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Quality Assurance and Teaching and Learning

Quality Assurance and Teaching and Learning

Quality Assurance and Teaching and Learning are important strands of work in Higher Education Policy Branch (HEPB). The Department is committed to ensuring that all HE students benefit from a high quality learning experience fully meeting their needs and the needs of the economy and society.

In a competitive world, attracting and retaining the best students is vital.  All higher education institutions need to strive for excellence in teaching to fulfill the expectations of their students and other stakeholders.

Quality and standards in Higher Education

The Department is responsible for ensuring that the quality and standard of higher education delivered in Northern Ireland meets agreed UK standards.  To do this effectively the Department contracts the Quality Assurance Agency (www.qaa.ac.uk) to safeguard public confidence and to encourage continuous improvement in managing the quality of higher education. The QAA works with the HE sector including government bodies, HE sector representative bodies and higher education institutions to define academic standards and quality in accordance with the UK Quality Code. They carry out and publish reviews against these standards.

In 2010 following the recommendations of a public consultation the Department instructed the QAA to introduce a new process for Institutional review for England and Northern Ireland.  It is envisaged that each higher education institution in England and Northern Ireland will take part in Institutional review approximately once every six years. Reports for each institution will be published on the QAA website.

Institutional Reviews

From September 2011 the Institutional review will initially make judgments’ in three areas: standards, quality and enhancement.

Institutions will receive one of two judgments on standards. Academic standards will either 'meet UK expectations for threshold standards' or 'not meet UK expectations for threshold standards'.

Quality and enhancement will be graded against four possible judgments:

  • 'is commended'
  • 'meets UK expectations'
  • 'requires improvement to meet UK expectations'
  • 'does not meet UK expectations'

Formal judgments on the quality of public information will begin in 2012-13.

The focus of the judgement on public information will be on the completeness, currency, reliability and accessibility of the information provided by institutions and on the usefulness of the information to potential students, employers and the wider public. It will not be a judgement on the accuracy of the detailed information in the Key Information Set (KIS).

Providing information about higher education

Providing information about higher education is one of the priorities for Higher Education Division.  Higher Education Policy Branch works with the HE sector throughout the UK to make it easier to access the existing wider set of information that higher education institutions publish about their courses and agree on a Key Information Set (KIS) of comparable standardised information about undergraduate courses.

Key Information Set (KIS)

The KIS will contain areas of information that students have identified as useful. These areas are:

  • student satisfaction
  • course information
  • employment and salary data
  • accommodation costs
  • financial information, such as fees
  • students' union information

There will be a KIS for all undergraduate courses (including part-time) planned for 2013-14, on which students at HEIs are registered, The information to populate the KIS will be sourced from the National Students Survey (NSS), the Destination of Leavers of Higher Education (DLHE), and directly from the institutions Much of the information needed for the KIS already exists in national and comparable forms.

Wider Information Set (WIS)

This information is categorised in three ways

  • Publicly available information published on the institutions web site
  • Information available internally for students and staff
  • Information available on request

The aim is to ensure that the information provided:

  • Informs people about the quality of HE and, in particular, gives prospective students information that will help them make informed choices of what and where to study
  • Can be used as evidence in the higher education quality assurance Institutional Review process
  • Can be used by institutions to enhance the quality of their HE provision

Ongoing reviews

The Department in collaboration with the rest of the UK HE Sector will keep the wider information set under review, and take advice from approved sector bodies and steering group where it is judged that amendments are needed.

During 2014-15 academic year, in collaboration with the rest of the UK HE Sector the Department will conduct a review of the NSS and Unistats, and carry out and evaluation of the KIS.

Other Links to pubic information

National Students Survey/Unistats

The main purpose of the National Student Survey is to help inform the choices of future students.

The main function of the Unistats website is to provide access to key statistics and reports on the quality of teaching at all HEIs in the UK, giving official detailed quantitative data on students’ entry qualifications, progression, and the completion of awards and subsequent employment.

Teaching and Learning

In order to encourage excellence in teaching and learning at Northern Ireland HEI’s the Department contracts the Higher Education Academy to help institutions, subject groups and staff to provide the best possible learning experience for their students. As part of this the HEA work to raise the standing and recognition of learning and teaching in higher education right across the UK.

The Department promotes and supports The National Teaching Fellowship Scheme which recognises and rewards excellent learning and teaching. It is open to all higher education institutions in England, Northern Ireland and, since Autumn 2010, Wales.

In 2011 following a public consultation the Department worked with the Higher Education Academy and other UK HE sector representative bodies to agree on a revised UK Professional Standards Framework for teaching and supporting learning in Higher Education (UKPSF). The UKPSF is a flexible framework which uses a descriptor-based approach to professional standards. At the heart of this framework is acknowledgement of the distinctive nature of teaching in higher education, respect for the autonomy of higher education institutions, and recognition of the sector’s understanding of quality enhancement for improving student learning

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