Xpertis quality assurance handbook

Quality Assurance Handbook 2020 21 Table of Contents 1 Introduction 2 2 Senior Administrative Team 3 CEO 3 Programme Administrator 3 Centre Manager(s) 4 KPIs 4 3 Academic Staff 6 Unit Leaders 6 Lectur.

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Quality Assurance Handbook 2020-21

Table of Contents

1 Introduction 2

2 Senior Administrative Team 3

CEO 3

Programme Administrator 3

Centre Manager(s) 4

KPIs 4

3 Academic Staff 6

Unit Leaders 6

Lecturers 6

4 Committees 7

Board of Governors 7

Admissions and Programme Committee 8

Assessment Board 8

5 Programme Documentation 9

Policies and Procedures 9

Programme Specifications 9

Unit Descriptors 9

6 Programme Monitoring and Evaluation 10

Ongoing Quality Assurance and Improvement 10

Periodic Quality Assurance and Improvement 11

7 Assessment Sampling 13

Basis for Sampling 13

Sampling Procedure 13

Appendices 15

Appendix 1: Important Documentation 15

Appendix 2: Internal Quality Assurance Form 16

Appendix 3: Sampling Tracker Template 0

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1 Introduction

The purpose of this handbook is to provide staff, students and external partners with

a clear articulation of the college’s approach to quality assurance It describes the

structures, roles, responsibilities and processes that the college implements to both

provide a high-quality educational experience and to ensure this level of quality is

maintained The contents of this handbook are informed by and seek to reflect the UK

Quality Code for Higher Education, which staff are encouraged to read alongside this

handbook; a link to this code can be found in the Appendices, along with details of

other important documents

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2 Senior Administrative Team

CEO

The CEO is the primary decision-maker at the college They direct the senior

administrative team and are responsible for the hiring of new staff and management

of current employees The CEO is the accountable officer for quality assurance across

the college, as many of the processes and checks which ensure quality is maintained

either originate or receive their final approval from this position As part of QA, the

CEO sets targets for academic achievement and student recruitment each year,

organises a quarterly review of the assessment protocols and other academic matter

with the programme administrator and ensures proper delivery of the college KPIs

(see below)

Programme Administrator

Unlike some other colleges, Xpertis employs a single programme administrator who

oversees and ensures the smooth operation of academic matters on all campuses

The programme administrator is responsible for the upkeep of course timetables and

keeping lecturers and students informed of any changes They are also required to

keep student databases up to date and manage assessment deadlines to guarantee

a standardised delivery In general, academic matters arising from lecturers or

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students will always be dealt with by the programme administrator, and as such they

represent an important link between the academic staff and the higher management

Centre Manager(s)

Each centre has a centre manager In contrast to the programme administrator, whose

concerns are with the proper running of academic matters on college-wide basis, the

centre managers are responsible for maintaining the day-to-day college infrastructure

This includes maintaining proper health and safety standards, prepping classrooms

ahead of seminars or lectures and allocating resources such as computers or

projection equipment Centre managers are also tasked with local marketing and

student recruitment and are responsible for organising weekly staff briefings during

term-time

KPIs

The profiles above describe the roles and responsibilities of the senior management

team in a general sense Key Performance Indicators, or KPIs, are informed by these

profiles and provide specific targets for the current academic year These KPIs must

be reviewed, evaluated and updated every academic year For more details on this

process of evaluation and review, see section 6 of this document

In the table which follows, the three roles above are represented by the acronyms

CEO, PA and CM

CEO 1: Securing centre approval with ATHE

CEO 2: Establishment of two main centres (Manchester and Addis Ababa)

CEO 3: Establishment of two further satellite centres (Leeds and Bishoftu)

CEO 4: Hiring two unit leaders

CEO 5: Hiring lecturers as required, in consultation with the programme

administrator and unit leaders

CEO 6: 60 students minimum registered in total during 2020-21

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CEO 7: 85% of students progressed successfully this academic year

