Introduction
A team of auditors from the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA) visited the University of Hertfordshire (the University) from 22 to 26 November 2004 to carry out an institutional audit. The purpose of the audit was to provide public information on the quality of the opportunities available to students and on the academic standards of awards.
To arrive at its conclusions the audit team spoke to members of staff from across the University, to current students, and read a wide range of documents relating to the way the University manages the academic aspects of its provision.
The words 'academic standards' are used to describe the level of achievement that a student has to reach to gain an award (for example, a degree). It should be at a similar level across the UK.
Academic quality is a way of describing how well the learning opportunities available to students help them to achieve their award. It is about making sure that appropriate teaching, support, assessment and learning opportunities are provided for them.
In institutional audit, both academic standards and academic quality are reviewed
Outcome of the audit
As a result of its investigations, the audit team's view of the University is that:
- broad confidence can be placed in the soundness of the University's current management of the academic quality of its programmes, and
- broad confidence can be placed in the institutional level capacity to manage effectively the security of its awards.
Features of good practice
The audit team identified the following areas as being good practice:
- the strong student focus of the University's development plans, as demonstrated by a number of initiatives including the de Havilland Campus, the Learning Resource Centres and the Student Centre
- the design, development and utilisation of the University's managed learning environment, StudyNet, which offers outstanding potential for the University's planned move towards a pedagogy of blended learning
- the arrangements for the annual appraisal of academic staff which integrate peer observation and student feedback into the appraisal process, and use the outcomes to inform staff development planning
- the quality, range and accessibility of the University's staff development programme which is well utilised by staff and includes specific training for quality assurance roles and activities
- the establishment of Genesis, a highly effective system which delivers timely and reliable management information to support institutional monitoring and planning.
Recommendations for action
The audit team also recommends that the University should consider further action in a number of areas to ensure that the academic quality and standards of the awards it offers are maintained.
It would be advisable for the University to:
- establish, in the full implementation of its Assessment Strategy, the consistent use of a single university-wide marking scale so as to provide clear information to students, staff and external examiners.
It would be desirable for the University to:
- clarify and strengthen its published regulatory guidance so as to include more detailed reference to The framework for higher education qualifications in England, Wales and Northern Ireland (FHEQ), published by QAA, or to other descriptors of levels and qualifications aligned with the FHEQ, as normative points of reference for programme and module development, validation and review.
- establish institutional criteria which enable the appropriate differentiation of programme and award titles
- develop and publish generic assessment criteria so as to clarify the University's broad expectations of student academic performance at different levels
- make the fullest use of its student data, particularly those relating to student progression and retention, and to reflect these in its ongoing management of student admissions policies.
Summary outcomes of the discipline audit trails
BA (Hons) Business Studies (Sandwich); BA (Hons) Business Administration; BSc (Hons) Business Information Systems (full-time and Sandwich awards); BEng (Hons) Aerospace Engineering; BEng (Hons) Aerospace Systems Engineering; Modular BSc (Hons) Computer Science; MSc Computer Science; BA (Hons) Applied Arts; MA Art Therapy
The audit team also looked at these specific areas of provision by undertaking audit trails to find out how well the University's systems and procedures were working at the discipline level. The University provided the team with documents, including student assessed work and, here too, the team met with staff and students. The findings of the team in the four discipline areas supported the overall confidence statements given above. The team considered that the standard of student achievement in each of the four discipline areas was appropriate to the title of the award and its location within the FHEQ, and that the quality of learning opportunities available to students was suitable for a programme of study leading to that award.
National reference points
To provide further evidence to support its findings the audit team also investigated the use made by the University of the Academic Infrastructure which QAA has developed on behalf of the whole of UK higher education. The Academic Infrastructure is a set of nationally agreed reference points that help to define both good practice and academic standards. The findings of the audit suggest that the University has embedded the majority of these developments into its management of quality and standards in a timely manner.
From the end of 2004, QAA's audit teams will comment on the reliability of the information about academic quality and standards that institutions will be required to publish, which is listed in the Higher Education Funding Council for England's document 03/51, Information on quality and standards in higher education: Final guidance. The institutional audit process has included a check on the reliability of the information sets published by institutions in the format recommended in document HEFCE 03/51. The University is alert to the publication requirements and the audit found that it had made substantial progress towards fulfilling its responsibilities in this regard.
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ISBN 1 84482 250 8
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