Academic review of UK higher education
Introduction
A Subject provision and overall aims
B Academic standards
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 review outcomes
Subject provision and the overall aims
The Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (the Agency) 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 Agency has published a wide range of materials designed to provide a background against which the reviews can take place. These are:
The Agency 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 Agency 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 art and design, and communications, media, film and television studies programmes at Liverpool Community College (the College). The review was completed in the academic year 2003-04.
2. The College is a large general further education (FE) college with a small proportion of directly funded higher education (HE) students. The annual report for the last full academic year shows a total of 26,673 students, of which 689 were funded by HEFCE. Of the HEFCE students, 312 were studying on part-time courses and 377 were studying on full-time courses. Many of the College's students attract widening participation funding (71 per cent overall). At the time of the review, the Faculty of Arts had 2,169 students, of whom 192 were studying on Higher National programmes, full and part-time. Within the subject area, 79 students were enrolled full-time on HND programmes and 39 were enrolled part-time on HNC programmes. In practice, the HNC students join the full-time HND courses on an infill basis. There are currently 19 staff teaching on the four programmes and, of these, nine are full-time members of staff. The activities of the subject team are supported by the work of five specialist technicians. The HNC Multi Media was transferred from the Faculty of Information Technology to the Faculty of Arts in September 2003 and is to close in 2004. For this reason, the programme was not considered in this review. Classes are based at the purpose-built Arts Centre which is located close to other university and cultural facilities in the heart of Liverpool.
3. The following awards are offered at the College:
4. The overriding aim of all programmes covered in this provision is to provide high-quality education and training that is inclusive and matches the needs of diverse learners and the economy.
5. The aims of the art and design programmes are to:
6. These aims are consistent with the College's mission and strategic objectives. These emphasise the provision of vocational HE for people who are more comfortable in a mixed FE/HE environment, either because they are returnees to education, or because they have a background in which there has been little or no experience of HE.
7. The aims of the programmes are consistent with the College's mission and strategic objectives. These emphasise meeting the needs of a diverse range of learners and of the local economy. It is evident from the student profile that the provision succeeds in offering HE to a broad range of learners and supports their vocational aspirations.
8. Each subject team has produced programme specifications, although these vary in their detail and consistency. Some teams, such as in HNC/D Fine Arts and HND Media (Moving Image), have developed their curricula by reference to the relevant subject benchmark statements, even though this is not formally required at this level. Programme intended learning outcomes (ILOs) for HNC/D Clothing Technology, HNC/D Art and Design (Multi Media): Photography and Imaging and HNC/D Fine Arts are expressed in terms of knowledge and understanding; intellectual skills; practical skills and transferable skills, while the HND Media (Moving Image) provision defines ILOs as knowledge and understanding, and enumerates all other skills under this heading.
9. In line with a strong vocational ethos, shared by all subject teams, the learning outcomes for all programmes are constructed to enable students to achieve competencies of appropriate industrial/commercial standard. The informal engagement with the previously existing National Training Organisation, National Qualifications Framework and the new Sector Skills Councils provides evidence of the professional relevance of ILOs.
10. The provision is distinctive in the extent of its use of industrial and professional connections to facilitate students' achievement of learning outcomes. These connections are particularly evident on the HND Clothing Technology, HNC/D Fine Art and HNC/D Media (Moving Image) programmes. Although not a formal part of these programmes, students are encouraged to make external professional and industrial Iinks. It is noteworthy that the Media Section has been made a Centre of Vocational Excellence (CoVE).
11. The learning outcomes for all programmes are presented to students in Edexcel format. While it is clear from the student work sampled that learning outcomes are being assessed, it is not always clear to students which of the ILOs are being assessed. However, students said they were fully informed of their programme's ILOs through close interaction with staff in a variety of contexts. They said that unit guidelines prepared them for assignments by making explicit reference to unit learning outcomes. However, as a consequence of the lack of detailed written guidance, there is evidence of uncertainty in the communication of learning outcomes to students of photography.
12. All the HND programmes are of two years duration and studied full-time, with the HNC routes available on a part-time basis. The range of subject knowledge and depth of subject specialisation at the second level of the HND programmes indicate adequate preparation for student progression to undergraduate courses. There is no differentiation in terms of delivery between the HNC and HND for the 10 HNC units taught in common, indicating compatible progression between the awards.
13. The curricula of all programmes are well tailored to reflect staff specialisation and student demand. The provision's emphasis on preparation for professional practice and employment is very well supported by curricula that fully engage students in the development of appropriate skills.
