ANZUIAG Conference

ANZUIAG Conference Professor Vi McLean,Dean, Faculty of Education Dr Don Field, Director, Academic Policy and Programs Thursday, 19 September 2002

Purpose • AUQA… • “…Will provide public assurance of the quality of Australia’s universities and will assist in improving the academic quality of those institutions. • “… to encourage and assist the growth of an organizational culture in HE that values quality and is committed to continuous improvement.”

Style of Audit • AUQA does not impost given standards against which all institutions are measured but holds institutions accountable for: • Having clarity in mission and goals, defined strategies for attempting to reach those goals, and systemic ways of tracking progress towards achievement of those goals.

Style of Audit • Major focus: • Although the audit is across all areas of university operation, the major emphasis is on core operations in Teaching and Learning, and institutional quality assurance approaches, (Note: Not an audit in the financial sense.)

Process components 1) Self review by institution. (Portfolio construction) (12-18 months notice). • Institutional goals, Institutional QA strategies and evaluation of those strategies • Course design, approvals and monitoring, international/off campus programs, teaching and learning innovations, equity and access matters, credit transfer and RPL, student assessment principles and procedures, • Personnel policies and processes including performance monitoring.

Process components 2) Preparing for the visit • gathering data and supplementary materials for ease of access by auditors 3) The visit • 5 auditors…2 members from interstate Australian universities, 1 Australian from outside sector, 1 overseas university person, 1 AUQA professional staffer

Process components 4) Receiving the report • fine-tuning the report, feedback to institution, responding to public release 5) Action plan to address report findings (3 – 4 months) 6) Reporting on actions and results (1 – 2.5 years later) 7) Five-years later, cycle restarts with review of previous audit responses.

Sharing firsthand experiences Preparation for the audit • How did your organisation prepare for the process? • In retrospect, what worked well as preparation and what do you wish you’d done? The Self-report • Insights on handling areas of vulnerability? The Visit • Welcoming the auditors. Maintaining distance. • Handling on the spot requests. The aftermath • Publicity, follow-up, action plans

ANZUIAG Conference