Higher Education Quality Council
HEQC OVERSEAS PARTNERSHIP AUDITS
UNIVERSITY OF ABERTAY DUNDEE
and
SYSTEMATIC BUSINESS TRAINING CENTRE, MALAYSIA
DECEMBER 1996
ISBN 1 85824 326 2
PREFACE
The Higher Education Quality Council (HEQC) is collectively owned by the universities, colleges and other higher education institutions in the United Kingdom. Established in 1992, the Council contributes to the maintenance and improvement of the quality and standards of the teaching, learning and student assessment for which these institutions are responsible, wherever and however academic programmes are offered. With this objective, HEQC undertakes regular academic quality audits of individual institutions to review the operation and effectiveness of arrangements for assuring quality and standards.
Quality audits also cover the arrangements which institutions use to assure the quality and standards of their awards and programmes offered in collaboration with other partners, both within and outside the UK. As part of this process, HEQC has extended the scope of audit to include visits to the overseas partners of UK institutions, thus enabling the same enquiries to be made outside the UK concerning arrangements for quality assurance and the safeguarding of standards of the academic awards made by UK institutions.
A pilot programme of visits was undertaken between April and June 1996 to a sample of overseas partner institutions offering programmes leading to the awards of 15 UK institutions. This initiative has been designed to consolidate confidence in the work of British universities and colleges operating outside the UK.
These audit enquiries were assisted by the publication in November 1995 of HEQC's Code of Practice for Overseas Collaborative Provision in Higher Education. This offers guidance on good practice and a framework within which institutions can review and consider their current and future activities. The Code of Practice has been widely welcomed and has been used as a common point of reference for the pilot programme of overseas visits.
Although the Code assisted audit enquiries, we do not claim that it is a definitive check list. Audit teams did not use the pilot visits to 'measure' participating UK institutions' compliance with the Code, since it was recognised that institutions might be reviewing their practice following the appearance of Code. The Code of Practice has been revised in the light of the findings from the pilot visits, and comments received from UK institutions and their partners.
UK universities and colleges who volunteered to participate in the pilot programme of overseas visits did so with the agreement of their overseas partners. The participating institutions covered a range of collaborative links, involving a variety of subjects, programmes and awards.
This report is one of 20 reports published from the pilot programme. It should be read in conjunction with HEQC's published audit report(s) on the UK partner, reference to which is made in this report. In addition, HEQC has published a separate overview report summarising the general findings from the pilot visits and noting examples of good practice and areas where further development will improve and strengthen current arrangements.
Because the audits were pilots intended in part to test an evolving method, the Council considers that it would be mistaken to use the reports as the basis for unconditional generalisations about overseas partnerships developed by UK institutions.
INTRODUCTION
1 This is a report of an audit, carried out by the Higher Education Quality Council (HEQC), of the quality assurance arrangements for a collaborative partnership between the University of Abertay Dundee (UAD) and the Systematic Business Training Centre, Petaling Jaya, Malaysia (hereafter referred to as SBTC) leading to the University's awards of the Diploma in Higher Education, the Graduate Diploma in Accounting, and admission of students to the final year of the BA in Accounting at the University. It forms part of a series of pilot audits of overseas collaborative partnerships undertaken in 1996. The audit included a visit to SBTC in May 1996. Further information about these audits is contained on the inside front cover of this report. Institutions participating in the pilot audits were invited to provide an up-dating note indicating any developments in the partnership from the time of the audit to the printing of this report. A note, supplied by the University, is attached as an annex to this report.
2 A general description of the University's procedures for the assurance of quality of its teaching and learning provision is contained in HEQC's Audit Report of the University published in September 1995, following an audit visit in March 1995. That report provides a record of, and comments on, the University's quality assurance procedures in relation to the collaborative teaching and learning provision for which it is responsible.
3 The Council is grateful to the University and to SBTC for their assistance and co-operation.
THE AUDIT PROCESS
4 Prior to the audit team's visit to SBTC at Petaling Jaya, Malaysia, the University provided information relating to all phases of its relationship with SBTC and agreed with the team the programme of its meetings with SBTC staff and students. The team which visited SBTC at Petaling Jaya on 3 May 1996 comprised Professor D J Murray, Professor J Rear and Professor A J Reynolds, auditors, and Dr D S Law and Ms C Webb for HEQC.
