Our student engagement work

QAA is working to build and extend our work with students, their representative bodies and higher education institutions to support and promote activities that effectively engage students in the processes and management of quality assurance and enhancement.

Short films about the importance of student engagement in quality assurance, and take ideas back to your institution.

 

Students as members of audit teams

QAA has recruited students to be members of institutional audit teams from January 2010. Training for students will be held in autumn 2009.
QAA’s advertisement for student members of audit teams attracted an overwhelming number of high calibre applications. The vitality, enthusiasm and skills of the applicants strengthens the message that student auditors will bring a valuable perspective and experience to the audit process.

QAA's approach to student engagement

We have established four key aims in our approach to student engagement as we believe that students are active participants in their own education and therefore can and should be directly involved in the higher education sector’s approaches to quality assurance and enhancement.

Student involvement in internal and external review arrangements

As part of our approach to engaging students, we will be including students as members of institutional audit and review teams. To help inform our planning and to assist students and staff in institutions to think about student membership of QAA audit and review teams and their own internal review processes, QAA published the following three documents:

Feedback from student observers and audit team members HTML | PDF
This report provides an analysis of the feedback provided by student observers and auditors on their experience and perceptions of observing an institutional audit.

Learning from periodic review HTML | PDF
This paper gives an overview of periodic review arrangements at nine institutions that already include students as members of their teams and an analysis of lessons QAA can learn from their experience.

 

Learning from the Nordic experience HTML | PDF
This paper is an extract from a paper prepared for the Nordic Quality Assurance Network in Higher Education on Student Involvement in Quality Assessments of Higher Education in the Nordic Countries and is followed by an analysis of lessons QAA can learn from their experience.

 

Further information

If you would like to find out more about our student engagement work, please contact Derfel Owen, Development Officer (Students and Enhancement).