The University of Edinburgh
College of Humanities and Social Science
Guidance on School Annual Quality Assurance and Enhancement Reporting covering academic session 2010-2011
Purpose of the guidance
The purpose of the School Annual Quality Assurance and Enhancement (QAE) Reports is:
1. To provide assurance that monitoring and review are being carried out effectively within the School
2. To report on key trends/issues arising from monitoring and review activities in the past year and how the School intends to respond
3. To provide an update on progress in relation to the School and College Learning and Teaching Strategy and related University strategies
4. To identify and share good practice across Schools within each College and to feed in to similar identification and sharing at University level
The guidance forms part of the University’s quality assurance and enhancement framework and applied to all Schools within the University
The QAE annual reporting process
· Schools should email their annual QAE reports to Lynn Hyams, CHSS Academic Affairs Officer, at no later than Friday 27 January 2012 Please ensure the checklist (at Appendix 2) is placed at the front of the report
· Reports should be no more than 20 pages plus appendices and bullet points should be used where possible to enhance clarity
· The College Directors of Quality Assurance Group (DofQAG) will consider these School reports at sub-group meetings in February 2012
· The outcomes of the sub-group meetings will be discussed at the 14 March 2012 DofQAG
· Following this meeting, the College will submit its annual QAE report to the Senatus Quality Assurance Committee (SQAC) for its comments and approval
· For any queries please contact Lynn Hyams on 51 3168 or
· Schools are encouraged to publish their annual QAE reports on their School websites. If, for any reason, this is not possible, then Schools should, as a minimum make their reports available to students eg via their SSLC, wiki or other internal communication channels
Office of Lifelong Learning: The College Office will continue to discuss with OLL appropriate approaches to QAE monitoring in line with the College and University overall frameworks to include the ECA Art & Design Studies courses.
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Guidance on School annual QAQ reporting issued Sept 2011 to cover academic year 2010/11
The Guidance
1. Introduction
1.1 Brief overview of the School
1.2 Brief overview of the scale and scope of learning and teaching activities
1.3 Overview of the key features of annual monitoring and review in the School,
including student engagement with Quality Assurance (QA) processes.
2. Actions taken as a result of issues raised in the previous year’s
report
3. Assurance of Quality and Standards
(to reflect on key trends/issues arising from each of the following and to identify areas for follow-up and action for the School, the College or the University)
3.1 Annual monitoring and review of courses and programmes (with any specific
issues for UG, PGT and PGR noted separately, including an update on the status
of programme specifications)
3.2 Annual monitoring and review of Continuing Professional Development (CPD)
3.3 Student performance and achievement (including presentation and analysis of
statistics for UG, PGT and PGR). [See Appendix 1 for more information on what
Schools should provide as statistical appendices to their reports]
3.4 Feedback from External Examiner Reports with any specific issues for UG, PGT
and PGR noted separately. [Include action taken to resolve identified
issues/problems raised in previous External Examiner reports]
3.5 Feedback from students: an outline of processes for obtaining feedback and the
key trends arising from these. (including internal course and programme
feedback surveys and external surveys such as NSS, PRES, PTES and ISB)
3.6 Internal Reviews - TPRs/PPRs (including subject-specific remit items and
recommendations from reviews)
3.7 External Reviews (including accreditation reviews).
3.8 Peer observation of practice. Reflections on peer observation of teaching should
not be restricted to the formal recording of POT activity, but can include wider
observation of learning and teaching practice, moderation, feedback to markers
on their feedback to students, and peer teaching. The emphasis should be on
surfacing good practice.
3.9 Collaborative provision (Instances of collaborative provision, key features of QA
processes and trends/issues arising)
3.10 Summary of key issues arising from the annual monitoring and review of quality
and standards and implications for enhancement (a summary of key issues
arising from sections 3.1 to 3.9)
4. Enhancement and Good Practice
4.1 Update on progress in relation to the School and College Learning and Teaching Strategies and related University strategies
4.2 Update on activities in support of QAA Enhancement Themes (relating to current and previous Enhancement Themes
4.3 If not already addressed in the School Learning and Teaching Strategy, the report should also include reflections on the effectiveness of the School’s approach to:
4.3.1 Graduate attributes and employability
4.3.2 Pastoral and Academic Support (including comment on the status of the ‘Pastoral and Academic Support Standards and Guiding Principles’)
4.3.3 Assessment and Feedback: how key trends arising from feedback are being addressed (including comment on the status of the ‘Feedback Standards and Guiding Principles’)
4.3.4 Equality and Diversity
4.3.5 Accessible Learning (including framework for monitoring, evaluating and revising processes and future progress, meeting needs of Distance Learning students and studio-based practice)