5 The audit team met the Principal, the Vice-Principal, the Registrar (who also acts as the course co-ordinator for the Systematic Advanced Diploma in Accounting (SADA)), a representative sample of SBTC staff who teach on the programme and/or have administrative functions associated with it, external examiners appointed by SBTC, and a number of students currently registered on the programme in Malaysia. On the team's return to the United Kingdom, a meeting was held at the University to clarify a number of matters.
BACKGROUND TO THE PARTNERSHIP
6 Mention was made in the 1995 HEQC Audit Report (paragraph 9) of the existence of a well-established relationship with SBTC, involving a Diploma in Higher Education (DipHE) and a Graduate Diploma in Accounting (GrDip) of the University. Although, at that time, the University maintained a number of overseas links, this was the only one involving the validation of a programme designed and delivered by a partner institution overseas. The 1995 audit team did not undertake a detailed enquiry into this overseas partnership. The 1995 HEQC Audit Report commented on the University's arrangements for quality assurance and suggested areas for further consideration, including the need for more systematic documentation. These matters were being addressed within the University at the time of the present audit.
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7 The University's relationship with SBTC is two-fold: the admission of students to the third year of an honours programme taught in Dundee, and the conferring of University awards on students who complete their studies at SBTC in Malaysia. The first involves the admission of students with advanced standing to the final year of the University's BA (Hons) Accounting from SBTC who hold the Systematic Advanced Diploma in Accounting (SADA) and who have completed a particular combination of modules within that programme; while the second offers students as they progress towards obtaining the SADA the possibility, in addition, of opting for the University's Dip HE (Accounting) on completion of one year's study, and the GrDip in Accounting on completion of the second year.
8 SBTC itself describes its SADA award as 'validated by the University', and states that the award will provide its holders with admission with advanced standing not only to the University's degree programmes, but also to those of eight other UK universities, as well as exemptions from parts of examinations leading to professional qualifications. The programme of study leading to the SADA award was devised by SBTC and is taught by its staff; the University regards the programme as one which it has validated to lead to its awards, but which is largely the responsibility of SBTC itself, through its own quality assurance systems and facilities, to maintain.
Initial contacts
9 The origins of the partnership go back to 1989 when, as Dundee Institute of Technology (DIT), the Institute first made contact with SBTC. Between 1989 and 1991, a number of visits were made to SBTC by members of the DIT's staff, including its Principal. Initial discussions concerned, in the main, the admission of candidates prepared by SBTC to the first and second years of DIT degree programmes, and a formal agreement signed in July 1991 dealt exclusively with that form of relationship. However, the possibility that DIT would franchise programmes to SBTC, or would validate SBTC programmes, was soon under consideration, and this involved visits to DIT by staff from SBTC. With this partnership established, the University has not envisaged significantly increasing the number of overseas institutions with which it has agreements, although its Strategic Plan has acknowledged that the range of courses leading to UAD awards in existing partners might increase. The University had recently discussed other possible collaborative links with SBTC.
Partnership objectives
10 The University indicated in its briefing documentation that it valued overseas students for their contribution to the cultural and educational dimension of the University, as well as providing an additional source of revenue. The audit team noted also from the briefing documentation, and from its discussions with SBTC representatives, that SBTC had a clear objective of wishing to provide a route to a degree for its students who, hitherto, had been restricted to professional qualifications, and to secure external recognition, or endorsement, of its own award.
Systematic Business Training Centre
11 SBTC was established in 1977 to provide training in accountancy, management, computing and allied subjects. By 1993 it employed over 300 staff to teach over 7,000 students on five sites within Malaysia. The main work of SBTC is in preparing students for the professional examinations of bodies such as the Chartered Association of Certified Accountants, the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants, the Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators, the Association of Accounting Technicians, the Chartered Institute of Marketing, the Institute of Data Processing and Management and the Institut Bank-Bank Malaysia.
THE UNIVERSITY'S QUALITY ASSURANCE SYSTEMS FOR COLLABORATIVE PROVISION
12 At the time of the 1995 audit, there were no general University guidelines on collaborative activity, although it was noted that the University's Senior Management Team was considering a formal policy statement which was intended to provide a framework for future partnerships. As the HEQC visit to SBTC was taking place in May 1996, the University had begun but, not yet completed, its consideration of matters relating to the quality assurance arrangements for its collaborative activity. The 1995 HEQC Audit Report (paragraph 94) noted that it was University policy that the processes of approval, monitoring and review for validated external programmes should be identical to those for programmes wholly provided by the University. The present audit team investigated how this policy operated with respect to the link with SBTC.
THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE LINK AND INITIAL APPROVAL PROCESSES
13 The present link with SBTC derives from a validation visit by the then DIT to SBTC in 1992. The visiting team was formally constituted as a Course Validation Advisory Group (CVAG) and consisted of three members of DIT staff, including its Vice-Principal, and two external specialists, an academic and a professional accountant, both from Malaysia. In accordance with procedures laid down in the Institute's statement on 'Monitoring of Academic Standards', the CVAG was established by the University's Academic Development Committee specifically 'for the validation of the Systematic Advanced Diploma in Accounting and the Graduate Diploma in Accounting of Dundee Institute of Technology'. The CVAG met the course team and students, as well as senior staff of SBTC, and visited its library, computing and other facilities.
14 Staff of SBTC commented to the present audit team that their thorough and rigorous discussions with DIT staff, both before and during the validation visit, had proved extremely valuable. In particular, they had been alerted to the differences between courses leading solely to professional qualifications and those leading to a degree, to the different methods of teaching and assessment appropriate to each, and to the need to provide SBTC students with additional opportunities to develop their facility in the use of the English language.
15 The CVAG considered and recommended approval for a modified course to be offered by SBTC which would be eligible for the awards of Diploma of Higher Education and Graduate Diploma in Accounting. Approval was recommended for an unlimited period, subject to the meeting of a number of conditions and to periodic reviews (the first to take place during the session 1995-96). One of the conditions required that the University's awards would be available only to students who successfully completed specified core and elective elements of SBTC's SADA programme. This would ensure that students wishing to enter the final year of the BA (Hons) Accounting would have a sufficient knowledge of UK law and taxation. The audit team noted that the draft report from the visit, together with an exchange of letters between SBTC and DIT constituted the formally documented approval of the programme. The 1991 institutional agreement was not changed or up-dated following the approval of the awards.
16 A definitive description of the SBTC programme, and of means for its management and support, was issued under the titles of both SBTC and DIT in February 1993. Since then, as the audit team learnt from the briefing documentation and from its discussions with SBTC staff, relations between the two institutions have continued to evolve, as has the approved programme delivered at SBTC. These developments have reflected increasing confidence of the University in the arrangements at SBTC. Changes relating to the operation of the link were discussed with SBTC, and subsequently reported in the Annual Critical Reviews of the programme for 1994 and 1995. They were not, however, incorporated into the formal agreement between the two institutions.
17 Since different documents generated by the two partner institutions, individually and jointly, described their relationships in various ways, the audit team found it helpful to its own enquiries to view the academic relationship, established as a result of the formal validation process, as a combination of:
i) recognition of a defined route to the SADA qualification as appropriate preparation for the final year of the Honours degree programme in Accounting, enabling diplomates holding the University's Graduate Diploma to be admitted with advanced standing, and
ii) validation by the University of a programme designed and delivered by SBTC as leading to the award of the University's DipHE and Graduate Diploma.
Nature of the collaboration
18 The University's description of its relationship with SBTC did not, in the view of the audit team, provide a very clear picture of the actual processes through which the University's awards were made available to SBTC students, or of the relationship between the SADA award and the University's DipHE and GrDip. SBTC students can, in fact, obtain the SADA award without registering for the University's diploma awards. Students who proceed to UAD's degree programme receive the DipHE and GrDip as they successfully complete the relevant stages of the SADA. The briefing documentation available to the team did not state clearly whether students with the SADA award alone, or the SADA award and the GrDip, had an automatic right of entry to the degree programme. However SBTC staff understood, and advised students accordingly, that they did not have automatic right of entry to the final stages of the UAD degree programme. The SBTC's SADA Course Co-ordinator counsels students completing the SADA programme who wish to embark on the final year of the degree. Only those who were encouraged to proceed, did, in fact, do so. The team formed the view that the individual counselling offered to students enabled prospective entrants to the degree programme to make better-informed decisions. For its part, the University may, in view of its role in conferring awards on students in Malaysia, wish to consider how it might provide students directly with information on the paths open to them on completion of the programme offered at SBTC.