14. As required by Edexcel, all HNC programmes are based on 10 units in total and HND on 16 units. The provision of standard Edexcel core and option units, as well as some centre-devised units, has been carefully designed to develop students' subject knowledge and best exploit the available learning facilities. There is also an appropriate balance of intellectual and practical skills. Interdisciplinary and collaborative learning is achieved through formal curriculum design in which students engage on a multidisciplinary project, but are assessed under units of their own programme.
15. The curricula of the HNC/D Clothing Technology, HNC/D Fine Arts and HND Media (Moving Image) programmes demonstrate a high degree of awareness by the subject teams of the need to integrate both the theoretical and practical aspects of the subject. This is achieved through the adoption of appropriate learning strategies, and is evident in the project work submitted by students. In HNC/D Fine Arts, a compulsory core unit in historical and contextual studies enables students to integrate practical and theoretical aspects of the subject. Although not a requirement of the programme specification, the photography team has developed a formative programme of contextual studies. However, this is not integrated with students' practical work.
16. The accumulation of transferable and personal skills is demonstrated through the construction of project briefs and assignments, although not all schemes are explicitly mapped against Edexcel's requirement for common skills. The reviewers suggest that the connection between common skills and formal assessment should be more explicitly established to enhance students' understanding of their acquisition in relation to ILOs, as demonstrated on the HNC/D Clothing Technology programme.
17. To ensure continued relevance of its curriculum for students entering the workplace, the HNC/D Art and Design (Multi Media): Photography and Imaging team recognise the need for enhanced provision in digital (rather than silver-based) photographic practices, and there are plans to add to the existing digital facilities.
18. In all programmes, the assessment strategies place an emphasis on coursework assignments, with students working towards the production of some sort of masterpiece. This may involve students in producing a 30-minute documentary or artwork fit for public exhibition. The production of the final piece of work is not sufficient in itself, because students must also demonstrate evidence of project management and organisational competence. To ensure that students' work meets the ILOs, there are assessment maps that show what learning outcomes are assessed. This avoids assessment overload or the omission of learning outcomes.
19. Assessment practices are fully articulated with ILOs on the HNC/D Clothing Technology, HNC/D Fine Arts and HND Media (Moving Image) programmes, but they may be more explicitly communicated to students through assessment criteria that address both unit and programme ILOs more directly. The sample of student work indicated that the subject team for photography did not consistently convey assessment criteria to students, and that Edexcel generic criteria needed to be more fully elaborated in order to make clear the connection between ILOs and assignment tasks.
20. Although there are College-wide assessment regulations, the assessment of students varies across the programmes. In the clothing technology programmes, the Student Handbook contains detailed guidance to students on assessment practices. This indicates the assignment schedule that students must complete over the year, together with a chart for tracking the grades they obtain. They also receive clear guidance on what a student has to do in order to gain Pass, Merit and Distinction grades, and action plans give guidance on how students may improve their performance. The assignment briefs make explicit reference to assessment criteria. Similar guidance is given to students on the HND Media (Moving Image) and HNC/D Fine Arts programmes.
21. A different approach has been adopted in photography. For project work there is a group tutorial briefing and students compare their work against others in the group. The subject team indicated that students receive advice and guidance at all stages in the preparation of their project work. The team use practical examples to demonstrate to students work at Distinction level. They indicated that flexibility in assessment is inherent in the nature of the subject, and that they spend a lot of one-to-one time with each student discussing their work. The small student numbers on the programmes facilitate this degree of interaction. The team also indicated the importance of students balancing different features of technology and of the merging of concepts with the technology employed.
22. For HNC/D Fine Arts students there is formative assessment of historical and contextual studies with individual feedback and support provided for students who may need to undertake remedial work. Students receive a copy of the written assessment with action plans for work in contextual studies. In HNC/D Art and Design (Multi Media): Photography and Imaging, the role of contextual studies and the underpinning knowledge developed in a number of units run in parallel with student project work over the two years of the programme. The subject team indicated that evidence of the impact of the contextual studies could be seen in the artefacts produced by students; however, this was not evident to the reviewers.
23. There is evidence of the second-marking of students' work and moderation and internal verification of assessment practices, but this is variable across the programmes. The subject team in photography indicated that student projects are assessed collectively by the whole team. However, this is not recorded in a way that is transparent to students or available for internal and external verification.
24. There is evidence that the programme teams employ different policies in dealing with student claims of extenuating circumstances and the late submission of assessed work. While recognising Edexcel and College regulations for dealing with such matters, there is a case for a review of these different policies to ensure fairness and equity of treatment to students on all programmes.
