Norland was founded in 1892, and we’re a very small, specialist institution delivering early childhood care training and education. We achieved time-limited Degree Awarding Powers (DAPs) in 2019, and it was always our intention to go for university title, for which we needed to have indefinite DAPs.

As time went on operating under time-limited DAPs, we grew in confidence. We knew that we were at the right level, our students were achieving the right standards, and the quality of their experience was good. We were awarded TEF Gold, so we knew we were on the right path and were confident that we were meeting the standards as they needed to be met.

We always knew we wanted to apply for indefinite DAPs, so we started thinking fairly early on about how we would gather our evidence. The major step we took was to undertake an institutional review in the 18 months before we applied for DAPs. Teams across Norland conducted mini self-assessments against the criteria and developed action plans as a result. This was a really useful exercise as when it came to writing the self-assessment for the actual submission, we had everything we needed to hand. We were also able to show enhancement and improvement because we had the action plans, and we could demonstrate how we had taken steps to improve things.

We got to the point where we thought we’d done what we needed to do. I understand the value of having that independent eye over what we’re doing because when you’re so deeply immersed in something, it’s easy to lose perspective. That’s why we brought QAA in at that stage – and we brought them in quite late, because by that time we were already confident that we were in the right place, but wanted that reassurance.

Everyone we spoke to at QAA from the very first contact was really engaged, supportive, and hugely experienced in terms of what was required. They were super-efficient, and by the time we got the report from QAA, we were only about two or three weeks away from submitting. That gave us just enough time to make any final adjustments based on QAA’s feedback.

The result is that we got indefinite DAPs, and we’ve now put in our application for university classification, which is very exciting! The impact of QAA’s involvement was the additional confidence it gave us in what we were doing. We were already pretty sure we were on the right track, but for a provider without prior assessment experience – particularly if it’s your first DAPs application – the service would be absolutely invaluable. You just wouldn’t get that insight elsewhere. It’s a really good service.