STAFFING AND STAFF DEVELOPMENT
Recognition
19 At the time of the 1995 audit, the University had no formal procedures for the recognition of individual teachers employed by partner institutions, although it might see their curricula vitarum. The present audit team noted that as part of the initial validation process, DIT did obtain such information on SBTC staff teaching on the programme leading to the Institute's awards. However, since then, and given that there had been subsequent staff changes, the University appeared not to have been notified of, nor had an opportunity to consider, new staff in advance of the commencement of their teaching, other than by receiving information about them through annual course reports. These provide only the names of persons teaching individual modules. The team was informed that visits by senior management representatives of the University to SBTC were seen by the University as the mechanism by which staff changes and procedures for making staff appointments were noted. The University may wish to reflect on whether these arrangements enable it in a formal sense to be aware of the suitability and qualifications of all staff who provide the programme for which students can obtain University awards to the same extent that this is so for programmes taught in Dundee.
Staff development
20 The University views staff development in its partner institutions largely as a matter for the partner institutions themselves, and has not built formal provision for this into its relationship with SBTC. The 1992 CVAG report dealt very briefly with staff development, reporting that SBTC had accepted a number of suggestions emanating from DIT. This acceptance was reflected in the 1993 definitive course document for the SBTC programme, which stated that SBTC had a Training and Development Department, responsible for organising training sessions and seminars for students, staff and management. The audit team noted that subsequent annual course monitoring reports did not provide any further information.
21 The SADA programme leading to the University's awards is very largely that devised by SBTC. The University regards the curriculum as the equivalent of that which would be followed by a Dundee-based student, and it does not expect SBTC staff to be acquainted with University teaching material or to maintain close links with Dundee-based teaching staff. Senior staff from the School of Accountancy and Law have visited SBTC and informal feedback is sought from SBTC staff on the articulation between the SBTC programme and the final year of the UAD Accounting programme. The group of SBTC teaching staff to whom the audit team spoke emphasised their own teamwork approach across the whole of the SADA programme and in disciplinary areas within it. As teachers and course developers, the team noted that they did not have contact with UAD teaching staff in similar roles.
STUDENT ASSESSMENT
Setting of examinations and other assessments
22 In its promotional material, SBTC describes the validated programme from which students may obtain UAD awards as 'internally assessed'. This is consistent with the audit team's conclusion that the University as an awarding body plays no direct role in the assessment processes on which the award of its Dip HE and Gr Dip are based. It chooses to rely entirely on arrangements designed for the SADA award and administered by SBTC, and the confidence it has in SBTC's examination regulations. This reliance is explained in terms of the fact that SBTC's courses are awarded exemptions by professional accountancy bodies in the United Kingdom, and that these bodies require annual submission of examination papers leading to its professional qualifications for approval. In respect of the requirements for the University's awards, the team was told that, in the early stages of the relationship with SBTC, examination papers and examples of coursework had been sent to DIT for approval. However, as the University gained confidence in the standards of the SBTC examinations, this practice ceased. The team could not identify how the University routinely satisfied itself that its own requirements and expectations in respect of the awards for which it takes responsibility continued to be met.
Administration of examinations
23 The University has not found it necessary to lay down any requirements in respect of the administrative arrangements for the conduct of examinations at SBTC. It continues to be satisfied by the CVAG 's conclusion that the visiting team had established that SBTC's Examinations Department had developed, and was implementing, procedures that fully satisfied the University's expectations.
24 The audit team met members of the SBTC's Examinations Department and observed the Department's noteworthy commitment to the security and effectiveness of the examination procedures and to the integrity and independence of examiners, markers and assessors of examination papers. The University's formal documenting of its partnership arrangements did not demonstrate clearly to the team how the University acquired and maintained the currency of its knowledge of these procedures.
Marking of assessments
25 Through the University, the audit team received a copy of SBTC's 'Guidelines on Coursework'. This is a detailed document outlining practice within the UAD degree programme to which the SBTC programme is linked. The University plays no part in the marking of examinations taken by students working towards its two awards, or of the SADA award itself which is described as being validated by the University. The audit team was informed by SBTC staff that, as a consequence of the University's insistence on the use of coursework within the SADA programme, this formative method of assessment had come to play an important role in the programme, and that their experience had convinced SBTC's staff that in-course assessment was indeed a necessary part of a degree-level programme. Having ensured that coursework does have a place in the SADA programme, the University has not yet introduced formal processes through which its staff can monitor this aspect of assessment.
