A Proposal for a Standard With Innovation Management System

Panayiotis Ketikidis et al.
dissemination of information among the University of Sheffield, City College and its international
partner universities.
Furthermore, we consider that one of the most important aspects for supporting our students that
attend the MSc in BMT programme is response to detailed feedback. Feedback is the cornerstone of
all learning and vital for students to understand and evaluate their progress and to become better
independent learners. We have placed great emphasis on devising effective and efficient
mechanisms for providing excellent quality supervision on assignments and the dissertation and
detailed and personalised feedback on students’ work. These mechanisms are categorized according
to the type of feedback.
Formative feedback: after the weekend delivery of every unit, students work on their assignment for
about a month. During this period at least two scheduled group meetings take place in a virtual
classroom where the unit leader provides guidance on the assignment and students have the
opportunity to clarify issues related to the assignment requirements. The unit leader also provides
formative feedback in one-to-one individual meetings with students over teleconferencing.
Summative feedback: individual and detailed feedback on students’ submitted work is provided in two
ways. The first one is a detailed feedback form that was created specifically for the MSc in BMT
programme. The form provides feedback against the learning outcomes of the assignment and
discusses overall strengths and weakness. In addition, since the students submit their assignments
electronically, we also mark it electronically. Therefore, the second way for providing summative
feedback allows the students to view their submitted work with the annotated comments that we have
made. In this manner, students are able to see within their assignment the specific mistakes that were
made.
4.4 Quality assurance mechanisms for the MSc BMT
Assuring the quality of the MSc in BMT is of high priority due to the programme’s mode of delivery at
remote sites under the flying faculty model and its interdisciplinary nature. The quality of the MSc in
BMT programme is assured through a diverse set of the college’s quality assurance mechanisms for
the provision of Higher Education. These mechanisms have repeatedly proven their effectiveness and
efficiency and consist of individuals, boards, committees and procedures at two different levels:
institutional level and departmental level.
At the institutional level the main quality assurance mechanisms are the following:
� The College Administration Board which decides the main policies, strategies and tactics of the
College, monitors the running of the departments and their progress in achieving their goals in
every field and applies constant quality assessment of the education provided.
� The International Faculty Advisory Board which advises on education, staffing, research,
recruitment, publicity, strategic planning, corporate planning, administration and industrial liaison.
� The Quality Strategy and Enhancement Committee which establishes, monitors and enhances a
framework for quality, programme organisation, curriculum design, content and programme interrelation,
student communication and representation, student support and guidance and many
other quality assurance and control procedures.
� The International Faculty Learning and Teaching Committee which oversees the development of
the college’s Learning and Teaching strategies, maintains and enhances the learning and
teaching culture of the faculty, ensures appropriate implementation of University policies and
procedures and ensures that student views are appropriately represented in Faculty learning and
teaching discussions.
At the departmental level the primary quality assurance mechanisms include:
� Academic Boards which take all academic decisions concerning the departments. They deal with
the delivery running of the programmes, staff and student matters, development of curricula and
quality assessment. All academic staff members who are actively involved in the MSc in BMT
programme participate in these bi-weekly boards under the chairmanship of the Head of the
department.
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