How do we do it?
Annual monitoring reports
should cover all UG or PG courses, unless this
conflicts with the requirements of a
professional, statutory or regulatory body.
Annual
monitoring reports cover the preceding academic year and, in their analysis,
should include the relevant External Examiner reports and the centrally provided
recruitment, completion and progression data. As a result, the reports cannot
be completed until after examination boards have met and the
deadlines for the annual monitoring reports reflect
this.
Undergraduate courses: End of
the Autumn Term
Taught
postgraduate courses: End of
the Spring Term
All reports
should be signed by the appropriate Head of Department, collected together and
submitted to the Dean, via the Academic Standards and Partnerships Office (email
acstand; non-Essex users should add @essex.ac.uk) by the relevant
deadline. The report should be submitted electronically. Where
electronic signatures have not been attached then one signed hard copy should
also be submitted.
Writing the reports
There is
an
annual monitoring report proforma which should be used for all reports.
It is up
to the department to decide how the annual monitoring report is produced. The
department may want a committee to prepare the report or may ask an individual
Scheme Director to take responsibility for preparing the report for the
courses
for which he/she is responsible. Whichever method is used, the department’s
annual monitoring committee should consider the report before it is submitted to
the appropriate Dean.
The
department can designate an existing committee within the department to act as
an annual monitoring committee or set up a committee especially for this
purpose.
At least one student representative for each
course should be included in the constituency of the annual monitoring committee
and should be given an opportunity to submit comments by correspondence if the
meeting is held at a time of year which makes it inconvenient for him/her to
attend. The student representative(s) should normally be the Students' Union
Departmental Representative(s) and the total number of student representatives
should not outnumber academic staff representatives.
Joint
courses
should be considered under part 3 of the AMR proforma.
The lead
department should, in negotiation with the other departments involved, determine
how the annual monitoring report is produced. As with single honours
courses,
the department may want a committee to prepare the report or may ask an
individual Scheme Director to take responsibility for preparing an annual
monitoring report on the courses for which he/she is responsible.
Where
there are 10 or more students registered on a joint course a meeting of the
Management Committee must consider the annual monitoring report. Where there
are less than 10 students a meeting of the Management Committee is not
compulsory although it would represent good practice.
As far as is practicably possible, at least
one student representative for each course should be included in the
constituency of the Management
Committee and should be given an opportunity to submit comments by
correspondence if the meeting is held at a time of year which makes it
inconvenient for him/her to attend. The student representative(s) should
normally be the Students' Union Departmental Representative(s) and the total
number of student representatives should not outnumber academic staff
representatives.
There is
an
annual monitoring report proforma which should be used for all reports.
As with
undergraduate annual monitoring reports, it
is up to the
department to decide how the annual monitoring report is produced.
However, the
report should be approved by an annual monitoring committee prior to its
submission to the Dean (see advice under undergraduate courses).
Student representation
on the annual monitoring committee would normally be the
Students' Union Representative. Where students
are full-time over one year it may be necessary to obtain their views before
they leave the University.
How are reports considered by
the University?
The annual
monitoring reports are considered by the appropriate Dean. The Dean
completes a
coversheet for each report. This coversheet allows the Dean to
give specific feedback, to ask for additional information and to refer issues or
good practice to the Faculty Board or other University Committee as
appropriate.
In addition, Part 1 of the annual monitoring
report is received by the appropriate Faculty Board for consideration.
Follow-up of reports
The Annual Monitoring
report must be received by the appropriate Staff-Student Liaison Committees and
the other committees responsible for the quality of degree courses. For joint
courses this applies to all contributing departments.
Throughout
the year the action plan generated by the annual monitoring report should be
revisited by the appropriate departmental committees and progress on the action
recorded. Where appropriate,
Staff-Student Liaison Committees should also be advised of progress made on
annual monitoring action. Action taken should be reported on and evaluated in
the following year’s annual monitoring report.
Record keeping by the department
The department should keep a copy of all the
papers forming part of the annual monitoring process, together with records of
follow-up action taken. Annual monitoring documentation should be available for
consultation by Deans, Academic Officers and external reviewers on request.
Copies of annual monitoring reports and
follow-up action should be kept by the department for 6 years.
In the case of courses involving more than
one department it is the responsibility of the Head of the lead department to
ensure that these records are kept, and that the archive is transferred if there
is a change of lead department.
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