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ISBN 1 84482 383 0
London Metropolitan University
Institutional Audit
May 2005
RG 169 11/05
Summary
Web site for London Metropolitan University
Contents
Introduction
A team of auditors from the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA) visited London Metropolitan University (the University) from 16 to 20 May 2005 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.
To arrive at its conclusions the audit team spoke to members of staff throughout the University and 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 awards. 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 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 University's policies and practices in the field of staff development, training and support, in particular the work of the Centre for Academic Professional Development and the Teaching and Learning Technology Centre
- the University's active engagement in pedagogic research, and the contribution this makes to the enhancement of the quality of learning and teaching
- the University's strategic approach to addressing issues of retention, progression and achievement, as reflected in the innovative features of the Undergraduate Modular Scheme.
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 team advises the University to:
- undertake a review of its committee structure, at departmental as well as institutional level, to ensure that the structure as a whole fulfils its regulatory and deliberative functions in an effective and economical way
- proceed with its stated intention of establishing and embedding a holistic and streamlined quality framework which enables it to have complete confidence in the quality of the student experience across all areas of the institution
- continue to review and refine its collection, analysis and dissemination of management information, particularly relating to students, so as to ensure that its implications are thoroughly understood and addressed such that they contribute optimally to the University's enhancement agenda
- ensure that, throughout the institution, the reports of external examiners are fully and appropriately addressed, and that any consequential changes are communicated directly to the external examiners themselves
- require that its monitoring, reporting and action planning arrangements ensure that realistic deadlines are set and procedures completed in a timely manner.
Summary outcomes of discipline audit trails
The audit team looked at the following areas of provision: business studies, electronic and communications engineering, fine art, information systems, philosophy and politics to establish how well the University's systems and procedures are working at the discipline level. The University provided the team with documents, including student work, and the team spoke to staff and students. As well as confirming the overall confidence statements given above, the team considered that the standard of student achievement in the six discipline areas is appropriate to the title of the awards and their place in The framework for higher education qualifications in England, Wales and Northern Ireland (FHEQ). The team considered the quality of the learning opportunities available to students is 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 that help 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, programmes specifications and the Code of practice for the assurance of academic quality and standards in higher education, published by QAA.
In due course the institutional audit process will include a check on the reliability of the information set published by institutions in the format recommended in the Higher Education Funding Council for England's (HEFCE) document, Information on quality and standards in higher education (HEFCE 02/15) and its successor HEFCE 03/51, Final guidance. The findings of the audit are that, at the time of the audit, the University was alert to the requirements set out in document HEFCE 02/15 and to the implications of document HEFCE 03/51, and was addressing its responsibilities in this respect.
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