25. The subject teams see feedback on student work as a two-way process, with staff commenting on student work both in writing and orally. At the same time, students are encouraged to seek clarification of any comments made on their work. Students can also ask for a reconsideration of a grade.
26. All staff indicated that it was normal to make written comments on students assessed work. However, there is variability in the quality and quantity of written feedback. In photography there are examples of very brief written feedback that does not provide a consistent or true reflection of the quality of the work produced, or guide students on how they may improve their performance.
27. On the HNC/D Fine Arts programme there is effective monitoring, tracking and action planning of student progress that is clear and transparent. Other programmes also demonstrated that students have clear written action plans and opportunities for discussion with staff to support their ongoing formative achievements. However, on photography programmes, the students do not receive sufficient written information to enable them always to know what targets they have agreed, or are working towards.
28. The reviewers scrutinised students' work in 17 units across all programmes and levels. They confirm that students' achievements match the ILOs at each level of the provision. In the majority of cases, there is clear evidence of students' knowledge and understanding of the skills required to produce high-quality work. This view is supported by the external verifier who comments that students' assessed work is of a sound standard, appropriate to the level of the awards, and comparable to the standards achieved by students nationally.
29. Student retention and progression rates are good, with over 75 per cent of students on most programmes successfully completing their programme of study. The main exception to this is the HNC/D Art and Design (Multi Media): Photography and lmaging, where for the most recent cohort, only 42 per cent proceeded to the second year of the programme. The main reason for non-progression is due to the changing personal circumstances of students, including employment and family obligations.
30. With respect to academic standards, the reviewers conclude that:
Overall, the reviewers have confidence in the academic standards achieved by the programmes in art and design, and communications, media, film and television studies at Liverpool Community College.
31. The subject teams encourage students to become independent learners from the beginning of their studies. All of the programmes are characterised by an emphasis on active student learning, through participation in a learning process that is facilitated by small group size classes. A good range of subject-appropriate teaching methods is employed to support students' learning, including lectures, studio-based demonstrations, group work, use of reflective journals, practical sessions, individual and group tutorials. Tasks and projects are well designed to ensure active student participation.
32. The provision of tutorials for part-time students, alongside the full-time students, is possible through the good offices of the teaching staff. The tutorial time for part-time students has been reduced. However, in a number of units, HNC and HND students are taught jointly so, in practice, the part-time students enjoy the same tutorial time.
33. The students commended their close working relations with the teaching and support staff, this ensures that any difficulties or problems they experience with assignments, workloads or the practical management of project work are dealt with effectively through quick access to relevant guidance. Requests for additional individual tutorials are always met.
34. Assessment schedules are issued at the beginning of the year to facilitate students' time management of workloads and some action is taken to avoid bunching of assignment deadlines. Assignments are issued well in advance of submission dates and the open-access policy for tutorials and supervision ensures that students are supported in the management of their studies.
35. The staff and students identified the importance of involvement with external professional practitioners, community and commercial agencies, as visiting lecturers or in work-based contexts, in enhancing the quality of the students' learning experience. All programmes demonstrate a commendable range of ways to underpin students' learning experiences with high levels of exposure to external professional, commercial and creative contexts. Similarly, the continued professional development of staff within their relevant subject areas impacts positively on their teaching.
36. Across the programmes, learning materials such as unit guidelines, classroom handouts, technical notes, support for independent learning, assignment briefs and student handbooks vary in both quality and quantity. In particular, there is either an absence of documentation or insufficiently detailed information provided by the photography team that affects the quality of the student learning experience.
37. The College operates a formal annual staff appraisal system, an annual classroom observation scheme and support for training and staff development. While staff suggested that individual requests for developmental activity are supported, there is no formal planning of staff needs in relation to teaching development.
38. There is currently a debate in the Faculty as to the most effective means of implementing a peer review and enhancement of teaching scheme. All new members of staff are required to undergo formal teacher training. There are arrangements for inducting part-time members of staff into the role and responsibilities within teaching teams.
39. The provision contributes substantially to the achievement of the intended outcomes, with most elements demonstrating good practice.
The quality of teaching and learning in HNC/D Clothing Technology, HNC/D Fine Arts and HND Media (Moving Image) programmes is commendable.
40. The provision enables the intended outcomes to be achieved, but improvement is needed to overcome weaknesses.
The quality of teaching and learning in HNC/D Art and Design (Multi Media): Photography and Imaging programmes is approved, but
41. The admissions strategy for all programmes supports the widening participation ethos of the College. The HND programmes are listed with UCAS, and applications are received from both outside and within the College. In practice, most entrants are direct applicants, many progressing from other programmes in the College.
