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How was it for you? A College perspective of the IQER Catherine Hill Director of Quality and Standards. COLLEGE BACKGROUND. HE constitutes 1/6 th of the colleges provision, with a Hefce grant of approximately £6m 1,230 full-time and 540 part-time HE students 6 HEI partners 68 HE courses
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How was it for you? A College perspective of the IQER Catherine Hill Director of Quality and Standards
COLLEGE BACKGROUND • HE constitutes 1/6th of the colleges provision, with a Hefce grant of approximately £6m • 1,230 full-time and 540 part-time HE students • 6 HEI partners • 68 HE courses • HE delivered through 10 curriculum schools that include FE provision, 1 school with dedicated HE provision
OUR TIME LINE • August 2006 – Put ourselves forward with agreement of our HEI Partners • 25th September 2006 – Selected as one of 15 pilot colleges • 11th October 2006 – Briefing event for pilot colleges • 2nd November 2006 – Cycle planning meeting • 22nd/23rd November 2006 - IN/Reviewer training
OUR TIME LINE CONT... • 26th January 2007 – Self- Evaluation for DE submitted • 23rd February 2007 – DE preparatory meeting • 21st/22nd March 2007 – DE visit • 20th April 2007 – Self-Evaluation for SR submitted • 8th May 2007 – SR preparatory meeting • 22nd/23rd May 2007 – SR visit • 14th June 2007 – Panel judgement meeting
OUR INTERNAL PREPARATIONS • We had support from all managers and most HEIs • This was aligning well with a significant ‘refreshing’ of our HE provision, towards vocational, Foundation degree provision • Colleagues could recognise that looking across the College at HE was something we had not done before. • We had produced a cross college self-evaluation document and improvement plan for the last 2 years but this was not against the Core Questions (and had not been written for external reading!) • INs/SRFs need to have sufficient knowledge and time to do their roles
OUR INTERNAL PREPARATIONS CONT... • We had HE committees, but we started using our cross college groups to discuss HE operational issues as well as share Good Practice • Used our preparation for the DE/SR to develop or confirm staff understanding of the Academic Infrastructure • How their use of codes of practice, Benchmarks statements, Programme Specifications, FHEQ contribute to the Academic Infrastructure. • Some staff prepare and develop the HE courses they deliver (those validated by Lancaster) so were quite aware of the facets. • We had some difficulty with Edexcel programmes and programmes which we simply delivered!
OUR INTERNAL PREPARATIONS CONT... • We involved staff delivering/managing HE provision in reviewing all our programmes prior to the DE • This was time consuming, but really allowed staff to ‘see’ Good Practice as well as talk about it. • Helped us to make an informed decision about the ‘sample’ for the DE and SR
WRITING THE SE’S • Our assessment SE was weak. The two INs had purposely kept at a distance from this – this was a mistake • It was also not written against the Core Questions • Our Summative Review SE was much improved
STUDENT SUBMISSION • Again we didn’t get this ‘right’ for the DE:- • We ran focus groups with specific HE programmes • Sample too small • We spent too much time explaining what IQER was all about • Didn’t get responses that were evaluative • Consequently although the submission was validated by the Students Union it was not a good example • For the SR we reverted to a questionnaire:- • We circulated it through our student representatives for HE • Could be completed as a group or individually • Good response which we analysed numerically and then passes to a group of students to write the narrative and thus validated it.
PREPARING FOR THE VISITS • Have a tight, clear agenda and keep to it • Keep the documents manageable • Ensure you have the ‘right’ staff involved in meetings i.e. the ones who programmes are in ‘scope’ • Invite your partner HEIs to a specific meeting
OUTCOMES • We were pleased with the report and outcomes of our DE (8 Good Practice, 3 recommendations!) • We have already made progress against the recommendations as the College was aware of these things prior to IQER • Summative Review????
OVERALL • Definitely been a valuable process • Has drawn colleagues together from across college • Has facilitated sharing of good practice in HE • We know a lot more about all our Provision • Allowed us to cite and demonstrate areas of good practice e.g. employer engagement • Will inform our Quality Improvement Strategy • Has improved the confidence of the College in relation to its management of HE