants (up to £2k) to support innovations in teaching.
Higher education institution.
Internal Teaching Review is exactly what it says it is: an ‘in-house’ review of a School’s or Department's teaching-related activities. The aims of the review are:
The Review is carried out by an independent panel made up of staff from the University, a student representative appointed by the Students’ Association, and one or two specialists from other institutions brought in to offer an outside perspective on the School’s or Department's teaching activities. The process is managed by staff from the University Registry. The panel examines a range of documentary evidence supplied by the School or Department, follows this up with a series of interviews conducted with staff and students, and finally writes up its findings as a formal report. The report will publicise those things that a School or Department does well, but it will also identify those areas in which there is room for improvement. The report will be made available, via the web, to all staff and students in the University. A year after the report’s production, a follow-up check of the School or Department will be made to ensure that issues identified by the panel have been addressed.
An important feature of ITR is that it is now the only holistic review of a School's educational provision that takes place. Under SHEFC's new Quality Enhancement Framework, the previous system of external subject reviews carried out by QAA-appointed teams has been abandoned. ITR thus feeds directly into Enhancement-Led Institutional Review (ELIR): the external review of quality across the whole University carried out every four years by the Quality Assurance Agency.
Further details & archive of ITR reports:
The College of Life Sciences and Medicine's Medi-CAL Unit produces leading-edge multimedia applications in medicine for medical students, postgraduate students, healthcare workers and patients. The Unit is also actively involved with technical and educational research.
The Unit draws upon graphic, photographic and video expertise within the Department of Medical Illustration and this, combined with a team of dedicated developers, provides the College with a full multimedia production unit. Access the Medi-CAL Unit homepage here, or to view all support units click here.
Location: Polwarth Building, Foresterhill
Tel: Neil Hamilton, 553813
Sometimes professional, statutory and regulatory bodies (PSRBs). There are numerous organisations that act as gatekeepers to certain professions, setting standards for entry to, and progression up, the career structure. These organisations are PSBs. Many HE courses are vocationally or professionally orientated, in that they offer intellectual and practical training for particular jobs. Successful completion of a course approved by a PSB can entitle someone to membership of that PSB, sometimes at an advanced level of entry, and can confer exemption from professional exams. Thus the PSBs are keen to ensure that the standards and quality of relevant courses taught by HE institutions are up to scratch. To this end, PSBs run formal accreditation procedures that decide whether or not a particular course or programme gets the profession's stamp of approval. These are typically similar to, if sometimes more rigorous, than internal teaching reviews, and so represent another layer of quality assurance. Some examples of PSBs that accredit degree programmes at the University of Aberdeen are:
This involves making sure that academic standards and quality of provision are satisfactory, so that students, their families, employers and the tax-paying public all get a good deal on their investment in higher education.
The QAA is a UK-wide semi-public body that:
and
The QAA works closely with the higher education sector's 'stakeholders': the funding councils, universities and colleges, staff, students and employers. The QAA acts variously as a think-tank, a spokesperson, and a watchdog. It is responsible for the management of much of what is called the "academic infrastructure" – the guidelines, resources and procedures that both enable and constrain the activities of the UK's higher education institutions. Key elements of this academic infrastructure are the:
Because higher education in Scotland is separately funded, and has several aspects of policy that are distinctly different to the rest of the UK, the QAA has a separate Scottish Office. This is responsible, in conjunction with SHEFC, for administration of the new procedures for assurance of standards and enhancement of quality: the Quality Enhancement Framework.
http://www.qaa.ac.uk/academicinfrastructure/codeOfPractice/default.asp
Properly The Code of Practice for Assurance of Academic Quality and Standards in Higher Education. The Code has ten sections (as of March 2004) that cover topics such as recruitment & admissions, degree programme approval & review, assessment, external examiners and academic appeals. It is designed as an authoritative reference point that defines what institutions are expected to do to uphold the quality and standards of the education that they provide. To take account of the different circumstances of individual institutions, the Code works with general principles (or "precepts") with which institution-specific practices should conform. The extent to which subject providers or institutions meet the Code's expectations is a prominent feature of QAA reviews.
These define the achievement (how much work at what level of difficulty) represented by various Higher Education awards (certificates, diplomas, undergraduate and postgraduate degrees). There is one qualifications framework for England, Wales and Northern Ireland, and a separate one for Scotland. The Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework defines a single structure that incorporates school, further and higher education qualifications.
http://www.qaa.ac.uk/academicinfrastructure/benchmark/default.asp
The subject benchmark statements cover the most popular subject areas, and suggest what knowledge and skills a student should acquire to merit a degree in that subject. The benchmark statements define these learning outcomes in general terms only, so that the traditional freedom of individual staff and departments to decide the details of what they teach is preserved. Thus the benchmark statements stop short of acting as a formal syllabus. As with the Code of Practice, QAA reviews (and the University of Aberdeen's Internal Teaching Reviews) focus on the extent to which a department's teaching matches the expectations of the benchmark statements.
Specific prescriptions for what a particular degree should include are often set by professional or statutory bodies (PSBs) that accredit degrees in subjects such as education, engineering, law or medicine. These are also regarded as part of the academic infrastructure.
http://www.qaa.ac.uk/academicinfrastructure/programSpec/default.asp
Programme specifications set out what is taught and assessed, in what way, at what level as part of a specific degree programme. As such, programme specifications are closely related to the subject benchmark statements. It is intended that programme specifications should provide staff and students with a clear indication of the knowledge, subject-specific skills and transferable (practical and intellectual) skills that students should acquire at each stage of their programme of study. However, the status of programme specifications is under review in Scotland. It was recognised that the complex documents produced to meet the expectations of external subject reviews carried out by Quality Assurance Agency-appointed inspectors (a practice that Scotland has now abandoned under the new Quality Enhancement Framework) often did not meet the needs of staff or, especially, students, in this respect.
