QUALITY ENHANCEMENT COMMITTEE Terms of reference and ...

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QUALITY ENHANCEMENT COMMITTEE
Terms of reference and constitution
The Quality Enhancement Committee [QEC], which reports to the Academic Board,
is the principal College body concerned with monitoring and enhancing the quality of
the College’s teaching and learning provision.
The QEC is responsible for:
1. developing College-wide strategies to encourage high quality practice in teaching
and learning, and advising the Academic Board and other College bodies on
initiatives to achieve this;
2. reviewing College procedures in the light of information on best practice
nationally, and encouraging faculties and departments to adopt improvements in
order to enhance the quality of the programmes of study within the College;
3. developing and maintaining College-wide quality assurance and enhancement
procedures and codes of practice, and ensuring that these meet the requirements
and expectations of the appropriate national bodies;
4. organisation of internal quality audits, and the co-ordination of arrangements for
external institutional and subject-related audits within the College;
5. monitoring the quality assurance and enhancement procedures of faculty boards
and the School Board (or constituted sub-committee), commenting to the
Academic Board upon the outcomes, and recommending improvements as
necessary. The QEC will normally leave the detailed annual review of programmes
of study to the faculty/School boards, but reserves the right, if there are
issues for concern that appear not to have been addressed, to examine the
relevant documentation and procedures in detail, in consultation with the relevant
faculty/School board;
6. monitoring the reports of external examiners. These are considered by faculty
and School boards in the first instance (q.v.), but the QEC has the responsibility
for satisfying itself that departmental and faculty-level issues have been properly
addressed, and for considering College-wide issues, and ensuring that these are
taken forward by the appropriate bodies. It should be noted that, as all external
examiner reports are read on receipt by the Assistant Academic Secretary, any
issues of serious concern can be referred immediately to the Chair of the QEC,
who will raise the matters with the Chair of the examination board or Head of
Department for urgent action.
7. consideration of annual reports from the faculty/School boards on their monitoring
of taught programmes of study over the previous year; noting the action taken by
the boards in addressing problems, and reporting on these to the Academic
Board;
8. monitoring the action taken by faculty and School boards in addressing issues
raised in external examiners’ reports, annual reports, or from any other source;
9. the formal approval of new programmes of study and courses on the
recommendation of faculty/School boards. The QEC, acting on behalf of the
Academic Board, will normally receive and approve a list of programme and
course proposals approved by the faculty/ School boards, and will only consider

proposals in detail when they involve a programme with a significantly different
structure or presentation from those previous offered;
10. the dissemination of good practice across the College;
11. approving, on behalf of the Academic Board, the suspension of regulations in
respect of taught programmes of study within the College;
12. determination of the criteria for the appointment of external examiners, the
consideration of nominations for appointment, and the approval of appointments
of external examiners on behalf of the Academic Board;
13. monitoring the faculty/School boards’ decisions in respect of the arrangements
for special admission, admission with advanced standing, credit exemption, and
special examination arrangements to ensure that a coherent and consistent
policy is followed throughout the College;
14. monitoring the effectiveness of the ‘feedback loops’, which ensure that action on
any issue is reported back to the body or area originally generating the concern.
The membership of the QEC includes the Academic Deans of the four non-medical
faculties, the Chairs of the School Board’s committees dealing with quality and taught
courses, and six co- opted members; the high number of the latter reflects the desire
to draw upon expertise from across the College, and to provide a sufficiently large
pool to provide for the membership of subject review panels.
The College's Learning, Teaching and Assessment Committee is responsible for
monitoring and developing the Learning and Teaching Strategy, and circulating
information to departments on best practice. The QEC also has a Regulations Sub-
Group, responsible for the approval of regulations governing academic activity on
behalf of the Academic Board.
Extract from: Quality Assurance and Quality Enhancement at QMW (March 2000),
updated November 2005