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UNIVERSITY OF ESSEX
Teaching Quality Strategy
The Teaching Quality
Strategy supports the University’s strategic aims:
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To continue
to be recognised for the world-class standard of the University’s research and
scholarship.
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To continue
to be internationally recognised for the quality of the University’s teaching,
learning facilities and educational experience offered to students.
The Teaching Quality
Strategy is underpinned by the following general principles:
- That the continuous
improvement of the student experience is at the core of the quality assurance
and enhancement activity;
- That all members of staff
take a personal responsibility for the quality of their contribution to the
student experience.
The main components of the
University’s Teaching Quality Strategy are:
- The formation of a Quality
Framework to ensure consistency of standards whilst enabling appropriate
diversity in local practice;
- A teaching quality
management structure designed to support quality assurance and enhancement and
foster a culture of critical review and reflection.
The formation of a Quality
Framework to ensure consistency of standards whilst enabling appropriate
diversity in local practice
The University’s Quality
Framework is developed and maintained by the Quality Assurance and Enhancement Committee and
managed by the Quality Assurance and Enhancement Office. The Framework, constructed with due
regard to the QAA’s Academic Infrastructure, consists of five key elements:
- Approval;
- Annual Monitoring;
- Periodic Review;
- External Examiners;
- Student Feedback.
These five elements are
further supported by guidelines governing specialist areas such as work-based or
distance learning.
The purpose of the Quality
Framework is to enable the monitoring and enhancement of academic standards and
the quality of the student experience. The Framework operates within the
context of established standards, determined by Senate, and expressed within the
University’s UG and PGT Rules of Assessment, credit frameworks and marking
policy.
The framework is aimed at
ensuring that there is equivalence in the security of degree-awarding function
across all University of Essex degrees, whether students study at the University
itself or at partner institutions. Within the overarching structure of the
Quality Framework there is flexibility to accommodate variation at the level of
the Faculty, department, centre or partner institution, as long as the required
outcomes are not compromised.
The ongoing effectiveness of
the Framework is kept under review by the Quality Assurance and Enhancement Committee in the
light of internal experience and external best practice.
A teaching quality
management structure designed to support quality assurance and enhancement and
foster a culture of critical review and reflection.
The teaching quality
management structure has, at its pinnacle, the University’s Senate. Beneath
Senate teaching quality is managed by:
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The Undergraduate and Graduate School Boards -
policy and procedures, and for overseeing the quality of the
undergraduate student experience (the Graduate School Board is additionally
responsible for postgraduate research degrees, policy and students);
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Faculty Boards -
responsible for scheme approval, monitoring and review, and for reviewing
recruitment and progression;
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Departments, partners and other teaching units –
responsible directly for the quality of the student experience.
The Deans of the Faculties
form a key role in liaison between the different tiers of the decision-making
process; they form the majority of the QAEC, sit on the Undergraduate and
Graduate School Boards and chair the Faculty Boards. It is they who are aware
of the quality of teaching and learning within teaching units, and who take
forward action arising from this. Both within and outside the formal committee
structure, Deans encourage the dissemination of good practice and consult
Faculties, departments and collaborative partners on proposed University level
policy developments. Deans also play a central role in quality assurance
procedures and are responsible for overseeing the annual and periodic process of
scheme review, departmental response to external examiners and the outcomes of
student feedback mechanisms.
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