External examiners
26 The course approval document of 1992 gave DIT the right to confirm the appointment of SBTC's external examiners for the SADA award, and a curriculum vitae for each of the five external examiners appointed by SBTC was received by DIT, for approval by the Academic Council. However, the names of external examiners reported in the 1995 annual review of the SADA programme differed from those earlier notified. In commenting on the annual review the University noted that a number of the current external examiners were from the same institution and that their credentials were not clear. The present arrangements do not enable the University to be informed of the identify and background of external examiners prior to or immediately after their appointment by SBTC. The audit team observed from its discussions with external examiners that they were not formally appointed to act on behalf of the University, nor did their terms of reference require or allow them to approve recommendations of the University's awards.
Examiners' meetings and decisions
27 The University's procedures require that the outcomes of assessments for validated courses (delivered by external partners) are 'considered by separate boards of examiners, operating under normal rules of the University, with external examiners appointed by the University'. External examiners to whom the 1996 audit team spoke at SBTC were uncertain as to whether the University determined or influenced the rules adopted by examining boards at SBTC. Moreover, they stated that they had not been aware of their additional responsibilities in respect of UAD awards until after they had been appointed as SADA examiners. These observations led the team to suggest to the University that it might wish to consider, with the agreement of SBTC, introducing more explicit and robust procedures for external examining procedures which relate directly to assessments on which its own awards to SBTC students depend. These include: making formal appointments in conjunction with SBTC; receiving information on external examiners prior to their appointment by SBTC; and requiring direct reports from external examiners, in advance of annual monitoring reports from SBTC. In addition, the University may wish to involve itself more fully in the processes leading to recommendations for the award of its DipHE and GrDip, by such means as arranging for examiners' meetings to be carried out in accordance with general University regulations; receiving a formal report of each examiners' meeting at which recommendations of its awards are made; requiring formal agreement to those recommendations by its external examiners; and arranging for their formal confirmation by the University.
28 Although the audit team was unable to establish from the documentation available to it, and to students at SBTC, whether students on a validated course had the right of appeal to the University after a partner institution's procedures had been exhausted, it learnt that the University had, in fact, considered appeals from overseas students studying elsewhere. The University will, doubtless, wish to ensure that all students registered for its awards are fully aware of appeal procedures open to them.
ACADEMIC STANDARDS
29 The University relies upon SBTC to assess the suitability of candidates wishing to embark on study leading to the awards of both institutions. The most commonly accepted Malaysian qualifications have been agreed by the University as acceptable for this purpose. The formal agreements between UAD and SBTC do not mention specific grades required of students. SBTC staff informed the audit team that they accepted only a limited number of 'mature' students who are admitted on the basis of experience rather than formal qualifications.
30 In respect of the Dip HE and Gr Dip awards which the University makes on the basis of the outcome of the SADA examinations, the audit team was interested to learn how SBTC external examiners were apprised of the academic standards required by UAD. The external examiners whom the team met explained that they used as their benchmark the expectations they had of students on comparable programmes offered by the institutions (Malaysian universities and technical institutes) where they had current teaching appointments, and to the standards of professional bodies. The University itself is now able to make direct comparisons between the academic performance of students entering the final year from SBTC and that of students prepared within UAD itself.
MONITORING AND THE STUDENT EXPERIENCE
31 Annual reports on the SBTC programme are produced by SBTC itself. The audit team could not establish what routinely happened to these reports when they arrive at the University. It was not possible, for example, to determine whether they, in common with comparable annual and periodic review reports from other validated external programmes, are seen by the relevant school executive board, or whether they are dealt with by the University's Academic Standards Committee. The 1995 team suggested (1995 HEQC Audit Report paragraph 101) that it would be helpful if the University made more explicit the way in which validated programmes, in particular, fitted into the standard internal procedures. The findings of the 1996 audit team confirm this view.
Feedback from students
32 When the partnership with SBTC was first established, DIT had no requirement that student feedback be formally obtained. The annual reviews of the programme by SBTC do not refer to a student feedback procedure as such, although the audit team noted that they did include positive testimonials of a general nature from some of those who had completed the programme. Student feedback procedures are one of the areas which the University is currently addressing following the 1995 audit of its overall quality assurance arrangements.
Annual review
33 The SADA programme was subjected to 'annual critical review' in comprehensive reports from SBTC dated October 1994 and October 1995. These are the annual reports to the University's Academic Council that were recommended in the CVAG report of 1992, and the audit team was told by SBTC staff that they were patterned on earlier reports on internal UAD programmes. University-based staff did not play any part in the review process itself but commented on the outcomes of the annual reviews. On receiving the first review, the University noted a statement that the programmes were now being delivered at a site other than that initially visited by the CVAG. This development was seen as a pilot activity. University staff subsequently visited the additional site to establish that conditions and arrangements were appropriate and comparable, although the visit and scrutiny were not documented.
