PROCEDURE FOR ANNUAL MONITORING, REVIEW AND CONTINUOUS QUALITY IMPROVEMENT OF TAUGHT UNDERGRADUATE PROGRAMMES

Introduction:

Programme Monitoring and review is the consideration of the effectiveness of the programme in achieving its stated aims, and the success of students in attaining the intended learning outcomes. Periodically, the continuing validity of those aims and outcomes must be reviewed and relevant action plans for improvement must be designed and implemented.

Annual monitoring is a process of critical reflection by staff responsible for the design and delivery of programmes as a means to assure the quality of provision, the maintenance of standards and to promote improvement by identifying actions, reflecting on actions previously taken, and identifying and sharing good practice. This forms part of the process of reflecting on the design and delivery of individual modules, reflecting on feedback from stakeholders -students and external examiners – and links to the process undertaken at faculty level and ultimately the institutes’ level (through Quality Assurance and Enhancement Committee). The process therefore provides the basis for identifying issues which lie outside the department (whether faculty-level or institute-level issues) and for promoting the exchange of good practice across departments and faculties.

Purpose

The purpose of this code of practice is to articulate the institute’s requirements for the annual monitoring of programmes by academic departments. The code is a fundamental part of the institutes quality assurance and enhancement system, and reflects the contribution that all academic staff make to the assurance and improvement of the student learning experience and the maintenance of academic standards.

Objectives

• To ensure that programmes remain current and valid in the light of developing knowledge in the discipline and its practice in its application
• To evaluate the extent to which the intended learning outcomes are being attained
• To evaluate the continuing effectiveness of the curriculum and of assessment in relation to intended learning outcomes
• To ensure that appropriate actions are taken to remedy identified shortcomings
• To develop an action plan for continuous quality improvement

Responsibility for the monitoring of a Programme lies with the nominated Programme Team. Programme monitoring should be completed at the end of the academic year.

Monitoring and Review Processes

(a) Each module (subject) should be subjected to student evaluation annually.

(b) Each Module leader should submit a module report to the Programme leader after the students have been examined in the module.

(c) Each Programme leader should submit a Programme report annually to the

Faculty Board.

(d) Each Faculty Board should produce on an annual basis an Evaluative

Overview of the Programmes – the Faculty Annual Report.

(e) Each Faculty Programme should be subjected to review annually.

(f) Reports with action plans should be discussed in QAC and sent to Senate for approval.

Please see the following guidelines below for Module Monitoring, Evaluation and Review

1. Guidelines for Module Monitoring, Evaluation and Review

1.1 Module monitoring is essentially a process designed to ensure that

(a) Modules are operating effectively;

(b) Adequate standards of teaching and learning are being met; and

(c) Appropriate remedial action is taken when problems are identified.

1.2 Each module should have a designated member of staff responsible for it as Module Leader. That member of staff will be responsible for carrying out monitoring procedures for the particular module for which s/he has responsibility and for reporting the outcome of that process to the relevant Department.

1.3 A significant element of module monitoring is the student feedback through questionnaires distributed during the delivery and/or at the end of the module. The Module Leaders or other member(s) of staff involved in the delivery of the module should undertake the evaluation of the student feedback.

1.4 A module report should be submitted by each module coordinator to the programme coordinator after students have been examined in the module.

A standard module monitoring report is provided.

The following guidelines are provided to allow a standard module monitoring report to be produced by each Module leader:

• Academic Year:
• Module Code and Title:
• Module leader:
• Department/ Programmes which owns the module::
• Faculty:
• Other Academic Staff involved in the delivery of the module:
• Overview of module;

• Comment on any achievement or problem(s) related to the module (curriculum, resources, mode of delivery, assessment) encountered during the semester/ academic year and propose any action that can be taken by the Module leader , Programme leader/Department, Faculty or Institute.

• Give information on any problem that may have been identified in the previous year and how it was dealt with by the concerned parties.
• Data on student performance in continuous assessment and in examinations:

• • Give the statistical data on the student performance in continuous assessment and in the individual questions in the examination written paper and comment on them.
  • Compare the performance with that of last year and comment on any factors that may be associated with any difference found in the data of both years (if applicable).

1.5 Feedback

The significant issues raised by students through the student feedback questionnaires should be stated. Feed back from other staff/students forums should also be considered.

Comments of the External Examiner(s) on the module (if any) should be considered and the actions taken or proposed as a result should be given.

1.6 Staff Development Needs

Comment on staff development needs identified in relation to either the curriculum or other requirements.

1.7 Gender analysis and monitoring

Data on the gender should be provided by the nominated departmental equality for persons. Improvement actions should be given in the recommendations.

1.8 Module Specification Sheet

The module specification sheet should be attached to the report.

1.9 The module report, submitted to the Programme leader will be discussed at the level of departments. Minutes of the meetings should be kept for reference.

• • • If significant changes to the module are proposed arising from the monitoring process, the rationale behind the changes has to be given e.g. requirement of external bodies, developments in the subject area, modules offered by competitors, comments of external examiners or feedback from students or graduates etc.
    • Improvement action plans must be shown.

2.0 Programmes Monitoring and Review

The purpose of the Programme monitoring process is to ensure that the modules offered in the Programme are operating effectively, that adequate standards of teaching and learning are being met, to identify good practice and to ensure that appropriate remedial action are taken when problems are identified.

2.1 The Programme leader prepares an annual report on the Programmes for which s/he is responsible, based mainly on the reports of the Module Leaders. A standard programme monitoring report is provided.

2.2 The report should comprise the following information:

• Academic Year:
• Faculty:
• Programme leader:
• Department/ Programme
• Academic Staff involved in the delivery of the Programme:
• Overview of the Programme

• Comment on any major successes, achievements or problems, relating to the Programme(curriculum, resources, mode of delivery, assessment), encountered during the academic year. List also any significant changes and developments brought to the Programme during the academic year.

Feedback on the Programme from students

• Summarize issues raised by students from various modules offered in the programme and Comment on the significant issues raised by students through questionnaires or faculty Board meeting(s) etc.

2.4 Feedback on the Programme from External Examiner(s)

State the main issues and actions that were taken or proposed (if any).

2.5 Student Performance

(a. Comment on any trends or developments observed in the student numbers and progression in the Programme during the academic year.

(b) Give the statistical data on each module of the Programme and comment on them.

• Admission statistics and Progression statistics
• Award statistics, including honours classification
• Graduate employment, including the most recently available graduate employment statistics.
• Equal opportunities information

(c) Compare modules within the Programme compared to previous years.

2.6 Staff Development

Comment on any staff development needs identified during the year. Comment also on the effectiveness of staff/academics and any procedure used to monitor their performance. The report on staff development needs should be submitted to the Head of the Academic Practice Unit.

• • A report is provided for each year/level of the Programme by the respective Programme coordinator. All the Programme coordinators’ reports are submitted for consideration at the departmental meetings.
  • The faculty Board will then produce an evaluative overview of the Programme –the Annual faculty Report, which will be considered by the relevant Departments. The latter may decide to take appropriate or remedial action, if necessary.
  • All programmes reports must report on previous years implementation plan.
  • All annual reports must go through must the QAC and Senate
  • Programme teams should meet at least four times a year to review improvement plans and discuss other issues.