A Handbook for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education Enhancing academic and Practice

190 ❘
Teaching, supervising, learning
of continuing programmes. Regular monitoring considers how well programmes and
students are achieving the stated aims and learning outcomes, taking into account
external examiners’ reports, student feedback, assessment results and feedback from
employers. Periodic programme review (typically five-yearly) may involve external
reviewers and consider the currency and validity of programmes or services as well as
achievement against stated aims and outcomes.
Case study 1: Staff development through quality
assurance at the University of Bedfordshire
One of the explicit aims of academic QA and enhancement at the university is to
‘foster subject, pedagogical and staff development’. This happens in three key
ways.
• Template documentation for programme validation and review aligns with
external and internal QA mechanisms. Programme specification templates
map against QAA subject benchmark statements, requiring clear identification
of QAA defined skills. At module level, templates ensure mapping
of the external programme specification to internal module specification and
include a framework that aligns module outcomes with learning, teaching
and assessment methods.
• By adopting a ‘developmental’ approach to programme development and
validation, academic, administrative, learning resource and learning
technology staff work together in developing programmes, supporting
documentation and engaging in peer review. This fosters an interdisciplinary
dialogue and exchange of ideas as well as a ‘team approach’ to design and
delivery, aligned with the university’s educational strategy.
• A ‘staged’ approach to programme accreditation and review includes
‘Faculty-level validation’ prior to university validation. This provides an
opportunity to review the quality of documentation, identify resource issues
and ‘rehearse’ the validation process with colleagues. This in turn enables
staff to develop understanding and skills in QA processes, better preparing
them to take part in external and institutional QA events.
(Clare Morris, Associate Dean (Curriculum), Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire
Postgraduate Medical School, University of Bedfordshire)
Internal quality assurance procedures and development activities to enhance educational
quality include the evaluation of individual staff members through systems such as
student feedback questionnaires, peer review systems, mentoring for new staff or regular
appraisals.