Academic review of UK higher education
Introduction
A Subject provision and overall aims
B Academic standards Intended learning outcomes
Intended learning outcomes
Curricula
Assessment
Student achievementC Quality of learning opportunities
Teaching and learning
Student progression
Learning resourcesD Maintenance and enhancement of quality and standards
Summary of the main reviewoutcomes
Subject provision and the overall aims
The Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (the QAA) helps to provide public assurance that the quality and standards of higher education are being safeguarded and enhanced by conducting academic reviews of higher education provision.
In developing its method for academic review, the QAA has published a wide range of materials designed to provide a background against which the reviews can take place. These are:
The QAA carries out reviews of individual subjects through service level agreements with the main higher education funding bodies. It also carries out institutional reviews of higher education institutions. The judgements made by the subject reviewers can contribute substantially to institutional review.
Subject review is a peer review process. It starts when institutions evaluate their provision in a subject in a self-evaluation document. This document is submitted to the QAA for use by a team of reviewers who gather evidence to enable them to report their judgements on the academic standards and the quality of learning opportunities. Review activities include meeting staff and students, scrutinising students' assessed work, reading relevant documents, and examining learning resources. Full details of the process of subject review can be found in the Handbook for academic review, QAA, 2000.
The range of judgements that reviewers may utilise when they have completed a subject review are summarised below.
To reach this judgement, reviewers look at:
Reviewers make one of the following judgements for each of three aspects of learning opportunities:
The three aspects of quality of learning opportunities are:
Reviewers also report the degree of confidence they have in the institution's ability to maintain and enhance quality and standards in the subject under review.
1. This report presents the findings of a review of the academic standards achieved, and the quality of the learning opportunities provided, in engineering programmes at Bell College of Technology, Hamilton. The review was completed in the academic year 2002-03. The Higher National Certificate (HNC) and The Higher National Diploma (HND) courses offered by the College are awards of the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA). Responsibility for the academic standards of these courses rests with the SQA which has its own procedures for validation and inspection to ensure that programme providers are adhering to its requirements.
2. At Bell College of Technology, Hamilton, the following disciplines are included in the engineering provision:
3. The School of Science and Technology offers the following Engineering programmes:
4. The HNC/D courses are developed and validated by the SQA. Most are offered both full and part-time. The HNC courses offer progression to a range of HND awards. Currently a national review of Higher National engineering courses is being undertaken, initially in electronics. Members of College staff are involved in this review.
5. The University of Strathclyde validates most of the degree courses. Entry to these is typically into third year for students with a relevant HND. The links between Bell College of Technology, Hamilton and the University of Strathclyde have matured and now are well established for management, academic and support functions. Teaching on some of the University of Strathclyde degrees is shared between the two institutions, although part-time courses are taught entirely at Bell College of Technology, Hamilton. The exception is the BEng (Hons) Automotive Engineering, which is franchised from the University of Hertfordshire, and is a four-year full-time programme. It is taught completely at Bell College of Technology, Hamilton, but is being discontinued. In 2002-03, only years three and four are in operation. The BEng Product Design is newly validated by the University of Strathclyde and recruited its first cohort in 2002-03.
6. The broad aims of the engineering provision as a whole are:
7. The College provides highly vocational courses in engineering in both full and part-time modes in a manner that is consistent with its mission. The links between the College and the University of Strathclyde have developed with time. The development of the BEng Product Design programme, which was validated in 2002, provides an example of how the College now plays the leading role in the design and development of new programmes consistent with its designation as an Institute of Higher Education in 1999.
8. The design of the BEng Product Design programme took fully into account the Subject benchmark statement for engineering and this is evidenced by the close mapping of the benchmark statement to the programme outcomes in the programme specification. The course team also consulted extensively with employers and with schoolteachers, and incorporated their input into the new programme. The incorporated engineer specification was considered by the course team, but this was not explicitly clear in the validation documentation and the published entrance qualifications do not meet the Standards And Routes To Registration (SARTOR) requirements for Incorporated Engineer (IEng) programmes, as defined by the Engineering Council (UK). The reviewers recommend that the College clarifies its position on which programmes prepare students for an incorporated engineer role and that, in these situations, entry qualifications be brought in line with the incorporated engineer requirement.
