Notes of Guidance on Procedures Relating to the

Accreditation Panel

Accreditation Panels are convened by the Secretary(Senior Quality Assurance Administrator (Accreditation/AP[E]L), Academic Office) upon notification of a proposal to consider either:

a)External Accreditation:

  • An education and training programme of any length, delivered by and belonging to an external provider. The external accreditation process measures what already exists/what is proposed and recognises its equivalence to a defined volume and level of Anglia Ruskin general credit.
  • Participants on the programme are NOT registered as Anglia Ruskin students so cannot use the University resources and are not entered on SITS.
  • Assessments do not go to the University Assessment Panels, but are monitored by the Link Lecturer who submits an annual report on the accreditation to the Faculty Board.
  • The external company will produce a certificate for students who complete the Accreditation, which may include the words ‘Anglia Ruskin University recognises this course to be equivalent to X general credits at level X’.

OR

b)Faculty Short Course Accreditation - more than 15 credits

  • A short course delivered by and belonging to Anglia Ruskin University.
  • An External Examiner is required to be appointed for all Anglia Ruskin short courses at NQF/QCF level 5 or above.
  • All assessment results are considered by the relevant Faculty DAP.
  • A New Module Approval Form will need to be prepared and approved so the proposal can be approved in a modular format to enable results to be managed through SITS and presented at DAPs

NB: Faculty Short Course Accreditation – up to and including 15 credits

Proposals are instead considered by the respective Faculty Quality Enhancement and Standards Subcommittee (FQESS).

1. Meetings

1.1Meetings will normally be arrangedapproximately 20 working days followingnotification of a proposal, but will not normally be heldin August.

1.2 Meetings willnormally take place at the Chelmsford campus; however time and location may be varied depending on the number of Accreditations to be considered, and ease of accessibility for participants.

1.3 A standard agenda is available as a template at

J:\Services\Academic Office\Public\Accreditation of Prior Learning (APL)\EXTERNAL ACCREDITATIONS\Agenda - Ext Acc Panel.doc

1.4 All documentationfor the Accreditation Panelmust be submitted electronically to the Secretaryat least 12 working days prior to the meeting date.

2. Constitution

2.1Theconstitution of the Accreditation Panelis as follows:

A member of the Quality and Standards CommitteeChair

Two AcademicStaff Members of the Quality and Standards Committee or its Subcommittees

Director of the AcademicOffice (or nominee)

One representative from Corporate Marketing, International and Development Services

One representative from Learning Development Services (if involved)

Secretary (not a member): from the Academic Office

2.2Quoracy is based on the availability of a total of three Academic Staff Members.

3.Schedules

External Accreditations

3.1The following schedules are required to be submitted to the Secretary for each External Accreditation:

  • Accreditation Proposal Form,
  • Quality Assurance Checklist,
  • CVs
  • Student handbook or equivalent
  • Report from Faculty AP(E)L Adviser/HoD

3.2The Accreditation Proposal and QA Checklist should be completed by the external institution. The Checklist will provide additional guidance for development of the Proposal Document. Both forms are available on the curriculum website at:

and on the J-Drive at:

J:\Services\Academic Office\Public\Accreditation of Prior Learning (APL)\EXTERNAL ACCREDITATIONS\Proposal Forms

An example completed Proposal form and Checklist can also be found on the J-Drive using the link above.

3.3CVs for those who will be regularly involved in delivering the modules/programme, and a copy of any Student Handbook or equivalent should be provided by the external institution to accompany the proposal.

3.4A signed report from the relevant Faculty AP(E)L Adviser and Head of Department containing comments on the proposal MUST also be submitted with the proposal.

3.5ACredit Recognition Agreement must be completed following successful approval of an External Accreditation to finalise the approval.

  • The Faculty is responsible for completing a Draft Agreement and ensuring that all areas to be filled in are completed, and proof read for spelling and typographical errors. The Draft Agreement should then be sent to Emma Harwood to check the legal content of the Agreement before the Faculty send the Agreement to the External institution for approval and signature.
  • On return from the external institution two copies of the Agreement are to be sent to the Vice Chancellor’s Office for signature by the Secretary & Clerk or nominee from the VC’s Office, Lesley Dobree, Deputy Vice Chancellor (Academic).
  • The original copy of the Agreement will be filed by Tuuli Boateng and kept in the Office of the Secretary Clerk (please contact Tuuli Boateng if copies are required). A Copy should be retained by the Faculty and copy also sent to the Senior Quality Assurance Officer (Accreditation/AP[E]L), Academic Office.
  • On expiry of the 5 year Duration of the Credit Recognition Agreement, the Faculty will instigate the creation and signing of a new Agreement, subject to agreement by the Faculty Board following annual monitoring. If amendments are required to the external course, the Accreditation Panel (or Chair, if only minor amendments are involved) would first need to approve course changes before a renewed Agreement is created.

