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 computing programmes at Blackpool and The Fylde College. The review was completed in the academic year 2002-03.
2. Computing is offered on four Edexcel programmes in both Higher National Certificate (HNC) and Higher National Diploma (HND) format. There is an opportunity to progress to degree level programmes in computing validated by the University of Lancaster (the University). The programmes included in the review are:
HNC/Ds in
Degrees in
3. The School of Computing and Information Technology delivers all programmes under review with the exception of the HNC/D in Computing (Microelectronics), which is the responsibility of the School of Engineering. Enrolments for the academic year 2002-03 for all programmes are 69 on HNC programmes, 96 on HND programmes, 17 on BSc (Ordinary) and four on BSc (Honours).
4. The self-evaluation document (SED) indicates that the College mission is to be 'leaders in personal development through quality education and training'. The complete mission and aims are available in the College strategic plan, but the SED highlights the College commitment to successful learning, achieved by;
5. The SED indicates that the programmes under review aim to provide a higher education provision that:
6. The reviewers consider that the aims of the programmes under review are appropriate and demanding and reflect the overall aims of the College. The HNC/D programmes meet the detailed specifications of Edexcel. In general, students have a clear understanding of the aims of the subject provision through appropriate documentation. The programme specifications in the SED, together with the one for Computing (Microelectronics) that the College revised after the production of the SED to ensure a common format, provide a valuable description of each programme under review.
7. The learning outcomes of the programmes are clearly stated in the programme specifications. They align well with the range of outcomes set out in the Subject benchmark statement for computing. The HNC/D range of programmes offer three distinct routes in their provision of separate named awards in computing, with its emphasis on information systems development, business information technology and microelectronics. The BSc/BSc (Honours) Computing programme has a distinctive applied computer science emphasis. The learning outcomes of each programme are appropriate to the programme philosophy in each case.
8. The College is in the early stages of dialogue with the British Computer Society (BCS) at local level. It sees the development of formal involvement of the BCS as a further means of enhancing the subject provision and the effective achievement of the learning outcomes. The reviewers agree with this.
9. The degree programmes use the framework structure currently used by the University. The reviewers consider that the learning outcomes as reflected in curriculum content and structure are consistent with the requirements of The framework for higher education qualifications in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. However, more explicit mapping of the degree-level provision against the requirements of the framework is required. Staff indicated that this would take place as part of the three-yearly review process in the 2002-03 session, which is part of the validation arrangements between the College and the University.
10. The module descriptors of the degree programme vary in the amount of information provided. A number of module descriptors would benefit from a greater depth of detail in relation to their learning outcomes. The programme specification has a clear and understandable curriculum map, but the reviewers believe that attention should be given to finer detail at the module descriptor level. The programme team acknowledged that such development would be beneficial.
11. In all programmes there is an effective and wide-ranging curriculum design which contributes significantly to the development of cognitive, practical and transferable skills. Such a curriculum contributes well in encouraging achievement of the intended learning outcomes of the programmes.
12. With the provision of HND and top up BSc/BSc (Honours), a significant objective is to provide a progression through the levels of study. This is particularly the case with the full-time provision, although the reviewers also found evidence of part-time HNC students taking up the opportunity of continuing successfully through to honours level. Students strongly confirmed the benefits of this programme structure. Full-time students, in particular, were very clear in their aspirations to progress and are well prepared for this by the content of the curricula.
13. The BSc/BSc (Honours) Computing top-up programme incorporates a curriculum structure consisting of two years of full-time study to achieve the award of BSc (Honours) Computing from the entry qualification of an appropriate HND. The programme also allows a distinct exit point ofBSc (Ordinary) Computing after one year of study.
14. To provide an appropriate combination of intermediate (I) and honours (H) level learning outcomes for the exit award of BSc (Ordinary) Computing, a level H project module is incorporated. This is, however, the only level H module for students who exit with the ordinary award. The reviewers conclude that the achievement of level H learning outcomes, through a project module only, without additional level H taught module delivery, is challenging. Discussions with staff and a review of the projects themselves confirmed, however, that this is achieved.
15. Staff indicated that it had been their intention to provide taught level H elective modules at the BSc (Ordinary) Computing stage of the programme, but current resource constraints do not allow this. The programme team consider that the provision of such choice can be accommodated through the use of the project module in theBSc (Ordinary) Computing year, which built upon appropriate intermediate-level taught modules from that same year of the study. While this arrangement did seem to work with the numbers of students involved, the reviewers recommend that this arrangement is reviewed.