42. The induction of students is College-wide and based on generic guidelines followed by all programmes. Although there is variation between programmes in the length of the induction process, the students commented positively on the support they received on their introduction to the College. In the HNC/D Clothing Technology and HNC/D Art and Design (Multi Media): Photography and Imaging programmes, the induction of students is supported by a suitable 'bridging and balancing' period during which an audit of students' skills is undertaken to assess individual learning needs.
43. Initial diagnostic assessment is available for every student entering the College from other institutions and learner support is allocated as appropriate. Students with relatively low entry qualifications are supported and enabled throughout their college experience to achieve a creditable end award. This has enabled many to progress into employment or to gain direct entry into the second year of degree programmes in other institutions.
44. The publication of good quality student handbooks as a source of detailed reference and ongoing guidance to students is not a high priority for the subject teams. The quality of learner information provided to students in the current handbooks is variable across the programmes, and in the case of photography, the detail is minimal.
45. The low student numbers enable all the teaching teams to provide one-to-one and group tutorial support. Either the students or lecturers may request a one-to-one tutorial. Students are well known to members of staff and the open-door policy in operation provides a responsive informal and accessible personal support system. Students experiencing problems are given time and attention to rectify the situation, with the consequence that less able students can achieve at an appropriate level. The continuous and close contact between staff and students ensures that students are kept informed of developments that affect them and, in part, this compensates for the low quality of some documentation.
46. Overall, the students speak highly of the support they receive from the teaching staff and student services. Students with disabilities are encouraged to achieve their learning outcomes. There are responsive College facilities for students experiencing financial difficulties. This allows students to access hardship funds as required, and there is also a course expenses fund that students may access to secure matched funding for the purchase of art and design materials. Student services also provides childcare facilities. The majority of students are enthusiastic about the support they receive and are confident that they are being provided with a good learning experience.
47. The provision contributes substantially to the achievements of the intended outcomes, with most elements demonstrating good practice.
The quality of student progression is commendable.
48. The College has a strategy for the deployment of learning resources that supports the curriculum and is matched to the aims and learning outcomes. There is clear evidence to justify the College's account of the expertise, qualifications and experience of staff involved in this provision. In each of the subject areas under review there is an appropriate level of full-time staffing expertise to support the academic programmes, supported by the expertise of specialist part-time staff. The use of visiting artists in HNC/D Fine Arts, the industry links evident in HNC/D Clothing Technology and the Granada Media Education Partnership project in HND Media (Moving Image) also make important contributions to the student experience.
49. Although the current staffing level is adequate to support the existing number of students, any increase in student numbers or a reduction in the staffing level would be detrimental to the quality of the student learning experience.
50. The College is addressing issues around staff development. The reviewers note the positive approach to peer observation of teaching being adopted to supplement the more managerial system of classroom observations. It is clear that although peer observation is at an early stage of development, it is an important means of identifying and sharing good practice both within and across subject areas.
51. There is an action plan for the allocation of HEFCE Development Funding to support the subject teams. Also, the College intranet is used to provide some staff development support. Despite this evident commitment to staff development, it is not entirely clear that there is a strategic approach in place to support staff development across these HE programmes. The reviewers noted that the College has had mixed success in stimulating responses from staff to engage in research, scholarship or subject updating reflecting the heavy demands on staff time.
52. The College has experienced more success in stimulating more general forms of staff development. For example, all members of staff have either acquired a teaching qualification or are in the process of completing one. The engagement of staff, generally in their own professional practice, and in developing and maintaining industry or professional links, is also of evident value in the contribution it makes to the student learning experience.
53. The College has benefited from the establishment of a CoVE in Media and this has contributed significantly to the quality of learning resources. There is significant investment in information technology resources for students in all subject areas as well as excellent specialist facilities available to students in HND Media (Moving Image). Some progress has also been made in acquiring digital photography equipment and in the replacement of existing resources in the photography and imaging area.
54. Physical accommodation for students on these programmes is generally of a high standard, particularly in terms of workshop space, light and facilities. The workshop and studio spaces for all of the subjects offer excellent facilities to students and are well organised.
55. During the long-term illness of one technician, there was evidence that technicians were overburdened with work. The contribution of technicians is crucial in these subjects, and both students and academic staff commented on the high regard they had for the current technical support staff.
56. Members of the academic staff do not always have access to administrative staff support. The College will need to monitor this situation closely to ensure that the expertise of all staff is being used to the best purpose.