9. The prospectus for 2002-03 indicates that the BTech Electrical and Electronic Engineering course aims to produce incorporated engineers despite the fact that IEng accreditation had been allowed to lapse. There was evidence from employers that accreditation is of value. The reviewers support this view and recommend that the College seeks IEng accreditation for its degree programmes. The College is also strongly recommended to keep under review its processes for checking the accuracy of published information about its courses.
10. Students and employers have expressed concerns that the BTech title is not well understood and can be confused with BTEC awards. The College is currently reviewing its BTech programmes and proposes to seek to change their titles to BEng. The reviewers welcome this proposal as a highly appropriate response by the College to the views of its key stakeholders.
11. Programme specifications are comprehensive in providing details of: course structure and composition; aims and outcomes; teaching; learning and assessment methods as well as admissions; and awards criteria. They are made available to staff and students in course handbooks. Students were generally satisfied that they were made aware of what was expected of them.
12. The College has a strong provision of part-time engineering programmes. These are well regarded by employers for their relevance to the needs of industry and also attract highly committed and well-motivated students. Employers were generally pleased with the way in which the College had developed an understanding of their business and training needs.
13. Proposed changes to degree programmes are submitted by the College for approval to the University of Strathclyde on a regular basis. However, the reviewers recommend that the annual reporting process be strengthened to provide a critical appraisal of the curriculum and aspects of delivery and assessment, with a view to linking more explicitly to proposals for modification of programmes. Relationships over the conduct of the examination process between Bell College of Technology, Hamilton and the University of Strathclyde work very effectively. However, the reviewers were made aware of an example of an issue raised by external examiners that related to aspects of a programme delivered by the University of Strathclyde. There appeared to be no formal reporting of the resulting actions to the Course Board at Bell College of Technology, Hamilton.
14. There have been delays in the review of some of the BTech programmes beyond the planned review date. However the cause of this delay is in part related to protracted discussions with the University of Strathclyde (the validating institution) about the change of award title from BTech to BEng.
15. The College is a founder member of the Scottish Microelectronics Skills Consortium, which has collaborated with the College in curriculum design and assisted in the provision of industry-standard equipment to add relevance to the curriculum of the specialist HNC Semiconductor Process Engineering. The College has established the Scottish Polymer Development Centre and exploited this facility to deliver a second specialist HNC programme, in injection moulding technology.
16. Articulation between HND and degree programmes is managed in a pragmatic manner by either the selection of optional units or, where this is not possible, through the use of additional units. Both full and part-time students were well aware of the increased challenges presented by degree-level study.
17. The programme specifications contain a detailed mapping of modules to learning outcomes that demonstrate clearly that the curriculum for each programme is consistent with the learning outcomes. Programmes contain relevant areas of management and include features that integrated subject content and addressed industry needs. Several of the modules in the new BEng Product Design programme have been designed to encourage the integration of subject areas and to set product design in a business and industry context, and the programme also includes a work placement module. The BEng Product Design curriculum addresses the absence of a higher-grade mathematics entry requirement through the use of a foundation mathematics module. A system of diagnostic testing allows the mathematics topics to be matched to the needs of students.
18. The BTech Electrical and Electronic Engineering and BTech Manufacturing Engineering and Management programmes extend further the specialisms of the corresponding Higher National programmes. The content and level is appropriate for degree-level study and this is supported by the comments of external examiners.
19. The curriculum of the BEng Product Design has been subjected to review by employers and, on the basis of this consultation, appropriate changes have been introduced. However the scrutiny provided by seeking incorporated engineer accreditation, where appropriate, would give an additional reassurance that programmes continue to meet industry needs.
20. Joint delivery of BTech programmes provides opportunities for students to gain experience of the University of Strathclyde that aids articulation to the honours degree study. This articulation may be weakened if, as planned, these programmes are delivered as BEng programmes at Bell College of Technology, Hamilton. Due to the introduction of the revised SARTOR regulations, articulation will in the future be into year three of the University of Strathclyde BEng-accredited programmes rather than into year four. This is a matter of concern to the students, but is essentially out of the control of the College and the University.
21. The reviewers sampled work from BTech courses and the BEng Product Design. Sampling did not include the BEng Automotive Engineering or the HNC/D programmes.
22. A total of 21 pieces of students' work were sampled, from eight different assessments. In all cases the assessment requirements enabled students to demonstrate the achievement of outcomes appropriate to the course and skills appropriate to their level. Generally, no assessment briefs identified the relevant outcomes for the assessment. None of the assessments seen had any criteria for grades of achievement. Percentage marks were given, without any grade, although students are informed that 40 per cent is the required mark for a Pass grade.