16. In order to assist in the wider spread of innovation and best practice within the curriculum, the College has recently established the role of senior tutor within the school-based academic structure. While it is too early to evaluate the full impact of this appointment, the reviewers consider this to be a positive step. The reviewers also found clear evidence of a research-based contribution to the curricula in the final honours dissertation projects.
17. The assessment methods employed are effective in meeting the learning outcomes of the respective programmes. Assessment criteria are clearly stated and students on all programmes have a good knowledge and understanding of the requirements of the assessments. There is a suitable mix of coursework and examination in the majority of units. This in turn leads to a good variety of assessment types across each programme including written and practical assignments and individual and group work. On the HNC/D programmes, common skills are effectively assessed as part of the students' assignments. However, the reviewers conclude that there is room for greater clarity as to how overall common skills grades are calculated.
18. In general, the assessments on all the HNC/Ds in computing are robust, with clear learning outcomes and assessment specifications linked directly to the learning objectives of the programmes. However, the reviewers found that students had choice in the HND project: they could be assessed either as an individual or as a group, but there is no fully developed set of criteria to ensure equality in the academic challenge.
19. On the degree programmes, the reviewers found that assessments are well specified and linked directly to objectives of the provision. However, when two disparate subjects are taken within one examination time slot this may not help students in their assessment. The rationale of minimising student time commitment is understandable when many have to travel a significant distance to get to the College, but the reviewers believe that the paper might be split into two elements with a break in between to help students with their time-management.
20. For all elements of the provision, there are robust procedures for double-marking, blind-marking and internal moderation that are appropriate for the assessments. Internal verification procedures are different for the Schools of Computing and Engineering, but both meet college and external verifier requirements. Internal moderation happens before assessments and examinations are given to students. There are processes on both the HNC/D and degree programmes for suitable external examiner involvement.
21. The reviewers believe that feedback to students, in general, is appropriate and helpful. There are attempts to ensure that feedback is consistent across all assessments. However, external verifiers and students have indicated that there remains some lack of the consistency in the quality and timeliness of feedback. In some cases on the degree programmes the original coursework script is not returned at all, although feedback is provided. Staff indicated that this policy had been discussed and accepted by the previous programme consultant from the University. While the policy may aid the quality assurance of assessments, the reviewers agree with the students that the return of the original copies of the coursework would help student learning.
22. The reviewers found clear evidence that the level of student achievement on the HNC/D and degree programmes is comparable with the standard expected on these awards. Students achieve the learning outcomes identified for all the programmes in the subject provision under review. The reviewers considered examples of work from the 2001-02 session and found that students' work demonstrates good knowledge acquisition, understanding of the curriculum material, and the development of analytical skills. This is confirmed by the opinions of the external verifiers for the Edexcel provision, and the external examiner appointed by the University for the degree programmes.
23. The grading of students on all the provision follows an expected distribution. A number of students progress right through the suite of programmes to add considerably to their qualifications and their career prospects. Indeed, on the HND, statistics show that most students continue in education either at the College or elsewhere. This reflects the College mission to increase participation and to facilitate achievement of students from a wide range of educational backgrounds, including those with limited qualifications on entry.
24. With respect to academic standards, the reviewers conclude that:
Overall, the reviewers have confidence in the academic standards achieved by the programmes in computing at Blackpool and The Fylde College.
25. The College has an effective teaching and learning strategy that supports the subject provision and which is consistent with the College mission and aims. In general, the resource provision successfully supports this strategy. Delivery is based on a range of approaches that are a mixture of traditional and innovative, with significant use of information technology (IT). Staff are currently working on developing distance-learning modules on the HNC in Computing, but this is at an early stage. The take-up by students has been limited. The programme team is also beginning to evaluate a virtual learning environment.
26. The students commented favourably upon their learning experience, the induction programmes and the programme documentation, notably teaching plans, assignment requirements and communications. The College puts considerable effort into support for students during their learning. Students find the staff very supportive and easy to contact. Previous staff shortages caused some short-term difficulties in teaching and learning, but students are happy that staff ensured they were not significantly disadvantaged. Timetables are arranged to suit students, especially where they need to undertake part-time work. The students indicated that they are satisfied with their workloads, which the reviewers found to be paced appropriately.
27. This year in the School of Computing, a number of senior tutors is being appointed to support staff and disseminate best practice. The tutor for teaching and learning aims to improve the consistency of practice across the programmes in the School. The pastoral tutor disseminates best practice in the support of students in their learning. The reviewers considered this to be a positive step in the encouragement of the wider spread of innovation within teaching and learning. An action plan which identified clear planning and targets to assist in ensuring that the curricula are informed by development in teaching and learning has been developed and has commenced.