CEO 8: Staff satisfaction is greater than 3 on survey results

PA 1: Collect and collate student feedback for each unit

PA 2: Programme-related enquiries answered within an average of 48 hours

CM 1: 15 students minimum enrolled at each centre during 2020-21

CM 2: 85% of enrolled students achieving pass grade by end of academic year

CM 3: Operational enquiries answered within an average of 48 hours

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3 Academic Staff

Unit Leaders

The programmes offered by Xpertis, are governed by unit leaders These are senior

and experienced members of academic staff, who will lead the teaching of their unit in

practical terms and oversee some administrative aspects The primary responsibility

of the unit leaders is therefore to deliver the content of their respective courses in line

with the requirements of the validated programme, which involves developing

assessment schemes, designing the curriculum and considering what learning

resources will be required They will also need to reflect and act upon student feedback

as the academic year progresses In order to achieve these goals, the unit leaders

need to liaise closely with both the centre managers and the programme administrator

Finally, as part of the college’s QA protocols, the unit leaders will need to conduct

systematic tri-annual reviews of their programmes, with a view to ongoing

improvement, enhancement and development

Lecturers

Although unit leaders teach part of their programmes, some aspects of the course—

such as vocational components or specialist sections—will be taught by other lecturers

hired by the college These teachers need to ensure they deliver the academic content

in line with the curriculum and goals developed by their unit leader Also, these

lecturers will be involved with marking, and discussing and assigning second markers

where necessary

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4 Committees

Along with the individual positions noted in the previous sections, committees made

up from both administrative staff, academic staff and external members act as an

important part of the quality assurance process, and are generally tasked with a

gatekeeper role, ensuring that every part of the college’s operation is subjected to

proper scrutiny A description of their more specific responsibilities follows

Board of Governors

The board of governors acts as an independent check and balance on the core

members of the management team and is the overall arbiter of the college’s policies,

both academic and business-related The board approves all strategic objectives set

out by the CEO and serves a vital function in ensuring that institutional standards are

upheld in all aspects of the college’s operation The board will generally convene a

minimum of four times a year but may be called upon in specific instances to approve

of an administrative action or oversee a disciplinary matter

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Admissions and Programme Committee

The admissions and programme committee is made up from the centre manager,

programme administrator and unit leaders This committee convenes as necessary to

approve and make final decisions on admissions and programme changes, ensuring

that no single member or members of this group can make large-scale changes

without consensus agreement

Assessment Board

The assessment board approves the framework for examination designed by the unit

leaders and provisionally approved by the programme administrator This board

comprises the lecturers employed by the college at that time, at least one member of

the board of governors and the programme administrator They are also responsible

for approving the final marks at the end of an academic year and awarding pass/fail

grades based on this information

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5 Programme Documentation

Policies and Procedures

A list of Xpertis policies and procedures are included as appendices to this document

These provide detail on the precise procedures to follow to ensure and assure the

quality of our academic provision All documents are freely available through the

college Moodle

Programme Specifications

The requirements for each programme are set out in the programme specification for

each course These programme specifications must be followed rigidly They indicate

the required number of credits for each level, including which units are core and which

are optional, as well as the different pathways that may be followed through each

programme A curriculum map accompanies the programme specification, setting out

the skills taught and assessed in each unit, thus linking units to the content of the

programme specification

Unit Descriptors

Unit descriptors set out the intended learning outcomes, modes of teaching, credit

value and assessment methods for each unit It is imperative that assessment tasks

are designed to assess whether or not the student has achieved the learning outcomes

as specified in the unit descriptors Unit descriptors indicate the requirements for

passing each unit in terms of component assessment tasks They also indicate the

required contact hours broken down by mode of teaching These requirements must

be strictly followed

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6 Programme Monitoring and Evaluation

All programmes are subjected to continuous monitoring and review by the college

to ensure good practice, improvement and enhancement of the college’s educational

provision The maintenance and enhancement of quality in existing units is ultimately

the responsibility of the admissions and programme committee and the CEO

Ongoing Quality Assurance and Improvement

Continuous quality assurance and improvement is enabled by the following

mechanisms:

- Continuous monitoring of student complaints (both formal and informal) by the

programme administrator

- Peer review of teaching by the unit leaders

- Continuous monitoring of informal student feedback by lecturers, the

programme administrator and centre managers

- Continuous monitoring of student attendance and engagement by unit leaders,

lecturers and centre managers

- Continuous monitoring of student attainment by the programme administrator,

especially by means of formative assessments

These processes enable the programme administrator, in particular, to respond

immediately to issues or concerns and so improve the programmes in real time without

waiting for formal six-monthly reviews So, for instance, if students (either through

feedback, complaints or formative assessments) indicate that they have struggled to

learn a particular component of a course then the programme director will

communicate this to the unit leaders and then discuss a way to provide more teaching

input on that component before the formal unit feedback or unit assessments are

undertaken

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Periodic Quality Assurance and Improvement

In addition to the continuous quality assurance mechanisms indicated above, the

college also utilises a range of periodic quality assurance mechanisms:

1 Unit Evaluation Forms

All students on all units are required to complete a unit evaluation form at the

end of each unit These forms are designed to appraise both the unit in terms

of its content and the facilitation in terms of the teaching style, ability to engage

students and so on The unit evaluation forms are collated by centre managers

and then delivered to the programme administrator at the end of each unit

2 Student Representatives

Each year group in each centre has a student representative Student

representatives can raise issues with the unit leaders or lecturers and/or the

centre manager at any point In addition, once per semester, the student

representatives complete a feedback form on behalf of their cohort These

feedback forms are then discussed at the biannual meeting of the admissions

and programme committee, where improvements are identified and actioned

3 Programme Administrator Reports

Twice each year, following discussion at the board of studies meetings, the

programme administrator completes programme evaluation reports These

reports cover known issues with programme delivery and action points to

address those issues They also indicate any proposed new developments that

may also have been discussed during the meeting of the admissions and

programme committee

In addition, once each year, the programme administrator conducts systematic

annual reviews which not only incorporate student feedback from the whole

year but also findings from peer observations, student attainment across the

whole of their programmes and considerations outlined in their external

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examiner report This information is scrutinised in order to generate

developments and enhancements for the following year

4 Enhancement Report

Once per year, the admissions and programme committee will produce an

enhancement report, coordinated by the unit leaders This report will examine

information relating to student outcomes in terms of grades and enrolment, as

well as any issues identified by the academic staff during the year The

enhancement report will be the be reported to the CEO, programme

administrator and board of governors for further consideration

5 Board of Governors

The board of governors meets quarterly, and its purpose is to scrutinise the

reports outlined above, with particular reference to attainment data, unit

feedback and outcomes from the assessment and programme committee,

enhancement reports, peer evaluation, external examiner reports and QAA

reviews Any proposed changes that have been suggested as a result of this

information must be approved by the board before they can be implemented

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7 Assessment Sampling

Basis for Sampling

Our programmes of teaching are designed to comply with the standards set out by the

awarding body of the college, Awards for Training and Higher Education (ATHE) As

such, it is vital that the assessment outcomes of classes are subject to sampling to

ensure that the assessment criteria are being properly met This is undertaken through

a process of internal quality assurance (IQA)

Sampling Procedure

Every assessment task set for Xpertis students must be sampled for consistency in

marking This process is undertaken within the college, by a designated Internal

Quality Assurer selected from among the academic staff It is important to distinguish

between this position and that of a second marker – assignments are marked by two

members of staff as per the college’s Assessment Strategy and Marking Procedure,

whereas the Internal Quality Assurer must be a third party to this process The role of

the Internal Quality Assurer, therefore, is to check and verify that these two markers

have produced consistent results

1 Initial Marking

The marking of the students’ assignments is carried out as dictated in the

college’s Assessment Strategy and Marking Procedure, a final mark agreed,

and the comment sheet filled in

2 Sample Identification

The sample size from the class must be identified The standard sample size is

10 students plus 10% of the total number of students taking the qualification

(so, for a class of 30 students, the sample size would be 13) If there are less

than 10 students in the class, then all will be checked by the Internal Quality

Assurer Where a sample needs to be selected from among the class, the

members of this sample will be chosen at random

Tiêu đề	Xpertis Quality Assurance Handbook
Trường học	Xpertis College
Chuyên ngành	Quality Assurance
Thể loại	Handbook
Năm xuất bản	2020-21

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Số trang	20
Dung lượng	466,37 KB