23. All examination papers and assessments for degree programmes are required to be verified internally before being sent to external examiners for approval. A form is completed following verification of examinations. Internal verification reports for end-of-year examinations were seen and consisted of yes/no questions and a space for comments.
24. At the end of the year, the Board of Examiners approves the students' marks. Double-marking of assessments only occurs if the assessments count towards honours degree classification, are projects (which are supervised by more than one member of staff), or if they form part of a sample selected from final-year modules. Staff indicated that any anomalies in marking identified by the Board of Examiners would be moderated by that Board. Records of meetings of the Board of Examiners did not provide any evidence of this having taken place in practice.
25. The assessment strategies include a mix of coursework, project work, presentations and examinations. Based on samples of coursework, feedback to students was written in the third person, rather than addressing the student directly. Most feedback was in the form of a series of statements, describing what had been done, rather than as constructive or formative comments. Staff and students indicated that feedback on assessment was mainly verbal. While finding the verbal feedback to be helpful, students expressed a desire for more written feedback, as they claim that they are often informed only that they have passed an assignment, with no additional information.
26. Evidence from external assessors, employers, joint course boards and sampled student work across all levels confirm that the level of student achievement is comparable with the standard expected of the final award, which in turn is in line with the outcomes expected by the sector. The student achievement was in general accord with the relevant aspects of the Subject benchmark statement and qualifications framework. However, many of the awards were specified in terms of the conventions of the University of Strathclyde, rather than through the use of the SCOTCAT framework. A particular strength was the ability of students to demonstrate the relationship of theory and practice.
27. With respect to academic standards, the reviewers conclude that:
Overall, the reviewers have confidence in the academic standards achieved by the programmes in engineering at Bell College of Technology, Hamilton.
28. The overall learning and teaching strategy gives students the required opportunity for study, offering a variety of learning formats: lectures, tutorials, workshops, written learning material as module handbooks, lecture notes and open-learning literature (although students made limited use of the latter). Students value the fact that teaching takes place in small class sizes and with a high level of individual support from tutors.
29. The students regard the teaching as effective, in relation to their expectations, as well as the curriculum content and programme aims. Teaching staff, who are well qualified both academically and in experience, have used their scholarship and professional activities to keep the curriculum relevant to modern practice. Evidence of this was seen in projects from students. Proposed new modules, or changes to existing modules, are submitted to the relevant course board for consideration by the University of Strathclyde, as the validating authority. No evidence of such proposals having been made was available at the time of the review.
30. The students felt that the materials supporting teaching were generally good, and included laboratory work. Most of the students expressed a desire for more practical work. They felt that the quality of teaching varied from very good to bad. The automotive students felt that the mathematics was taught in isolation, without any apparent relevance to other subjects, until the fourth year of their studies, but none of the students on other courses had this problem. There is some evidence, from unit content in the course handbook, that serviced modules could be more relevant to the sector, and to the future needs of students.
31. The electrical and electronic students, who take some modules at the University of Strathclyde stated that they would prefer to take all modules at Bell College of Technology, Hamilton, because of the smaller class sizes, together with the fact that they found the Bell staff were more available and approachable. An additional factor, as reported by staff of both Bell and the University of Strathclyde, is that some modules are treated more academically at the University of Strathclyde and more practically at Bell College of Technology, Hamilton. It is anticipated that all the BTech courses will become BEng courses in the near future, and be taught entirely at Bell College of Technology, Hamilton.
32. The provision contributes substantially to the achievements of the intended outcomes, with most elements demonstrating good practice.
The quality of teaching and learning is commendable.
33. The reviewers were concerned at the low progression rates on full-time HNC/D programmes in 2000-01, of 26 per cent and 33 per cent respectively. The College and the School have introduced a number of quality assurance and enhancement measures designed to address this issue. In particular a well-defined process for monitoring attendance linked to follow up measures has been put into operation and a maths summer school and study-skills modules introduced. Engineering staff have also introduced early diagnostic testing to identify the parts of the foundation maths module that each individual student needs to study. The School has also reviewed and modified the scheduling of the first-year material to encourage better student engagement at this early stage. It is too early to assess the long-term impact of these and other measures, but the progression rates for the full-time HNC/D provision had increased to 60 per cent in 2001-02. The reviewers noted the commitment of the staff to improving student progression, but were concerned that systematic quality assurance mechanisms for monitoring the success of quality enhancement measures and proposing solutions to quality challenges were not fully embedded at the subject level. The reviewers were however reassured that the Academic Standards Committee fully appreciated this issue and viewed the School report on the steps taken to improve student progression as evidence that the matter was being addressed at School level.
