Managing Quality and Standards : QAA Advice and Guidance
By Tom Yates, Executive Director of Corporate Affairs, QAA, and Andy Smith, Quality & Standards Manager, QAA
Last summer QAA published the new edition of the UK Quality Code for Higher Education, the first new iteration of the Code since 2018.
This month, we've published the first three collections of Advice and Guidance to accompany the 2024 Code. Like the Code itself, these documents were written in collaboration with experts from across our sector.
In the third of a series of brief guides exclusive to HE Professional, we highlight some takeaways from the new Advice and Guidance chapter focusing on 'Taking a strategic approach to managing quality and standards'.
What We Need To Do: Provider Responsibilities
While our guidance recommends that providers ensure they meet their responsibilities for academic standards and quality in ways which are both systematic and strategic, this shouldn't suggest a one-size-fits-all approach.
Indeed, we'd expect that the specific approach developed and adopted by any particular provider will be informed by a range of factors – such as the provider's size, its disciplinary mix and organisational structure, and any national or international regulatory requirements placed upon it.
Providers operating transnationally may need to adapt their approaches to meet local regulatory requirements. Where this is the case, they should ensure that any exceptions to policies and regulations are based on clear rationales, are well defined and understood, and don't place the academic standards or quality of their provision at risk.
Where degree-awarding bodies are working with other providers in partnership arrangements, their strategies should cover appropriate quality assurance processes to monitor the quality of the student learning experience and the maintenance of academic standards in the delivery of their franchised or validated provision.
Providers without degree awarding powers should engage with their partner degree-awarding body to establish an agreed approach to the assurance of academic standards and the quality of the student learning experience – to ensure that all parties are able to meet their responsibilities.
Providers should also of course ensure that quality processes fulfil the requirements of relevant regulators, sector agencies and PSRBs.
Getting the Culture Right: How to Embed Your Strategic Approach
A provider's strategic approach should be articulated, planned and embedded across its culture and practice and across any partnership arrangements. Student and stakeholder engagement are key components in the success of such approaches.
A strategic approach to maintaining standards and quality assurance requires a whole-provider approach. It's not limited to particular academic or professional services: we should always remember that culture and practice are developed and led by in many different areas people and at many different levels within a provider.
Many of the activities which assure quality and standards aren't solely related to academic quality. The delivery of provision, learning experience, reviews, policy, practices, governance, enhancements and quality assurance are, for example, closely connected with a wide range of professional services and involve processes which may often sit outside the academic remit.
The embedding of culture and practice across a provider requires the engagement of multiple stakeholders to ensure its effectiveness – and can can only be fostered in partnership with students, staff, and relevant external stakeholders (such as communities and industries) and not imposed upon them.
This approach requires full engagement from the student body. If students don't feel included in the provider's approach to quality and standards then that approach won't be able to embed properly.
It's Good to Talk: Communicating Your Strategic Approach
It's of course crucial that a provider's strategic approach to managing quality and standards is communicated clearly to – and is accessible to – its staff, students and external stakeholders.
Providers should therefore detail their strategic approaches to managing quality and standards within clearly explained sets of policies, procedures and regulations – accessible documents which describe the mechanisms and processes by which they assure quality, secure academic standards and enhance the student learning experience.
When creating, revising and publishing these resources, providers should consider the diverse range of audiences that may be interested in the quality and standards of its academic provision. These may include stakeholder groups such as applicants and their families, current students, staff, employers, alumni, policymakers, regulators, sector bodies and the general public, as well as colleagues across the sector.
Through clear communication, a provider can ensure that these stakeholder groups have confidence in the integrity of the qualifications and the education they offer.
Providers can benefit significantly when they ensure that their communication processes are properly 'two-way' – in other words, that stakeholders can continually feed into conversations around the ongoing development of their strategic approaches to the management of quality and standards.
Providers can make these communication processes not only accessible but also meaningful to each audience by tailoring their terms, channels and scope to meet the needs of different groups.