4.3.6 Teaching and Learning spaces (including salient aspects of the physical estate and e-learning)
4.4 Summary of enhancement and good practice for sharing across Schools and Colleges.
5. Forward Look
5.1 Summary of recommendations for action by the School or by the College or other University departments arising from the Annual Report
5.2 Identification of themes to be taken forward by the School (progress on these to be reported in section 2 of the report in the following year)
Appendices
Include as appendices the following (either as hard copy or via url):
1. Remit and membership of the School QAE Committees
2. Statistics and tables of data on student performance (ie School-level overview of
aggregated data presented in a way meaningful for the College and highlighting
areas for attention)
3. TPR/PPR Responses
4. List of External Examiners
5. PSRB accreditations
Appendix 1
PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS OF UG & PG STATISTICS
The data should be collected through EUCLID
The College will provide standard data on joint degree outcomes
Schools should provide statistical appendices to their reports showing:
· Final grade profiles for first- and second-year undergraduate level courses for 2010-11 and the two previous years in order to set the most recent results in a broader context
A separate table for each pre-honours course should show the number/proportion of students that failed or withdrew from the courses, as well as the grades that students achieved. A separate table should show aggregate data for pre-honours courses
· Degree outcomes for Honours programmes covering 2010-11 and the two previous years. A separate table should be given for each Honours degree and separate tables should be provided for joint Honours degree which should also include data on joint degrees even where they are not the lead. A separate table should show aggregate data for Honours degrees (NB Schools should consider aggregating data on joint Honours degrees, where a small number of students are involved)
· Degree outcomes for all taught postgraduate programmes and all research postgraduate programmes with a significant taught element, covering 2010-11 and at least the two previous years
(NB Schools should consider aggregating data for programmes with small numbers of students)
NB Schools should not include data on Honours and PG level taught courses. However, they should confirm in their QAE reports that they have produced and analysed this data.
An analysis, in the main body of the report, should be provided on what the data says about the quality and standards of their teaching, including providing comments on anomalous results. The following headings may be useful:
· trends in terms of failures and withdrawals for first- and second-year undergraduate level courses
· trends across classifications for Honours programmes
· trends across classifications for Masters programmes
· the continuing impact of the introduction of the Extended Common Marking Scheme on course outcomes and degree classifications
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Guidance on School annual QAQ reporting issued Sept 2011 to cover academic year 2010/11
Appendix 2
College of Humanities and Social Sciences
Checklist for School QAE Report for Academic Year 2010-2011
School of …………………………………..
This checklist should be placed at the front of the QAE Report
1 / Have all taught Undergraduate and Postgraduate courses within the School supplied a course monitoring form? / Yes / No2 / If No to question 1 is an explanation given in Quality Report? / Yes / No
3 / If No to question 1 have steps been taken to remedy this? / Yes / No
4 / Have you attached the full range of statistics required?
Breakdown of marks for UG and taught PG courses, final degree classifications for all UG programmes? / Yes / No
5 / Have the above statistics been analysed? / Yes / No
6 / Has a statement of QA procedures in the School been included? / Yes / No
7 / Have External Examiners reports been discussed and have the responses to any issues raised been included in the Report? / Yes / No
8 / Have there been any programme reviews in the past year? / Yes / No
9 / If Yes to question 8, does the report describe action to be taken in response to the review? / Yes / No
10 / Have you included a note of actions taken in response to issues raised in last year’s QAE Report? / Yes / No
11 / Have all courses issued a student questionnaire? / Yes / No
12 / Do procedures exist for ensuring that comments from Staff-Student Liaison Committees have been responded to? / Yes / No
13 / Has a report on the implementation of the College Learning and Teaching Strategy been included? / Yes / No
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Guidance on School annual QAQ reporting issued Sept 2011 to cover academic year 2010/11