34. Pre-entry information regarding courses is distributed in many ways such as: participation in the Women into Science and Engineering scheme; school careers meetings; industrial links; the internet; leaflets; advertisements and alumni recommendations. The prospectus contains useful information about the campus facilities and welfare services. While these had all been used by students interviewed by the reviewers, there remained some divergence between students' expectations on starting the courses and their later experiences.
35. A mathematics summer school was approved for delivery before commencing session 2001-02 to support students lacking confidence in mathematics: its perceived success led to a second delivery in 2002-03. Despite the efforts put into such promotions, entry numbers to many courses are much lower than normally regarded as sustainable.
36. Induction to the courses involves two stages: a college induction programme followed by a course induction programme, course leaders arranging library induction within this. A college handbook and diary is given at the former and a course handbook at the latter. Students' experience of the induction process was 'too much, too rapidly': they suggested parts should be delivered over a longer period of time and in shorter sessions. Handbooks were not regarded as extensively useful by students, even when included in a convenient pocket diary. Handbooks for courses and modules were generally limited in scope and, except the one for the product design course, did not follow College guidelines.
37. Refined use of diagnostic tests, with remedial action for identifiable areas of weakness are used. Mathematics drop-in sessions provide for students' individual needs, as does offering part and full-time routes. Added to this, the policy of articulation between courses promotes social inclusion and wider access to higher education at extended level, and an 'added-value' feature that is difficult to quantify.
38. College policy accepts that much informal feedback occurs as an ongoing feature of courses and sets out the need for a formal documented process. There are two formal reviews proposed each semester, using a standardised record form that may be customised by academic staff, and permits extremely short summaries of achievement descriptors. Staff claimed that individually designed assessment feedback forms provided written guidance. However, this was not supported widely by student comments, which claimed that in general, feedback was mainly verbal. For the marked assessments examined by the reviewers, there was little evidence of constructive feedback. Generally there seemed no systematic approach, nor any underlying principles, related to the function of feedback, although civil engineering carried out regular counselling on individual achievements in addition to feedback on assessed items of work. Part-time engineering students found what feedback they received to be particularly useful, possibly in view of their restricted time with staff. Students generally regard accessibility of staff as excellent, providing good tutorial time. One example of a feedback loop in operation is shown by the course leader for the BEng Product Design holding short weekly meetings with classes to identify and resolve problems as they arise.
39. Assessment policies include allowance for compensation and condonation of marginal shortfall in limited units or modules of a course. Maintained standards require transparent use of consistent broader criteria by boards of examiners in recommending progression, taking account of ramifications regarding additional study needed during subsequent years to achieve the target award. The boards of examiners do not appear to use the facility for offering student success to a lower award than targeted by the course.
40. Cohort progression is not analysed at the college, and so the reviewers based considerations of general progression on the further education annual indicator Student Programme Achievement Ratio (SPAR). Anomalies in the Student Achievement Ratio by Assessment Credits of Learning (SARU) figures used by the College could not be resolved, and they were determined to be unsafe for the review purposes. Possible causes relate to the required method of applying the formula or shortcomings of the College's management information system. However, class average SPAR values of 44 per cent in 2000-01 were considered by the reviewers to be too low (despite the improvement to 67 per cent in 2001-02), bearing in mind that the effect will be compounded over the duration of the course.
41. Pre-exit guidance forms part of the College policy, with a College careers service available to advise on opportunities. In engineering, further benefits accrue from a strong relationship with industry, as indicated by industrial representatives who met with the reviewers. The Engineering Industrial Liaison Committee enables understanding of industrial business and training needs to be conveyed to academic staff in engineering disciplines. This is welcomed by industry, as is the flexible approach of the timetable structure, such as the ability to follow a two-evening pattern, rather than a day-release operation of part-time courses. Employers were satisfied with the success rate of their students and some indicated that they regarded the College as the preferred provider of Higher National training in the region. Visiting lecturers and industrially-based projects have been used to improve practical awareness with some opportunities arising for vacation placements in industry.