57. The learning resource centre (LRC) is only adequate to support the programmes given the current number of students. The limited opening hours of the LRC is unusual and the College should address this issue. There are also issues concerning book stock security, noise in the LRC and limited study space. However, there are significant library resources available to students by agreement with the local universities, and these are readily accessible.
58. Despite these few reservations, the learning resources available to students are of a generally high standard. The reviewers note that CoVE funding has impacted significantly on the provision available in the subject area over the past year.
59. The provision contributes substantially to the achievement of the intended outcomes, with most elements demonstrating good practice.
The quality of learning resources is commendable.
60. The College has separated the quality systems for HE from those for FE because the FE system provides an insufficiently evaluative approach at subject level. Central to the HE approach is the annual round of programme self-assessment and action documents (PSAAD). The PSAAD feed into the College's Higher Education Self-Assessment and Action Document (HESAAD). This is considered at College level, and together with the College's strategy statements, forms the operational response to the annual round of evaluations.
61. It was not entirely clear, however, whether the Faculty has a significant role to play in the quality assurance of the HE programmes, in particular, how it considers the PSAADs and disseminates examples of good practice. The College's Quality Policy and Procedures documentation defines the responsibilities of the Faculty management team, but there is little evidence of cross-subject sharing of practice or commonality of systems. For example, the reviewers found some interesting use of Tutorial Report forms in fine arts, through which it is possible to track the guidance offered to students and to monitor their progress in meeting agreed objectives. This did not seem to be widely used in other subject areas and is certainly a system that would be valuable, in particular, in the photography subject area.
62. While it is evident that students find the staff in all subjects to be accessible and supportive, it is also clear that the more formal systems for drawing together student feedback are variable in their effectiveness for quality enhancement purposes. In some programmes, the reviewers saw no evidence of such systems in operation, and noted that PSAAD reports provide little evidence of student evaluation. There is some evidence, however, of the use of brief student questionnaires in fine arts and the use of College-wide systems in clothing technology PSAAD reports. This inconsistency and variability of practice is acknowledged in the HESAAD report for 2001-02, with the comment that too few course teams provide any evidence of how they have evaluated and acted upon students' needs and feedback.
63. There is an internal verification process for assessment briefs in all programmes, and sampling of student work by the internal staff teams in most cases. The College has recently produced a Policy on Assuring the Quality of Assessment document, designated the AQuA process. However, staff did not refer to this process in their discussions with the reviewers, and it is unclear how or whether the process is being implemented in any systematic way across HE programmes.
64. The external verifier's reports confirmed that the standards of student achievement were at an appropriate level in all programmes. However, it was not possible to glean from these reports any proposed action for quality assurance or enhancement of the student experience on an ongoing basis.
65. This impacts on the quality of the annual PSAAD reports. Generally, they are descriptive rather than evaluative and provide little indication of a quality enhancement culture. This view is supported by the judgement made in the HESAAD Report for 2001-02 that the PSAAD reports are not evaluative and often include 'bald statements without providing evidence'.
66. The HESAAD report, produced on an annual basis by the Head of HE, is evaluative and very thorough. To ensure more collective ownership at subject, programme and faculty levels, the PSAAD reports should be more evaluative in approach and provide more detailed action plans. The management and enhancement of the student learning experience would also be facilitated if all PSAAD reports were considered at faculty level. Such a process would then inform the overview report provided by the Head of HE.
Art and design, and communications, media, film and television studies programmes at Liverpool Community College were reviewed in the academic year 2004. Judgements were made about the academic standards achieved and the quality of the learning opportunities provided.
The review covered the following programmes
Academic standards
Overall, the reviewers have confidence in the academic standards achieved by the programmes in art and design, and communications, media, film and television studies at Liverpool Community College.
Strengths include:
Issues include:
Quality of learning opportunities
Teaching and learning
The quality of teaching and learning in HNC/D Clothing Technology, HNC/D Fine Arts and HND Media (Moving Image) programmes is commendable:
The quality of teaching and learning in HNC/D Art and Design (Multi Media): Photography and Imaging is approved, but:
Student progression
The quality of student progression is commendable:
Learning resources
The quality of learning resources is commendable:
Maintenance and enhancement of quality and standards
The College has in place procedures for assuring and enhancing the quality of provision, and the reviewers are confident that there is widespread commitment at subject level to maintaining standards and delivering a high-quality student experience. The programme teams, Faculty and College Management may wish to consider, however, formal quality systems with a view to their rationalisation, implementation and common use in the programmes covered in this review.