Almost exactly a year ago, Steve Nash and I (Barb Coulson) first talked to the Student Council about the HE Review process and what it entailed.
We had three Course Reps who volunteered to act as the Lead Student Representative for the Review and Elliott Fendle’s name came out of the hat. A year on I hope he still thinks it was worth his effort – and all the hard work of all students who participated in the process – whether that was helping to organise and write the student submission, reading and commenting on new policies and procedures, answering endless questionnaires and surveys or attending the student meeting with the review team. Thank you to all students who got involved.
The actual report won’t be out for a few weeks but the College has received a letter with some of the ‘headline’ information that will be in the report.”
The College is very pleased with the result. (We always smile at the QAA’s effort to not sound overly effusive). In part, the letter stated:
The report will confirm that:
- The maintenance of the threshold academic standards of the awards offered on behalf of degree-awarding bodies meets UK expectations
- The quality of student learning opportunities meets UK expectations
- The quality of the provider’s information about learning opportunities meets UK expectations
- The enhancement of student learning opportunities meets UK expectations
The draft report is likely to highlight the following instances of good practice that the review team considers make a positive contribution to the students’ learning experiences:
- The high level of external examiner engagement with both staff and students facilitated by the College during the academic year
- The numerous ways in which the College has systematically fostered engagement with students to enhance the quality of learning opportunities
- The strength of the College links with industry which supports curriculum development and student employability
- The proactive and strategic approach to improving student retention
- The use of the Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) to provide a wide range of accessible and student-centred information to current students
Again, thank you all and here’s looking forward to more collaborative working between the Sparsholt staff and students in 2014/15!
Barb Coulson
Higher Education Development and Quality Manager