20 Years of Enhancement bulletin #1

Last month QAA Scotland launched, on behalf of the sector, the 20 Years of Enhancement campaign. The campaign reflects on the past 20 years of the enhancement-led approach with opportunities for sector colleagues and students to consider lessons learned and look to the future of enhancement in Scotland. In the first of our regular updates, we reflect on activities so far and how you can get involved.

The campaign launched in October with the publication of the first of three blogs that will be hosted by WonkHE. 20 Years of the Quality Enhancement Framework was written by Dr Ailsa Crum, Director of Membership, Quality Enhancement and Standards at QAA. Dr Crum reflected on 20 years of the enhancement-led approach to quality in Scottish higher education including the role of Enhancement-led Institutional Review (ELIR) and the Enhancement Themes.

On Twitter, we have been exploring (via @QAAScotland and @THEMEStweets) each of the Enhancement Themes since their introduction back in 2003. Each of the 11 completed Enhancement Themes has a new contemporary overview outlining the continuing relevance of the Themes and the applicability of resources for students and staff at universities and colleges. You can keep up to date with our journey through complete Enhancement Themes by using #Enhancement20.

QAA Scotland has also launched the call for papers for our 5th International Enhancement Conference, Shaping the Student Experience Together: 20 Years of Enhancement, which will be held on 14-15 June 2023 at Glasgow Caledonian University. This exciting event will bring together delegates from all over the world to critically reflect on the impact of Scotland’s enhancement-led approach to quality, engage with innovative practice developed through the Enhancement Themes, showcase the outputs from the current Enhancement Theme (Resilient Learning Communities) and explore the role of an enhancement-led approach to quality in a tertiary education landscape. Papers can be submitted using our online portal until 18 November 2022.

Valuing student representation in quality enhancement, the next event of our 20 Years of Enhancement campaign, will take place on 14 November 2022 from 13:00-14:00 (GMT) on Zoom. The session will bring together past sabbatical officers and former ELIR student reviewers to discuss the impact of student representation in quality enhancement and how they have used lessons from their student representative experience to inform their current roles within the Scottish and international higher education sectors. This not to be missed session is proving to be very popular with registrations from all four nations of the UK, and international attendees from North America, Hong Kong and Zimbabwe.