Like all higher education providers in the UK, the QAA Quality Code states we must meet certain Core Practices for Enabling Student Achievement that the QAA have set out within their Expectation for this area. See How we do things for our approach in meeting these.
The required Core Practices are:
Core Practices: Quality
- The provider has sufficient appropriately qualified and skilled staff to deliver a high-quality academic experience.
- In practice, this means that staff who are highly skilled in meeting the learning and support needs of students are ensuring effective knowledge transfer which leads to students achieving successful outcomes.
- The provider has sufficient and appropriate facilities, learning resources and student support services to deliver a high-quality academic experience.
- In practice, this means that the study/research environment, access to appropriate resources and wider student support are vital in providing a high quality academic and personal student experience.
- The provider supports all students to achieve successful academic and professional outcomes.
- In practice, this means that effective academic support throughout the student journey and support that enables students to pursue a rewarding, professional career and positive academic outcomes.
- The provider designs and/or delivers high-quality courses.
- In practice, this means that embedding support mechanisms within the design and delivery of courses will enable staff to pre-empt and identify needs of students before it impacts retention and progression.
- The provider actively engages students, individually and collectively, in the quality of their education experience.
- In practice, this means that student engagement with support services is critical to better understand the individual and collective needs of students. It also signposts students to support mechanisms that their provider offers.
Common Practice for Quality:
The QAA Quality Code also has a Common Practice that whilst not mandatory for us to follow, we still feel this is relevant to us and that we can show we do it. It is:
- The provider reviews its core practices for quality regularly and uses the outcomes to drive improvement and enhancement.
- In practice, this means that the student and prospective student population is diverse and ever changing. This impacts the relevance and effectiveness of services to support student needs. Higher education providers should be responsive and able to evaluate and enhance support services to adapt to these needs.