Since joining QAA in 2020, Amy has held a range of leadership roles across the QAA’s work in Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. As Head of Scotland, she provides strategic leadership and operational oversight for QAA’s activities in Scotland, ensuring QAA’s work meets the needs of Scotland’s learners, colleges, universities, the Scottish Funding Council, and the Scottish Government. She leads an experienced team responsible for key elements of Scotland’s Tertiary Quality Enhancement Framework, including the Tertiary Quality Enhancement Review and Scotland’s Tertiary Enhancement Programme, and works closely with sector partners to support continuous enhancement across tertiary education. 

Prior to joining QAA, Amy held academic quality and governance roles at the University of Stirling and the University of Stirling Students’ Union, and was a tutor at the University of St Andrews. She holds an MLitt in Medieval Studies from the University of Aberdeen and a PhD in Late Medieval Scottish History from the University of St Andrews. 

Heather has a PhD in Philosophy from the University of Leeds. Her career has taken her through teaching, pedagogic research, and then to quality assurance and enhancement. Before joining QAA she was Head of Academic Standards and Enhancement at the University of the Highlands and Islands (UHI) 

Since joining QAA in May 2024, Heather has worked on implementing the TQEF in Scotland, helping to develop and deliver the first year of STEP and managing the first college review as part of TQER. She is involved in all aspects of review work, including institutional liaison. 

Following graduation from Cardiff University, Holly worked in the Student Voice Team at Cardiff University Students’ Union and joined QAA’s Student Strategic Advisory Committee. At Cardiff University Students’ Union, her role focused on training and support for student representatives, from sabbatical officers to course representatives, including on matters relating to academic quality. 

Holly joined the QAA Cymru and Northern Ireland teams in November 2019, where she worked on a wide portfolio of activity with universities and colleges across the two nations. Her work and interests included areas such a micro-credentials, academic integrity, degree apprenticeships, promoting Welsh Language, and external quality review method design and development.  

Holly joined the QAA Scotland team in January 2025 working predominantly as a Review Manager for the Tertiary Quality Enhancement Review Method. 

Before starting at QAA Scotland in 2016, Pam worked at the University of Stirling for 15 years in a variety of Strategic Planning, Governance and Quality roles. During this time, she was a peer reviewer for QAA. She completed a degree and PhD in Plant Science at the University of St Andrews before starting a career in University Administration. 

As a Quality Assurance Manager, Pam has extensive experience in Enhancement-Led Institutional Review and is involved in all areas of work related to the Tertiary Quality Enhancement Review, including institutional liaison. She enjoys the varied work of QAA Scotland especially gaining a deeper knowledge and understanding of quality assurance and enhancement processes across the Scottish Higher Education sector.  

Previously, Pam was also the Liaison Officer for Northern Ireland so brings a broader perspective from across the Celtic nations. 

Kelly joined QAA in 2025 as a Quality Assurance Specialist, where she will support a range of activities including institutional liaison and review.  

She previously spent over 15 years at the University of the Highlands and Islands (UHI) in roles central to the university’s quality assurance and enhancement framework. Her work there included leading ILQR, annual monitoring, awarding arrangements, curriculum development and approval, and she also supported external review. 

A Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, Kelly is passionate about deepening her understanding of quality assurance and enhancement across the tertiary sector. She particularly enjoys engaging with colleagues, drawing on her hands-on experience to share practice, explore new approaches, and contribute to ongoing improvement of the student experience. 

Helen has worked in the Scottish education sector for over 20 years with previous roles as a Quality Enhancement Officer in the college sector and Lead for Quality Assurance and Enhancement at the SCQF Partnership.  She is experienced in a range of quality assurance and enhancement activities, including review activity and has managed and worked on various projects across the tertiary sector. 

Helen joined the QAA in 2025 as a Quality Assurance Specialist and will support a range of activities including institutional liaison and reviews. 

Alison is a Quality Enhancement Manager in the Scotland team. She is QAA's strategic lead for Scotland's Tertiary Enhancement Programme (STEP) and also manages The Quality Forum (TQF). 

Having joined QAA in 2015, Alison's work spanned three different Enhancement Themes (Student Transitions, Evidence for Enhancement and Resilient Learning Communities) before she became part of the team who developed STEP. She has also undertaken thematic analysis of review outcomes across three different review cycles (ELIR 3, ELIR 4 and QESR). 

Alison completed a PhD in Music at the University of Glasgow in 2017, and an MEd in Learning and Teaching in the Arts at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in 2024. She has particular interests in creativity and collaboration. The thing she enjoys most about working for QAA is the opportunity to meet staff and students from all the tertiary institutions across Scotland, and to gain a deeper understanding of the needs of the sector as a whole. 

Megan is QAA Scotland’s strategic lead for Focus On and co-facilitates QAA’s Student Strategic Advisory Committee. Her work areas include compassionate communication, lifelong learning and flexible pathways, student engagement and partnership, and Scotland’s participation within the European Higher Education Area and the Bologna Process. 