42. First-destination statistics for full-time students, with response rates averaging about 70 per cent, indicate about 50 per cent of those who respond proceed to extend their education, confirming the success of wider access, and about 15 per cent enter employment. The University of Strathclyde reported about 30 per cent of students from electrical and mechanical engineering routes accepted places on their corresponding courses through articulation.
43. The provision enables the intended outcomes to be achieved, but improvement is needed to overcome weaknesses.
The quality of student progression is approved, but
44. The institution currently has a student-staff ratio of 13:1 within the engineering provision. This provides an appropriate resource base to underpin the learning and teaching strategy and enables a strong emphasis on tutorial support and small-group work.
45. The staff are well qualified and experienced, and are clearly committed to supporting students in their learning. Staff development activity tends to be initiated by individual staff with the School supporting activities. These clearly meet the needs of the individual as well as the strategic needs of the School and College. The development of the new BEng Product Design programme has secured strategic funding which has in part been deployed to satisfy the staff development requirements of this programme. Staff involvement in research and income generation activity is generally limited although the Scottish Polymer Design Centre has the potential to significantly underpin the product design programme. The level of research and consultancy carried out by staff delivering engineering programmes at Bell College of Technology, Hamilton is low in comparison with norms for the sector.
46. Although the School does not operate a formal peer-support scheme there is significant team teaching activity, which supports the development of good practice in teaching. The College has an e-learning support unit that provides specific support for staff wishing to develop e-learning material. The current engagement with this unit by staff is limited and the School's strategy for staff development in this area is unclear. Students confirmed that the use of e-learning was limited and there was little evidence, made available to the reviewers, of electronic resources being made available for student learning on engineering programmes.
47. The technical staff fully support the provision and in particular have a key role in the instruction of workshop skills, student project work and advising on the design and development of laboratories. The strategy for technical staff development is aimed at maintaining current laboratory provision and supporting new developments in areas such as computing and information technology (IT), polymer development and computer integrated manufacturing.
48. The lecture and tutorial facilities are adequate and appropriate. Recent upgrading has included video conferencing and data projectors. Staff and students make effective use of the facilities.
49. The specialist laboratories adequately support the provision, with good facilities to support student project work, a key element of the programme learning and teaching strategy. Resources in industry are effectively deployed to support the project work of part-time students. The Civil Engineering students have access to excellent fluid mechanics and geotechnics facilities at the University of Strathclyde. Specialist design facilities had been identified to underpin the BEng Product Design programme. This facility is not yet fully operational, even though students are now on the programme. Recent investment in the laboratories have targeted the upgrading of computing and IT equipment, and associated specialist software to underpin the teaching of graphical communication, modelling, analysis, design and manufacturing as well as general computing and IT. However, in general the electronic instrumentation is rather dated and this should be reviewed to ensure that developments in degree-level teaching of electronics are fully supported. The students found the computing and IT facilities to be adequate and commented that much of the reported computing and IT-related problems had been resolved. Part-time students found that the College computing and IT system fully supported their need to communicate with staff while off campus.
50. The library provision adequately supports the programmes in engineering. The library has recently introduced 30 IT stations and an electronic publishing/print facility. Students have internet access to an electronic library catalogue as well as subject-based search engines, technical indexes and the enhanced and evaluated virtual-library. The level of funding for the renewal and development of library stock is rather limited, with priorities based primarily on new developments such as the BEng Product Design. A provisional budget is allocated to each discipline, and this is managed centrally by the College librarian. The subject-based resources are identified in validation documents, through library representation on College academic committees and through informal liaison between academic staff and the library. Access to the library supports the needs of students and part-time students stated that their needs were particularly well catered for with evening and weekend opening. Induction to the library is organised by course leaders and a virtual tour of the library is available on-line. Students commented on the excellent facilities at the University of Strathclyde, particularly the library and the provision of on-line module-based learning materials. However, students indicated that information on how to access these facilities was not consistently communicated to them.