Contacts between UAD and SBTC staff and students
34 Senior staff of SBTC reported that excellent relations were maintained with senior UAD staff, reciprocal visits being supplemented by frequent telephone contacts, and that changes in practice were agreed verbally during these conversations. These contacts are largely documented by correspondence and its scrutiny by the audit team suggested that recent visits to SBTC by UAD staff were mainly devoted to the possibility of establishing routes to additional UAD awards.
35 Students at SBTC to whom the audit team spoke referred to a forum which had been arranged to enable them to meet a visiting member of UAD's staff. SBTC and UAD have also collaborated in organising a UAD graduation ceremony in Malaysia, at which Malaysian students graduating from a range of programmes at undergraduate and master's levels have received their awards.
Periodic review
36 The 1992 CVAG report indicated that the first major review of the programmes was to take place during the 1995-96 session. Staff at SBTC had been informed in April during a visit to SBTC by the then Vice-Principal, as Convenor of the Academic Standards Committee, of the University's view that the periodic review should be postponed until 1996-97 so that it could fit in with the review of the BA (Hons) Accounting programme.
Publicity and promotion
37 The agreement of July 1991 required only that SBTC would make available to its students promotional material provided by DIT. Later, the Principal of SBTC wrote to the Institute to ask if there would be objections to the use of extracts from DIT's prospectus and to the use of its coat of arms. In its discussions with SBTC staff the team was told that UAD no longer required that it be shown promotional materials, but that it might be involved in the production of a planned joint brochure. Since the establishment of the agreement with SBTC, the University's policy on promotional materials has changed. An External Relations Department has been established and the University has adopted a corporate approach to the design of a family of promotional materials, including a student guide, and a guide specifically designed for Malaysian students. The approval of an Assistant Principal is now required before an advertisement bearing the University's name can be used. In addition, the University employs a commercial service to monitor the appearance of its name in any publication, in part to control the use of its name.
38 The audit team could not determine whether the University's new policy was yet being applied to the partnership with SBTC since the extent of the University's knowledge of the SBTC's promotional material was not evident to the team. The University may wish to consider how it intends that its policy and current practice in respect of promotional material should apply to its partnership with SBTC.
Learning facilities
39 The CVAG in 1992 had accepted the assurances of SBTC that continuing investment would be made in the library and that appropriate computer hardware and software would be made available. The audit team was told that subsequent monitoring has been through the annual reports and tours of facilities by UAD visitors to SBTC.
Support for student learning
40 The audit team was given an outline of a Contextual Studies module of the SADA programme, the rationale of which was said to be 'to stimulate and develop comprehension skills essentially needed to cope with a university-level programme' and 'to equip students so that they will not be disadvantaged when they continue their university studies abroad'. The team was told by SBTC staff that this module was an aspect of the development of the proposed SADA programme that had been achieved through interaction with UAD staff. The audit team wishes to commend the University for its work with the staff of SBTC, which led to enhancement of the SADA programme prior to its acceptance as a basis for admission with advanced standing. The enhancement included not only the broadening of the curriculum described above, but additional tuition in the use of the English language, introduction of more varied means of communication, and the introduction of coursework and elements of formative assessment.
41 In the context of the preparation of students for transfer to the University, the audit team noted that the Course Co-ordinator, now serving also as SBTC's Registrar, provided counselling for SADA students, and that other members of SBTC's administrative and support team were readily approachable.
Introduction to the UK
42 In the agreement of July 1991 DIT committed itself to make arrangements for the reception of SBTC students on arrival in Dundee, and to make available its accommodation service to them. UAD provides quite comprehensive information for international students, and issues a booklet Information for International Students. UAD senior management staff have met students when visiting SBTC, and have used this opportunity to discuss aspects of student life and their involvement in academic activities in Dundee. In considering its relationship as a University with students obtaining and preparing to study for its awards, the University may wish to consider how students might be helped, while still at SBTC, to acquire information about how their curriculum relates to that followed by students whom they might join in Dundee. (See 1995 HEQC Audit Report, paragraph 96).