Megan joined QAA in 2025 from her role as Senior Development Consultant at Student Partnerships in Quality Scotland (sparqs), Scotland’s national agency for student engagement in colleges and universities. At sparqs, she led the agency’s work to embed student partnership in national and institutional developments in learning, teaching and quality. Megan holds an MSc in Enlightenment, Romantic and Victorian Literature from The University of Edinburgh and a BA (Hons) in Literature and Philosophy from the University of East Anglia. She is a former member of QAA UK’s Student Strategic Advisory Committee. 

After completing a PhD in English Literature at St Andrews in 2019, Rachel spent six years as an educational developer at the University of Dundee. Her work included implementing the TESTA (Transforming the Experience of Students Through Assessment) process in forty programmes across the university, redeveloping the training programme for Graduate Teaching Assistants, and designing a diagnostic tool to support Nursing and Education students with academic writing. She was awarded SFHEA in 2025. 

Rachel joined QAA in 2025, where she supports cross-sector enhancement work, including STEP (Scotland’s Tertiary Enhancement Programme) and Focus On. She is particularly interested in assessment and feedback and the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL), including research ethics. Her other work includes thematic reporting and supporting colleges implementing ILQR. 

Ruth joined QAA in May 2026 and is a Quality Enhancement Specialist in the Scotland team. She is part of the team leading the Scotland's Tertiary Enhancement Programme (STEP) and is involved in tertiary-sector enhancement work including Focus On. She has a particular interest in critical thinking development, supporting international students, inclusion, widening access and student-staff collaboration. 

She has more than twenty years of experience working in education across the globe, and over the past decade she has held a range of academic, operational and leadership roles in UK higher education.  

She has taught and managed educational programmes in the UK, Rwanda, Burundi, Poland, Spain, Hong Kong and Thailand. She has broad experience in quality enhancement and assurance gained through her work on curriculum development, programme reviews, external examining and institutional enhancement initiatives.  

She holds a Doctorate in Education (EdD) from the Open University, along with master’s degrees in Education, Online and Distance Education, and Inclusive Education.  She was awarded Senior Fellowship of the Higher Education Association (SFHEA) in 2023. 

Clare started working at The Robert Gordon University in 1995 for a central quality and governance department and was embedded in one of the Faculties as a quality officer. This role covered several responsibilities related to the academic and organisational regulations and Academic Quality Handbook. In her role, Clare worked closely with a range of staff and students across the Faculty and at senior level in the university. 

Clare joined the QAA in 2017 as a Quality Enhancement Specialist. Working primarily on the Enhancement Themes, and most recently on Scotland’s Tertiary Enhancement Programme (STEP), Clare has a particular interest in evaluation activity and qualitative data analysis. In addition to enhancement work, Clare has also enjoyed supporting review team colleagues in thematic reporting work and review method evaluation. 

Clare has been a fellow of the Association of Higher Education Professionals since 2023

Helen returned to QAA in 2024 having previously worked for the Agency from 2009-2023, latterly as Operations Manager leading on degree awarding powers assessment activity as part of the work QAA undertook as the Designated Quality Body for the Office for Students. She is an experienced quality officer having worked across many different review methods including reviews of private providers, colleges and universities.  

Currently the Nations Operations Manager, Helen oversees the planning of review activity, performing a pivotal role in the planning and operations of quality assurance activity across the devolved nations team. 

Phil joined the QAA in March 2026 as the Nations Enhancement Manager in the Regulatory Services team, bringing over 20 years' sector experience in higher education quality and student experience, leading university-wide quality assurance and enhancement activity, spanning programme development, policy and regulations, and stakeholder engagement across the institution. 

Phil is passionate about student-centred approaches and inclusive curriculum and assessment design, as well as data-informed process improvement and building supportive, collaborative teams that enable high-quality education. In his current role, Phil works across the devolved UK nations to support quality enhancement and the Degree Awarding Powers process. 

Rachel joined QAA in 2014 and has since built broad experience across the organisation, including roles in Review Support and the Concerns Scheme. She has represented the International Team at events in Berlin, Dubai, and Morocco, before moving to the Scotland team in 2021.  

With strong organisational skills and a collaborative approach, Rachel supports the successful delivery of events and enhancement initiatives in the Nations, including the Northern Ireland Conference and STEP (Scotland’s Tertiary Enhancement Programme). She is passionate about creating positive experiences and developing strong relationships with colleagues and stakeholders. 

Alongside her professional role, Rachel is currently undertaking a Master’s degree at Falmouth University in writing for television and audio. She is also a published author, playwright, and comedy writer. 

Ciaran is QAA's Lead Policy Officer (Devolved Nations), leading the Agency's engagement across Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. He works with governments, regulators and sector bodies to ensure QAA's role, expertise and strategic priorities are well understood and effectively championed within each nation's policy landscape. 

Ciaran helps QAA navigate the UK's increasingly divergent devolved systems, from helping shape the Agency's stance to legislative and regulatory conversations, building relationships with senior stakeholders, and translating QAA's technical positions into clear, accessible messages. His work spans tertiary system reform, regulation, access and lifelong learning, and emerging challenges such as generative AI and academic integrity. 

Through this work, Ciaran supports QAA's mission to safeguard standards and improve the quality of UK higher education, positioning the Agency as a credible, constructive and informed voice in devolved policy debates.