51. The provision enables the intended outcomes to be achieved, but improvement is needed to overcome weaknesses.
The quality of learning resources is approved, but
52. Functions relating to determination and maintenance of academic standards are delegated to the Academic Council by the Board of Governors. These generally come within the remit of the Academic Standards Committee (ASC) and involve work of the course boards (and joint course boards where appropriate) linked to the boards of examiners, staff-student liaison committees and focus groups. Therefore the College quality system requires annual course board reports in a systematic mechanism for quality monitoring. These reports are scrutinised by a subgroup of the ASC providing feedback to the ASC, heads of School and course leaders. This has been supplemented by the Director of Quality providing extensive feedback and assistance to course leaders to improve the evaluative nature of the reports.
53. In their reports, course boards are required to analyse changes in performance compared with previous sessions and plan steps to improve the course and its taught components. Use is made of statistical values of SPAR and SARU derived by administrative services from data resulting from academic assessments. Student retention ratios were also available for 2000-01. Quantitative and qualitative analysis is expected of data collected from students through opinion surveys, staff-student liaison committees and other sources, together with consequent actions. An action plan and review of course strengths form the end point for development after the report.
54. The usefulness of the statistical indicators in making decisions at Higher National course level is limited by technical issues such as the choice of census dates and the mechanisms for registration of units with SQA. The College self-evaluation document notes that in 2001-02 attention was concentrated on modules or units where student performance was poor because there was little evidence that engineering teams had made use of ASC targets for SPAR to improve performance in the previous year. Although course board reports contain comment on the performance indicators, no comparison with national benchmarks was found. Little evidence is recorded of proposals to improve performance, nor of operational actions taken by course leaders in identifying and addressing issues through their informal meetings with classes.
55. However, following identification of student motivational issues in a course board report for HND Civil Engineering, an internal College review found a relationship between attendance and achievement of full-time students. The College introduced a formal policy to monitor attendance, which has been implemented in engineering.
56. Other measures taken to enhance progression include a study-skills programme and trials with a pro-active system of attendance monitoring and support to be adopted more widely. A College wider access coordinator is actively evaluating the effectiveness of the mathematics summer school.
57. The relationship with the University of Strathclyde is maturing into an equal partnership, as demonstrated by the validation of the BEng Product Design. Evolving processes for enhancement and validation are accepted by the Senate of the University of Strathclyde as transitional arrangements until Bell College of Technology, Hamilton gains its degree-awarding powers. One weakness identified was that where issues were raised by external examiners about aspects of a programme delivered by Strathclyde, there appeared to be no formal reporting of the resulting actions to the Course Board at Bell College of Technology, Hamilton. Procedures should be reviewed to ensure that course boards know of the outcomes of such issues.
58. Staff development is in place to support upgrading of existing courses and development of new courses as evidenced by the BEng Product Design. Staff identify their needs to help improve their performance in discussion with their team leader and the Head of School to agree progress. Topics may involve teaching and learning methods within the Learning and Teaching Strategy and the computing and IT strategy, or specialist subject development, for example.
59. The College has introduced a new system of internal academic audit to improve all aspects of maintenance and enhancement of academic quality. Auditors from each of the four Schools of the College supervised by the Director of Quality are carrying out this audit. To improve progression, a subgroup of the ASC is reviewing performance indicators and the framework for monitoring performance. The intention is to seek indicators more suitable for College purposes and an improved framework related to the improved student support network. Hence, although at present ad hoc, a system of reviewing the internal review process of the College quality system is in an embryonic stage, extendable to broader operational matters.
60. The reviewers have confidence that the quality assurance processes at Bell College of Technology, Hamilton result in the maintenance and enhancement of academic standards. Some of these processes were in a stage of development at the time of the review, such as the use of suitable indicators of success and progression rates. The absence of robust progression data was a factor in some of the concerns of the reviewers in relation to the management of progression rates.
Engineering programmes at Bell College of Technology, Hamilton were reviewed in the academic year 2002-03. Judgements were made about the academic standards achieved and the quality of the learning opportunities provided.
The review covered the following programmes:
Overall, the reviewers have confidence in the standards achieved by the programmes in engineering at Bell College of Technology, Hamilton.
Strengths include:
Issues include:
The quality of teaching and learning is commendable:
The quality of student progression is approved, but:
The quality of learning resources is approved, but:
In general, the reviewers have confidence that the quality assurance processes at Bell College of Technology, Hamilton result in the maintenance and enhancement of academic standards. Some of these processes were in a stage of development at the time of the review, such as the use of suitable indicators of progression. The absence of robust progression data, together with a lack of the systematic tracking of progressions was an area of significant concern for the reviewers.