Maintaining Quality Assurance. Higher Education in a Global World

PGCQAE Assignment Cover Page

Name of Learner: MOMPATI DENNIS BALEBETSE

Year of Study: 2020

Course: Higher Education in Global World.

Group: TWO

Region: Gaborone

Date of submission: 11 OCTOBER 2020

Note: To be submitted with every assignment

QUESTION 1

Q1a. Planning is a key aspect of an institution’s approach to quality and it’s often thought of as the initial aspect of quality cycle. Planning does tend to have an important position within institutions however, perhaps because Governing Council/ Board expect to see a plan for future activity and details of where the institution is hoping to go, as a complement to approval of the budget. In institutions like BOU, at the planning stage, dates are set for committee and boards in order to coincide with the Term dates. A plan for Teaching Observation is set, which ensures that all tutors are reviewed at least once during the academic year and internal verification is arranged to meet the dates of assessment and progress Board. In this regard, every institution has a planning unit, planning is synonymous with quality (Zineldin, 2001).

Acting /delivery is another stage in quality circle. Acting refers to any actions undertaken to assure and improve quality. Where there are plans, the action to be taken, outcome, timeline and person responsible should be clearly indentified. An institution can recognize its major for acting to ensure and improve quality by complaints and grievances of students and staff, the formal monitoring, review and benchmarking mechanisms. In institution of Higher learning like BOU, courses are delivered to students through lectures, tutorials and the learning resources made available to students both in the library and learning portals (Zineldin, 2001).

According to Zineldin (2001) the delivery is then reviewed through various reports derived from student feedback, teaching observation and external examiners. Depending on organizational arrangements within particular faculties, some courses may be more appropriate for review at faculty level and some at school or departmental level. Review is an entrenched aspect of the academic world and is often referred to as peer review. The major characteristics of reviews are that they tend to be periodic with a long time frame, they are mainly backward looking and summative; partially formative; conducted mainly by people external to the organization and expert in the area being reviewed.

The evaluating aspect of the quality cycle is obviously concerned with gaining information in order to be able to judge the effectiveness of Action undertaken to maintain or improve quality. While measures and methods from research are used for quality purpose, the quality purpose is not research but institutional improvement. All reports are received by the institution’s boards and committees in order to evaluate the performance of a programme and to identify areas of improvement. This is then taken into account during the planning stage of the next delivery, closing the loop and continuing the quality circle. Evaluate include two major aspects-monitoring and review. Monitoring is a short and medium term activity mainly conducted by internal people for developmental or formative purposes. (Zineldin, 2001).

Improve: identifies the process by which the results of evaluation-both monitoring and review-are fed back in order to generate improvement. Often this causes modification to an existing plan or development of a new plan and the cycle commences once more (Zineldin, 2001).

Q1b. According to Module 3 of Maintaining quality assurance within institution (2015), in the past, many higher education providers, especially universities, had an extensive document providing detail of the review process. Many have now adopted a Policy on Policies that provides for a very short Policy statement and a more extensive statement of Procedures. This is an example of a modern statement of review policy. A review policy may cover the following:

a. Purpose

The purpose of review policy is to assist the university to assure itself of the quality of its academic organizational unit and utilize learning from this developmental process in order to affect ongoing quality improvement.

b. Scope and Terms of Reference

The scope and terms of reference are:

- all academic organizational units including faculties, schools, departments, centres and

non faculty based academic organizational units;

- within academic units, the areas of:

Organizational structure, management, planning, quality assurance and improve

- Appropriateness and effectiveness of organizational structure.
- Leadership in maintaining and developing academic standing and reputation.
- Implementation of previous review findings.
- alignment of objectives with university strategic directions, policy and planning

documents, including: University Strategic Plan; Learning and Teaching Plan;

Research and Research Training Management Plan; Support Services Plan;

International Plan; and alignment with national policies where appropriate.

- Systematic quality assurance and improvement including planning, monitoring,
- Reviewing and using feedback for improvement in all areas.
- Financial management including alignment of planning, budgeting and funding.

Human and physical resources, support services, information technology:

- academic, administrative, professional and technical staffing profile in relation to objectives and plans
- provision and utilization of appropriate teaching, research and administrative
- accommodation and equipment
- appropriate provision and utilization of support services
- appropriate provision and utilization of information technology

Student profile, teaching, learning and assessment:

- understanding of the student profile including changes and trends
- student progress and achievement
- university graduate attributes
- student‑centred and flexible approaches to learning and teaching
- appropriate educational use of technology
- internationalization of the curriculum and learning opportunities
- cross‑ and inter‑disciplinary opportunities

Research and research training:

- excellence in research and research training
- the range and scope of research activity
- alignment of research with faculty and university plans
- implementation of university Research Policy
- interrelationships and mutual support between teaching and research

Professional and community activities:

- Professional and community access to expertise and resources
- Links with professional associations, employer groups, public and private sectors,
- The local community
- Staff participation in local, national and international professional societies and
- Public awareness of the contribution to society made by the unit
- Contact with alumni.

c. Policy Statement

The policy statement may consist of:

- Reviews will adhere to institutional quality values and principles outlined elsewhere;
- The strategic directions of the university are of central importance for all reviews;
- Benchmarking leading to improvement and input from stakeholders is strongly

encouraged;

- Academic reviews consider the effectiveness of processes and procedures, particularly as they are demonstrated through outcomes. Effective processes are best demonstrated by successful outcomes and reviews encourage a focus on outcomes;
- The importance and relevance of external professional and accreditation reviews is acknowledged;
- Quality assurance and improvement are core responsibilities and budgeting for review is therefore part of the normal planning and budgeting process of academic units;

d. Responsibility

- The responsibility of: Deputy Vice Chancellor (Academic);
- Deputy Vice Chancellor: (Research and Research Training).

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