University College Plymouth St Mark & St John

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The supervision, maintenance and development of all quality assurance procedures within the University College are within the remit of the Academic Board on whose authority regulations and procedures are issued.  The Academic Board delegates the operational implementation of these processes to one of its standing committees, the Learning, Quality and Standards Committee (LQSC). 

All University College staff should be familiar with these regulations and procedures because they are the primary means whereby the University College ensures the maintenance of quality in its academic provision and appropriate standards of its academic awards.  The systems are based on quality control through internal and external peer review, continuous monitoring and student feedback.  

Although the overall accountability for setting appropriate standards and maintaining academic quality rests with Academic Board, the day-to-day responsibility for standards and quality lies with all staff, particularly those who develop and teach the programmes. Staff development activities that promote quality teaching and learning are also the responsibility of the LQSC, through the Learning Enhancement Sub-Committee.

Peer review operates in:

• internal and external scrutiny of new provision as part of the validation process;
• periodic review and revalidation panels;
• internal audits commissioned by LQSC;
• the external examiner system;
• external review audit and inspection, eg by the QAA and Ofsted
• external academic, professional and vocational assessment and accreditation.

Academic Board monitors the effectiveness of programmes through:

• external examiners’ reports and the responses to them;
• student feedback;
• subject, programme and school meetings;
• annual subject and programme reports, leading to School summative reports to LQSC;
• Annual Programmes report;
• the Annual University College Report.

Student feedback includes

• The National Student Survey
• The University College Student Experience Questionnaire
• The University College first impressions questionnaire
• Module evaluations
• Student membership of committees and panels

The roles of the University College academic committees and management groups in relation to quality assurance (and other matters) can be found in the Committee Handbook.

From time to time the LQSC commissions internal audits of specific aspects of academic provision or of administrative or regulatory procedures, normally of relevance across the institution.  The audit is ‘in-depth’ insofar as documentary and other evidence is gathered and evaluated against an agreed framework such as the QAA Code of Practice, but ‘light-touch’ insofar as the process does not normally require those selected for audit to produce documentation other than that which should exist anyway.

LQSC produces an Audit Specification to underpin the audit activity, but inevitably the auditors will stray from that brief somewhat as they find and consider evidence in the course of the audit.

From time to time LQSC will select elements of the University College provision to audit trail the annual monitoring and reporting processes to ensure that the reports considered by the University College Committees represent the actuality of the student experience.

Quality Assurance Documentation

Documentation relating to Quality Assurance, formerly included in the Quality Assurance Handbook, is now presented as a series of separate documents on this section of the University College website under the direction of the Learning, Quality and Standards Committee. These Quality Assurance documents are (see the links below):

• Periodic Review Regulations and Guidelines
• Programme Approval Regulations and Procedures
• Annual Monitoring (draft)
• Faculty Quality Responsibilities (draft)
• Guidance on Programme Handbooks (draft)
• Student Feedback and Representation (draft)

Any queries with regard to this documentation should be addressed to the Quality Assurance Officer, Jan Scaffold, at JScaffold@marjon.ac.uk.