The future of quality assessmentUUK Members’ Meeting

Madeleine Atkins

Chief Executive, HEFCE

Woburn House

5 December 2014

• How do we best secure world-leading teaching and learning? And support innovation and flexibility?

• Can one concept of ‘quality’ still hold good? One QA system? For all providers? At all stages of their development?

• How do we still achieve reasonable comparability of degree standards?

• What recognition should we give to QA systems in other jurisdictions? Should HEIs have choice?

• How should we detect and deal with inadequate quality or standards?

Some Questions for 2025

• Recognises the autonomy of HEIs

• Is based on co-regulation

• Works well for different missions

• Enables HEIs to be agile and responsive

• Is risk-based and proportionate

• Is clearly bounded and avoids ‘creep’

• Is affordable

• Is intelligently operated with understanding of the cultures and norms in the sector

• [Others?]

Important principles for QA in 2025

• HEIs’ own approval processes for new programmes

• Regular (eg quinquennial) review of existing programmes including external expert and student inputs

• Frequent review and modification of academic regulations under the single corporate actor principle

• Review of courses against measures of student satisfaction, market demand, disciplinary developments, etc.

• External Examiner system

Current internal co-regulation mechanisms

• The NSS, KIS and DLHE

• PSRBs

• Annual Monitoring Statements

• Financial and governance requirements in the MAA

• Annual data returns and audits

• CUC Code of Practice

• Home Office/UKVI procedures for Tier 4 licence and likely future monitoring for counter-terrorism compliance

• League Tables

Examples of current external mechanisms

• The Quality Code and Subject Benchmarks

• Concerns procedure

• Higher Education Review (HER) every six years

The current QA mechanisms

• Larger: greater diversity of providers, provision and delivery modes

• New forms of internet-based learning

• Stronger demands and expectations from students

• Employers demanding more advanced knowledge, expertise and skills

• New corporate and legal forms. New types of partnership and collaboration

• Financial markets with greater stake

• Presence in several jurisdictions and global delivery as routine

What might the sector look like in 2025?

• What confidence should students expect to take from the QA arrangements?

• What confidence will employers seek from the QA arrangements?

• What assurance should Government and the taxpayer take from the QA arrangements?

• What value should the QA arrangements bring to HE providers?

Some Questions for 2025

Steering Group

Two-phase sector & stakeholder engagement:

• January 2015: initial discussion document

Conferences, themed roundtables, and regional meetings

• Post-election May 2015: Second document with options for consultation

• Further engagement with sector and stakeholders from May to July 2015

• September 2015: QA specification: Funding bodies decide whether, and if so, what to tender

Timetable for conducting the review

• Seeing whether the Finch Report recommendations to strengthen the External Examiner system have been implemented and with what effect

• Discussion piece on QA systems in our major competitor countries

• Discussion piece on QA approaches in other sectors

• Piece of work on the costs and value-for -money of the current QA system

Stimulating discussion

• HEFCE will contract with the QAA for an additional year in 2015-16 to allow time for the review process

• Current quality assessment arrangements will continue up to 31st July 2016

• Institutions scheduled to be reviewed in 2016-17 will be contacted by HEFCE in due course

• Institutions can find their current review date on the QAA website

What is happening in the meantime?

How to find out more

e-mailQualityassessmentreview@hefce.ac.uk

Twitter http://twitter.com/hefce

web-site www.hefce.ac.uk

governance-hefce e-mail distribution list