QAA announces new suite of CEPs

QAA has announced funding for nine new Collaborative Enhancement Projects (CEPs).

Several of these projects will focus on the uses of artificial intelligence and learning technologies in higher education. A team from Cardiff University will lead a project to build, use and evaluate a teaching focused large language model that improves conceptual understanding, problem-solving, and feedback quality – while colleagues from Cardiff Metropolitan University will design and pilot a Curriculum Visualiser Tool, an interactive digital platform which will enable academics to plan and review programmes through an engaging, visual interface. Both of those projects are jointly funded with Medr, the Commission for Tertiary Education and Research in Wales.

Leeds Beckett University's project will explore whether structured, student-led reflection with GenAI can enhance conceptual mastery, metacognitive accuracy and confidence, compared with traditional independent study. An initiative led by SOAS, University of London will pilot, evaluate and refine a practical Assessment Toolkit that will support programme teams to design assessment for AI, supporting future learning, employability and positive graduate outcomes.

A project from the University of Leeds will also explore assessment issues, seeking to address hidden barriers in assessment design, ensuring that assessment requirements are clear, transparent, and accessible to all learners, particularly those with specific learning difficulties, cognitive impairments, or who speak English as an additional language. 

Other initiatives will develop enhanced approaches to quality assurance practices. A University of Cumbria initiative will reimagine quality processes to underpin impactful inclusive modular design and delivery within the context of the introduction of the Lifelong Learning Entitlement and the UK Government's Industrial Strategy. Nottingham College's project aims to establish a core set of inclusive and accessible quality assurance documentation, that can be adapted and used by colleges working with multiple validating partners to deliver higher education programmes. And Northeastern University London's CEP aims to create quality assurance frameworks in the area of industry-integrated learning.

Meanwhile, colleagues from Ulster University have designed a CEP which aims to enhance engagement with, and understanding of, quantitative methods among undergraduate students studying Social Sciences, and to develop a new teaching dataset to enhance open access quantitative methods teaching resources. 

"This is such an exciting, diverse and timely range of projects," says Steph Tindall, QAA's Head of UK & International Membership Delivery. "We very much look forward to supporting the work of these project teams to deliver and share resources and insights which will benefit our Members, colleagues and students, and help to enhance the quality of tertiary education in the UK and across the world."