The Credit Recognition Agreement is available withinthe Suite of Academic Agreements contained on the office of the Secretary and Clerk’s web page:

Faculty Short Course Accreditations

3.6The following schedules are required to be submitted to Sue Frost, Academic Office (over 15 credits) OR the appropriate FQESS Officer (up to and including 15 credits) for each Faculty Short Course Accreditation:

  • Accredited Faculty Short Course Proposal Form
  • Any Course Handbook or equivalent for students
  • CVs
  • New Module Approval Form

3.7The Accredited Faculty Short Course Proposal Form is available on the curriculum website:

and the J-Drive

J:\Services\Academic Office\Public\Accreditation of Prior Learning (APL)\SHORT COURSE Accreditations\Faculty Short Course - Accreditation Proposal Form v3.doc

3.8CVs for those who will be regularly involved in delivering the short course, and a copy of any Student Handbook or equivalent should be provided by the Faculty to accompany the Proposal.

4.Consideration of Proposals

4.1Prior to each Accreditation Panel meeting a planning meeting will be held (normally for External Accreditations only). This will normally take place approximately ten working days in advance of the meeting. The Chair, the Secretary of the Accreditation Panel and the relevant Faculty AP(E)L Adviser or Accreditation representative will attend the planning meeting. At the planning meeting the documentation submitted will be considered in terms of its completeness and factual accuracy (where appropriate). At this stage, a decision will be made by the Chair as to whether to proceed with consideration of the proposal at the next meeting, based on whether the documentation provided meets the requirements (see Section 3 above). The Chair may also identify any further documentation or information required from the proposal team to be addressed either prior to or at the meeting.

4.2The relevant Faculty representative will provide feedback from the planning meeting to the proposal team and the relevant Anglia Ruskin University Head of Department.

4.3Minor revisions (constituting no more than 20% of the total) to the proposal documentation may be permitted at this stage so long as these are clearly indicated and are received by the Secretary no later than five working days in advance of the Accreditation Panel meeting.

4.4During the Accreditation Panel meeting there will be the opportunity to discuss various aspects of the proposal with members of the proposal team. Topics for discussion will be based on the headings contained within the proposal document template and will be indicated in broad terms on the Agenda for each meeting.

4.5Following consideration of each proposal the Chair of the Accreditation Panel will provide verbal feedback to the proposal team, following private consultation with Panel members. This feedback will include an indication of whether the proposal is approved, any conditions related to the approval, timescales for responding to the conditions, and the duration of the approval term (normally five years).

5.Following the Meeting

5.1Minutes of the meeting in the form of a report for each proposal under consideration shall be drafted by the Secretary and forwarded to the Chair for approval. The written report shall then becirculatedto all meeting participants.

5.2Any responses required by the proposal team to conditions of approvalset by the Accreditation Panel should be submitted to the Secretary by the date stipulated in the report. The Chair of the Accreditation Panel will consider the responses and normally be responsible for confirming if the conditions of approval have been met. Following successful approval, the Secretary will confirm the Chair’s decision by email to all participants of the meeting. The Faculty may then proceed with drafting the Credit Recognition Agreement to finalise the Accreditation (External Accreditations only).

5.3The list of current External Accreditations or Faculty Short Course Accreditations should be updated accordingly by the Secretaryto record the details of the proposal. TheExternal Accreditation approval list can be found on the J-Drive at:

J:\Services\Academic Office\Public\Accreditation of Prior Learning (APL)\EXTERNAL ACCREDITATIONS\List of Ext Accreditations.xls

And the ARU Accredited Short Course Approvals List can be found at:

J:\Services\Academic Office\Public\Accreditation of Prior Learning (APL)\SHORT COURSE Accreditations\Accredited Short Course Approvals List.xls

5.4Electronic copies of schedulesfrom each External Accreditation (or Faculty Short Course Accreditationover 15 credits) shall be uploaded by the Secretary to the J Drive at: J:\Services\Academic Office\Public\Accreditation of Prior Learning (APL)\EXTERNAL ACCREDITATIONS\External Accreditation Approval Events.