28. There is a system for staff review and development whereby all teaching staff are reviewed and have individual enhancement and development action plans. A good level of funding has been allocated to support this development. Unfortunately, previous problems of staff shortages and recruitment mean that the pace of development has been delayed. All new staff are supported and guided by a mentor system and there is a policy for all teaching staff to undertake teaching qualifications. The College also has a number of in-house activities to support the development of teaching skills for staff.
29. The small cohesive team who teach the degree programmes demonstrate good communication and close working which results in a high level of learning support for the small cohort of students. However, there is a high dependency on the particular skills of individuals in the teaching team.
30. All the teaching staff in the College are observed by a senior member of staff. The reports on the outcomes of the observations are assessed anonymously, based on teaching and learning achievement and referenced against national benchmarks for the further education sector. Good practice is promoted and disseminated, and support is given for any shortcomings discovered. The reviewers conclude that through this process, the College effectively undertakes the evaluation and enhancement of teaching and learning. The evidence from student questionnaires and the comments of students confirm this.
31. The provision contributes substantially to the achievement of the intended outcomes, with most elements demonstrating good practice.
The quality of teaching and learning is commendable.
32. A key stated aim of the subject provider is the provision of wider access. Evidence from student profiles and programme review demonstrates that this aim is successfully being achieved. However, evidence from the SED, confirmed by the programme team, shows a poor level of progression and retention between years one and two in both full and part-time programme provision. The reviewers are of the view that while the wider-access philosophy would tend to have some adverse impact on progression, the particular level of retention and award achievement needs to be improved. The programme team also acknowledged this to be an issue and a number of initiatives have been introduced recently with the aim of improving this situation.
33. The recent senior tutor appointments are viewed as a positive step towards improving retention. As a result of this, several specific actions have been put in place, although it is too early in this process for any detailed evaluation of their effectiveness. Examples of these actions include an audit of tutorial support practice, the development of comprehensive written guidelines to assist tutors in their academic and pastoral support of students and the introduction of pre-diagnostic tests in the induction process in order to identify specific additional targeted student-support requirements.
34. All programmes under review have clear induction processes for students. Students confirmed the usefulness of these processes, which are part of a well-developed higher education culture within the College that supports learning. Students are happy with the materials supplied and the information given to them on the programmes and modules.
35. Students also confirmed the effectiveness of the tutorial support system. Full-time students have a weekly timetabled group tutorial session, in addition to the term-based individual arrangements, at which programme issues, academic and operational, can be discussed and addressed. The College also operates a specific system of additional review for students with special needs.
36. The arrangements for supporting the preparation of projects are effectively managed. Students were given clear written guidance about the nature of their projects before the beginning of each project module. The development of research methods for the final-honours project is provided through specific class meetings and the individual supervision arrangements. These arrangements are effective given the current small numbers of students involved. However, the programme team recognise that more formal preparation material would be required if significantly larger numbers of students are recruited and progress through the programme.
37. The provision enables the intended outcomes to be achieved, but improvement is needed to overcome weaknesses.
The quality of student progression is approved, but
38. The College has an effective strategic plan for learning resources, which supports the subject provision. Schools make informed bids for resources based on programme requirements and these are acted upon in the light of the available budget and college priorities.
39. The strategic plan for information and technology sets out the strategic direction for the College in order to take full advantage of the new technologies. There has been considerable investment in this area. There is a college-wide IT network and the School of Computing has its own network. Therefore, the School has flexibility to develop its own requirements, such as Oracle. The College network can be accessed through the School's server. However, the reviewers found a problem with the implementation of Oracle in the computing laboratories. The Oracle software needs to be properly configured to enable its use to fully support the learning and teaching of database principles.
40. While investment in network facilities has been beneficial to the programmes, students indicated that the speed of the network in the School of Computing is a significant constraint on learning. Efforts have been made to increase network efficiency and the School is taking steps to improve matters with investment in new servers. The reviewers believe that the problem experienced by the students should be reviewed by the School and central network services to establish what changes may be necessary in the system's hardware to ensure that students are more fully supported on this provision.
41. There are good facilities for open and casual access by students. The facilities in the four learning resource centres are good with opening hours appropriate for the learning needs of students. The resources centres are well supported by specialist staff. There is a good range of texts to support the subject provision. The lack of hard copy journals is compensated by good access to e-journals through the number of online subscription databases, such as Infotrac and Emerald Fulltext, that are in place to support student searches through ATHENS.
