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ISBN 1 84482 255 9
University of Teesside
Institutional Audit
DECEMBER 2004
RG 119 05/05
Summary
Web site for University of Teesside
Contents
Introduction
A team of auditors from the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA) visited the University of Teesside (the University) from 6 to 10 December 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 the awards that the University offers in its name.
To arrive at its conclusions the audit team spoke to members of staff throughout 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 and likely future management of the quality of its academic programmes and the academic standards of its awards.
Features of good practice
The audit team identified the following areas as being good practice:
- the range, accessibility and utility of the learning resources provided to students, including those in partner institutions
- the strength of the Higher Education Business Partnership, its value in respect of the provision of regional opportunities for higher education, and its potential for future development
- the professional commitment of academic staff in providing a high level of support for students
- the range, nature, and effectiveness of the University's access and widening participation activities and their clear link to its mission and strategic plan
- the ways in which staff development is aligned with the Learning, Teaching and Assessment Strategy to provide opportunities for all staff, including part-time staff and those in partner institutions, and the promotion of learning and teaching through a comprehensive programme for the induction and reward of staff.
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.
The University is advised to:
- develop a consistent policy on the level and availability of formative feedback prior to the final submission of assessed work
- consider the University's position on the final approval mechanism for academic programmes, and its practice in appointing chairs and members to approval panels
- make more precise and consistent the methods by which issues arising from the reports of external examiners are recorded, considered and subsequently actioned
- ensure that appropriate use is made of the wider data set now being made available to Schools for the purposes of quality assurance.
It would be desirable for the University to:
- review the current structure of committees and working groups with a view to reducing its apparent complexity, and to consider the issue of officer membership of committees within the University's deliberative structure
- review the nature, consistency, and timeliness of the annual review process to ensure that it contributes fully to the University's framework for quality management and assurance
- consider developing a University-wide systematic feedback through student evaluation and satisfaction surveys
- continue to develop the guidelines for collaborative provision in order to ensure that they are comprehensive enough to meet any future expansion, particularly of international partnerships, and to review the arrangements for the approval of such partnerships.
Business and administration studies (taught masters programmes); English; physical sciences; sociology
To arrive at the conclusions and recommendations in the paragraphs above, the audit team also conducted a number of discipline audit trails to find out how well the University's systems and procedures were working at the discipline level. The University provided the audit team with documents, including student work, and the team spoke to members of staff and current students. As well as supporting the overall confidence statement given above, the team considered that the standard of student achievement in all the programmes was appropriate to the titles of the awards and their location within The framework for higher education qualifications in England, Wales and Northern Ireland (FHEQ). The team considered that the quality of learning opportunities available to students was suitable for programmes of study leading to those awards.
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 at help to define both good practice and academic standards. The findings of the audit suggest that the University has responded appropriately to the FHEQ, subject benchmark statements, programme specifications and the Code of practice for the assurance of academic quality and standards in higher education, published by QAA.
From 2004, the published information set will include the recommended summaries of external examiners' reports and of feedback from current students for each programme. The University is alert to the requirements set out in the Higher Education Funding Council for England's (HEFCE) document 02/15, Information on quality and standards in higher education, and to the implications of HEFCE's document 03/51, Information on quality and standards in higher education: Final guidance, and is moving in an appropriate manner to fulfil its responsibilities in this respect.
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