This might involve the creation of accessible summaries for different audiences, using visual aids, clear and concise language, and providing training and development opportunities to support understanding and engagement. By recognising the needs and interests of each stakeholder group, providers can ensure that their strategic approaches to managing quality and standards are understood by – and can engage – all relevant parties, including international audiences.
At the same time – and in line with such collaborative and constructive communications processes – governance arrangements should provide opportunities for stakeholders such as students, academic and professional staff, and external experts to contribute to the development, review, communication and application of regulations, policies and procedures.
When, for example, new or revised regulations, policies and procedures are introduced, providers should implement clear and effective approaches to communicating these changes to all stakeholders and provide appropriate support and guidance as required to ensure their effective implementation.
In doing so, providers might use one-way communications methods like news feeds or email reminders, but may also develop two-way methods (such as briefing sessions, team meetings and Q&A sessions).
Showing that you're listening to any issues which may arise (say, from the introduction of new regulations) can help foster a healthy quality culture which develops and promotes the most effective and appropriate practices.
The ways in which regulations, policies and procedures are developed, approved and disseminated should suit each provider's size, shape and context. Elements of a provider's strategic approach to managing quality and standards may be communicated through internal mechanisms, such as a quality handbook or an intranet site – or they may need to be released publicly through a provider's outward-facing website in order to comply with the requirements of legislation or statutory sector bodies, or with guidance from the Competition and Markets Authority.
Ensuring a systematic approach to publication is essential in ensuring that all stakeholders are engaging with the most up-to-date information.
Training and development are also important in supporting understanding and engagement with the strategic approach to different audiences, for example in providing support for academic staff taking on new roles and for student representatives.
Listening to Others: The Value of External Expertise
Our guidance advises providers to embed the use of external expertise in relevant assurance and enhancement activities. External expertise gives an independent view of academic standards and underpins alignment with broader practices, sector frameworks and sector reference points. External expertise also helps to give assurance as to academic quality and the relevance of qualifications to employers, and supports providers in the enhancement of their practices.
External experts may include board members, external examiners, committee members, external advisers, review panel members, guest speakers, alumni, independent assessors, employer advisers, industry experts and accrediting bodies.
The roles of those providing external expertise should always be made clear to students, staff and other stakeholders – and these external experts should also be clear on the scope their roles and where they should go for information and support.
Keeping an Eye on Things: Monitoring and Evaluation
The approach taken by providers to securing academic standards and enhancing quality should be regularly monitored to ensure that it's being implemented successfully and that it's embedded across the institution. It can also be evaluated on a periodic basis to ensure it continues to make a positive impact in the promotion of its aims, which are determined by each provider, in alignment with its mission, vision, values and strategic plan, and reflect the requirements of any regulator or funding body.
This process is distinct from the regular or risk-based monitoring and review processes of areas of academic provision, but there may be scope to include the review of this strategy into any larger monitoring and evaluation systems.
Evaluation enables a longer-term, retrospective assessment of the outcomes of a provider's strategic approach to managing quality and standards. It can be conducted internally or by independent external evaluators. It may be carried out periodically as part of a quality cycle or may be initiated in response to factors identified through regular monitoring. The intended impact of any action taken should be monitored and evaluated so that its success can be measured, and any interventions adjusted as necessary.
Monitoring and evaluating the strategic approach to quality and standards should reflect the provider's mission and the educational outcomes it sets for its students. In a diverse and dynamic higher education sector, it's important that providers develop and agree principles and processes for monitoring and evaluation that are appropriate to their own contexts.
By undertaking critical, evidence-based self-evaluation, providers can be confident that they are achieving their aims, driving enhancement, are better able to identify and implement appropriate action, and are more effective in delivering what students and other stakeholders expect and require, wherever their provision is delivered.
As such, a strategic and holistic approach to the management of academic quality and standards not only meets our sector's expectations of effective practice – but in doing so it also underpins the value, integrity and reputation of UK higher education both domestically and across the world.