6.The Role of the Link Lecturer

6.1A link lecturer shall be appointed to each approved External Accreditation, nominated by the respective Faculty Head of Department.

6.2The role of the link lecturer will be to:

  • Externally examine/moderate assignments/assessments for the accredited course.
  • Write an Annual Monitoring Report on the external accreditation for review at the appropriate Faculty Board to monitor the learning and teaching environment and to determine the continuation of the external accreditation.
  • The link lecturer may also be available to sit on the course committee at the external institution to review student progress and experience on the course and advise on course enhancements.

7.Subsequent Approval of Course Tariffs

7.1Following successful approval as an Anglia Ruskin external accreditation,the external course may be recognised on a course tariff to ease the future admissions process of students onto Anglia Ruskin awards. Course Tariff applications should be submitted to the Faculty AP(E)L Adviser for approval and then forwarded tothe Senior Quality Assurance Administrator (Accreditation/AP[E]), Academic Office for processing. Once the course tariff approval process is complete, a course tariff record (CRN) will be added to ASTRA, linked to the appropriate course code(s). Allparticipants in the approval process will be notified when the tariff is operational.

8.Summary of Timescales

The table below provides a summary of the timescale for stages in the accreditation process:

Action Required / By Whom / By When
Notification to Secretary of proposal to be considered / Faculty APL Adviser/Faculty representative / At least 20 working days in advance of anticipated meeting
Proposal documentation (including Faculty AP(E)L Adviser’s report) to be submitted electronically to Secretary / Faculty AP(E)L Adviser/Faculty representative / At least 12 working days in advance of meeting
Planning meeting to be arranged for attendance by:
  • Chair of the Accreditation Panel
  • Faculty AP(E)L Adviser orrepresentative
  • Secretary
/ Secretary / 10 working days in advance of meeting
Feedbackfrom planning meeting to Proposal Team / Faculty AP(E)L Adviser/Faculty representative / 8 working days in advance of meeting
Minor revisions to proposal documentation to be received by Secretary (if required) / Faculty AP(E)L Adviser/Faculty representative / At least 5 working days in advance of meeting
Report for each accreditation proposal to be prepared and circulated / Secretary and Chair of Accreditation Panel / Following meeting
Responses to conditions of approval to be submitted to the Secretary / Proposal Team / By deadline set at the meeting/contained in the accreditation report
Consideration and approval of responsesto conditions of approval from the proposal team / Chair of Accreditation Panel / Following submission deadline
Facilitation of signed Credit Recognition Agreement(External Accreditations only) / Faculty staff/Office of Secretary & Clerk / Following meeting

9.Minor Amendments to External Accreditations

Amendments to accreditations may be considered by two means:

(i)As part of the original proposal procedure (see para 4.5 above for details), or

(ii)By a separate process for minor amendment to external accreditations/accredited faculty short courses which have already been approved. Details of this process are given below:

9.1The Accreditation Panel is responsible for considering proposals for minor amendments to existing external accreditations/accredited faculty short courses. Normally this is done by Chair’s action, unless the Chair requires the amendment to be considered by panel members.

9.2The minor amendment form should be submitted to the Secretary by the Faculty AP(E)L Adviser following liaison with the designated Faculty Link Lecturer (external accreditations only). Unless fully completed and explained, incomplete minor amendment forms will be returned to the Faculty Link Lecturer for revision prior to re-submission. The Renewal/Minor Amendment form can be found at:

9.3Consideration of amendments and produce three possible outcomes;

(a)approval without conditions;

(b)approval subject to satisfactory completion of conditions;

(c)rejection of proposed amendment(s).

Unless otherwise noted at the time, any amendments will be applied for the duration of the original approval (subject to Annual Monitoring procedures).

9.6The Secretary will note minor amendments on the List of current External Accreditations (or Short Course Accreditations)on the J Drive.

9.7The Proposal Team will be responsible for consulting with existing and prospective students regarding the amendments (both prior to and after the consideration process) and ensuring that any changes to the existing external accreditation are clearly communicated to students.

UpdatedAugust 2016 (sf)