This involves working continually to make things better, however good the existing quality of provision. Quality enhancement is where it's at in Scottish higher education at present.
As part of the new framework, particular themes are selected by the HE sector each year to provide a Scotland-wide focus for activity that shares experience and simultaneously provides an opportunity for staff and students 'at the chalkface' to contribute to innovative work that produces rapid change for the better. The enhancement themes selected for 2003/2004 were Assessment and Responding to Student Needs, for 2004/2005 were Employability and Flexible Delivery (i.e., of teaching and learning opportunities), for 2005/2006 were Flexible Delivery and Integrative Assessment, followed in 2006-2008 by Research-Teaching Linkages and the First Year. The current theme is Graduates for the 21st Century. The engagements are managed by steering groups made up of staff and students from Scotland's HEIs. Typical thematic activities include specially-commissioned research work, and presentations by experts as part of workshops for staff and students. It is intended that this work should produce material that staff and institutions can, and will, use to improve relevant aspects of provision.
This is the name given to the new package of quality-related measures introduced by the former Scottish Higher Education Funding Council (now SFC) in 2003. The QEF is designed to build on the past achievements of the Scottish HE sector. The comprehensive programme of institutional audit and individual subject review undertaken in the ten years or so prior to 2003, showed that, for the most part, existing quality procedures across the HE sector were effective, and that students and other stakeholders found the quality of education provided highly satisfactory. This created the opportunity to move to a new framework for review, intended to be less bureaucratic and less confrontational than its predecessor. The QEF has two key aims:
The QEF consists of five interlinked elements:
This describes how well students are catered for. The concept includes the quality of the delivery of the curriculum (as opposed to its content) as well as the quality of learning resources and support services made available to students. Thus, it is possible for an individual, a school or an institution to teach brilliantly at an inappropriate standard, or to teach poorly at an appropriate standard.
The SCQF covers the major types of academic award available in Scotland, starting at school-level (e.g., Standard Grades and Highers), moving through vocational qualifications often taught in further education colleges (e.g., SVQs – Scottish Vocational Qualifications – and HNCs/HNDs – Higher National Certificates and Diplomas) to degrees awarded by universities: Bachelors, Honours, Masters and Doctoral degrees. The SCQF does three main things:
By the end of academic year 2003/04, all of the University of Aberdeen's awards will comply with the SCQF. It is important that a School can, if asked, demonstrate to the appropriate College Teaching and Learning Committee, Academic Standards Committee or Internal Teaching Review panel that its courses and programmes merit the position attributed to them in terms of the SCQF.
The Scottish Government is the devolved government for Scotland. The Scottish Parliament has responsibility for education and training; accordingly, the Scottish Government is responsible for development, funding (see SFC) and review of higher education policy. The fact that it is the Scottish Parliament, not the Westminster Parliament, that decides higher education policy is extremely important; for instance, both the tuition fee structure and the quality assurance regime in Scotland differ significantly from those in force in England.
To access the higher education pages of the Scottish Government website, go to:
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Education/UniversitiesColleges/16640
SFC is the principal source of funding for Scotland's twenty higher education institutions. It is a public body, but it is not part of the Scottish Executive. SFC is responsible for distributing the money allocated to it by the Scottish Government – about £800 million pounds per year (2003). Funds from SFC are used to fund teaching, research, and various support services. SFC works with the Government, the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education, Scotland's HEIs, students and employers to develop and carry out policy.
To receive funding from SFC, institutions must show that their activities meet SFC's conditions of grant. The conditions of grant reflect the priorities for higher education identified by the Scottish Executive and SFC. The current conditions of grant require institutions to promote:
The Students' Association provides a full range of services to students at the University of Aberdeen. Part of its job is to act as the union that represents students' interests within the University and elsewhere. It works to ensure that students are consulted about their experience in thorough and representative ways, so that students can make an effective input into matters of quality assurance and enhancement. The SA oversees operation of the class representative system. The SA's officers also sit on College and University committees that discuss the quality of education provided within the University.
The University of Aberdeen’s unit which provides help and support to all students on matters relating to their learning and study. Offers one-to-one consultancy for students and bespoke workshops on matters relating to study and transferable skills. The Student Learning Service is part of the Centre for Learning & Teaching. Access the SLS homepage here, or to view all support units click here.
Location: University Office, Old Aberdeen
Tel: Christine Laennec, ext. 3190 or Mary Pryor, ext. 3523
http://www.abdn.ac.uk/registry/quality/appendix3x2.pdf
The UCTL regulates teaching within the University on behalf of the Senate. It is particularly concerned with matters of University-wide policy and the institution's procedures for quality assurance and quality enhancement. The UCTL is chaired by the Vice-Principal (Teaching and Learning), and includes representatives from the University Court, the three Colleges, the Academic Standards Committees and the Students' Association. Representatives from the University's educational support services also attend.
Quality Enhancement
University of Aberdeen · University Office · Regent Walk ·
Aberdeen · AB24 3FX
Tel: ++44 (0) 1224 273030 · Fax : ++44 (0) 1224 273386 Email :
d.comber@abdn.ac.uk
Last Modified: Wednesday, 10-Feb-2010 16:39:56 GMT
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