CONCLUSIONS AND POINTS FOR CONSIDERATION
43 The audit team was best able to understand the relationship between the two institutions and the three awards with which this report is concerned by conceiving of them in terms of two distinct processes. In recognising a defined form of the SADA programme for the purposes of admitting students with advanced standing to a particular UAD course, the team concluded that the University undertook an unusually thorough assessment, both of the Systematic Advanced Diploma in Accounting and of the institution providing that qualification. This process seems to have resulted in significant enhancements to the programme.
44 Viewed through the University's own policy and processes as a validation of a programme, designed and delivered by a partner institution, leading directly to its awards, the initial approval process by the CVAG can be seen as broadly consistent with the University's intended practices. Thereafter, the University's arrangements for verifying the continued approval of the programme leading to its awards seemed to the audit team to be less visible and systematic, and to be lacking in some of the features that are to be found in the University's quality assurance arrangements applied to its own programmes. As it reviews its current processes, drawing on its and its partner's experience of operating the partnership and on HEQC's Code of Practice, the University may wish to pay careful attention to ensuring that the formal partnership agreement with SBTC is comprehensive, up-to-date and more closely fits present circumstances, especially the extent to which the partnership has evolved and matured since 1991, and that it defines more clearly the relationship between the SADA award and the University's diploma awards.
45 The University has built up a co-operative and positive relationship with Systematic Business Training Centre since the formal agreement was signed in 1991. The relationship has been managed and developed very largely within an informal framework, characterised by contact amongst a relatively small group of senior staff, by regular visits of University staff to Malaysia and some visits by SBTC staff to Dundee. The formal dimensions of the partnership, and, in particular, those which relate to the University's role as an awarding body for students studying in Malaysia have been given relatively little attention. Particular areas which the University may wish to consider further in this connection are: the maintenance of accurate and up-dated agreements and course documentation to provide a firm and explicit partnership framework; mechanisms for the expeditious recognition of members of SBTC's staff as teachers on programmes leading to awards of the University; and formal procedures for confirming the appointment of external examiners and for involving the University in the processes leading to recommendations for the award of its Diploma in Higher Education and its Graduate Diploma.
46 The University is currently considering a number of aspects of its quality assurance arrangements, following the HEQC audit in 1995. Some of these merit particular attention in the context of collaborative provision where the development of more systematic procedures within the University will strengthen its already effective working relations with staff at SBTC and ensure that the partnership, which both partners value as providing a route to the University's awards for Malaysian students, continues to develop and thrive.
Institutions participating in the pilot audits were invited to provide an up-dating note indicating any developments in the partnership from the time of the audit to the printing of this report. A note, supplied by the University, is attached.
AS RECEIVED FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF ABERTAY
The University of Abertay Dundee has always considered the work undertaken by the Higher Education Quality Council to be of great value to the higher education sector of the United Kingdom and it supports the mission of the Council's division of quality audit. Of particular benefit to the University, have been the Council's academic audit of the University in February 1995 and the publication - also in 1995 - of its Code of Practice for Overseas Collaborative Provision in Higher Education. The University therefore welcomed this opportunity to participate in the pilot exercise of overseas audits with its emphasis on continuous improvement and quality enhancement. The whole process has been a valuable learning experience for all concerned - for the University, for our partners and for the Council itself.
Some important issues have clearly been raised by the pilot exercise The first is that the University's arrangements could not be measured against the standards set out in the Code of Practice, since to a large extent they pre-date the development of the Code. This has been acknowledged by HEQC. Nonetheless, the University now seeks to employ the Code in relation to the continued development of its quality assurance processes. Whilst, at times, the University may have felt that the audit team misunderstood the nature of the University's relationship with Systematic Business Training Centre, the benefit of direct and detailed discussions with the Council following the audit has been to allow all concerned to acknowledge and understand more fully the diversity of types of overseas collaborative activity which clearly exists. There is perhaps a greater range than the Council had expected to find. Finally, it has been part of the learning experience for all, that familiarity with the terminology, procedures, and styles of quality assurance and audits is not yet universally understood outside the United Kingdom. Partner organisations involved in the audits have perhaps not been clear in this regard and this has raised real issues in terms of the way in which the purpose and findings of audit are communicated.
It is hoped that, through what has been a long process, overseas audits and their ongoing evaluation will benefit both the Council and the University; the University for the continuing improvement of the quality of its activities overseas, and the Council for the next stage in the audit process through collaboration between United Kingdom higher education institutions and overseas organisations.
November 1996
QAG496 12/96
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