42. Staff expertise fully supports the HNC/D programmes. In general, this is also true for the degree programmes, but the reviewers believe that there is scope for increasing existing links with industry and the number of staff undertaking consultancy projects. There are opportunities to improve expertise through the BSc project and by developing links with local industry. The reviewers found that attendance at conferences and the production of academic papers, either in the form of conference papers or journal papers, is limited. There is some professional body membership, but this is quite low. The reviewers conclude that the encouragement of staff to join professional bodies has not been a college priority, although there are plans for greater links with the BCS. There is an Institute for Learning and Teaching in Higher Education 'champion', which is to be encouraged.
43. The College recognises in the SED that the retention of staff in computing has been a difficulty which has led to a high turnover of academic staff. This has caused difficulties in some units, for example, the Network unit on the HND, and Computer Architecture and Operation Systems on the degree programme. Students agreed that staff turnover had resulted in some adverse effect on their learning, although the College had worked effectively to minimise the impact.
44. The classroom facilities for computing support the provision with many being well equipped for new developments in teaching and learning. However, the accommodation is heavily booked throughout the teaching week, and this pressure sometimes results in laboratories being used for theory classes. The School of Engineering laboratories fit fully the requirements of the microelectronics programme. The particular way the laboratories are laid out allows students to fully explore and create networks and analyse server technologies.
45. There is current evidence of an equipment maintenance programme that is suited to the needs of the provision. There are two technicians dedicated to the School's network and teaching laboratories. The engineering laboratories are also supported though two dedicated network technicians. All these staff work closely with teaching staff and students to enhance learning opportunities.
46. The provision enables the intended outcomes to be achieved, but improvement is needed to overcome weaknesses.
The quality of learning resources is approved, but
47. The College has a clear and coherent strategy for the maintenance and enhancement of quality and standards in its provision. There is a well-developed structure of committees and procedures for both the College and the Schools. The quality procedures accommodate both Edexcel and the University, the awarding institutions for different parts of the provision under review. While there are somewhat different annual reporting procedures for each awarding body, they both include the consideration of external examiner or verifier reports, student feedback and progression data, and are based on evaluative self-assessment. The reviewers conclude that these procedures are generally effective. However, in the case of Edexcel programmes, they believe that more emphasis in the annual reports on the percentage of students entering the programme who achieve of the final award would be advantageous.
48. The College has robust internal validation and review procedures for all its programmes and these are supplemented by the external procedures of Edexcel and the University where appropriate. The reviewers found that there is a strong link between the quality procedures, the improvement of programmes and the development of staff.
49. On the degrees, the programme consultant at the University acts as a point of reference when moderating locally-set assessments after internal consideration at the College. Assessments are sent to subject specialists at the University for evaluation. As the degree programmes are not exactly the same as those provided by the University, this evaluation must be undertaken by a wider range of staff than the module leaders at the University. Internal moderation processes work well and there is documentation on each module to support this.
50. Students were forthcoming and supportive of their programmes, teaching and staff. Feedback from staff and students is regularly collected at college, school and programme level. There is good evidence to show that this feedback is used to improve facilities, communications and development. Data are collected through module questionnaires. Moreover, student representatives on programme boards and students are confident that they are able to raise any issues with class lecturers and tutors. Students are satisfied that their views were taken seriously and responded to, and cited examples of their views resulting in module improvements, although they were not aware of exactly how their feedback is used.
51. The external examiners' comments are generally favourable. Nevertheless, the College has in place mechanisms to respond to suggestions from external examiners when necessary. The degree programme shares an external examiner with a similar programme taught by another associate college of the University. The reviewers conclude that this is good practice, but believe that a closer relationship with the external examining arrangements at the University would also be helpful to ensure compatibility of experience.
52. Overall, the reviewers are satisfied that the procedures for securing the quality of provision and future enhancement are generally effective. However, the partners should consider a closer relationship with external examining arrangements at the University when undertaking the appointment to the degree programmes.
Computing programmes at Blackpool and The Fylde College 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:
HNC/Ds in
Degrees in
Overall, the reviewers have confidence in the academic standards achieved by the programmes in computing at Blackpool and The Fylde College.
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:
Overall, the reviewers are satisfied that the procedures for securing the quality of provision and future enhancement are generally effective. However, the partners should consider a closer relationship with external examining arrangements at the University of Lancaster when undertaking the appointment to the degree programmes.