Dolina Dowling December 2010 Presentations 2, 3 1

These include:  QA Units  Institution  University staff  Implementation  Impact  Students  Quality Agency; external bodies 2

Within QA Units  Staffing  Training  Resources: physical; finance  Documentation development 3

Institution  Lack of commitment and support from leadership  Lack of clear and realistic institutional mission and goals  Lack of strategic plans at different levels within institution  Lack of embedded culture of QA 4

Staff  Indifference ‘Fine as long as I am left to get on with my work’  Resistance ‘Have successful research record and many high achieving graduates why would I change now’  Time ‘This takes me away from my primary responsibilities of teaching and research’  Lack of knowledge and understanding 5

Implementation  Awareness at all levels of policies and procedures  Consistent implementation of policies and procedures  Implementing activities that enhance quality and meet external agency requirements  Time 6

Miscellaneous  Impact How to measure effectiveness of QA Unit  Students How to get student involvement in quality issues  Higher Education Sector Little or no co-operation/sharing 7

Quality Assurance Agency  Overstretched by QA Agency requirements and requests  Time gap between site visit and publication of report  Developing Plan to address findings in Audit Reports  Gaining staff buy-in (again)  Implementing Improvement Plan  Resourcing issues for implementation of Plans within Unit; across institution 8

Break into groups Consider challenges that you have faced Develop strategies to overcome What is needed for success 9

Some ideas 10

 QA Unit leader to have academic credibility  Academic Board and Faculty representation  Responsiveness of Unit team  Good communication strategy 11

 QA champion in each faculty or unit  Staff buy-in of policies and procedures ◦ Focus groups ◦ Intranet ◦ Take comments on new policies and procedures seriously ◦ Not something that Unit does alone ◦ Facilitating role ◦ Everyone’s responsibility 12

 Collegiality Ensure room for discussion  No mismatch between institutional values and QA model Planning, monitoring and evaluation mechanisms on T&L, research, need to be aligned to staff’s own work and peer review  Implementation of feedback Staff, students 13

To sum up:  Strong commitment from Executive  Credible QA leader  Sufficiently resourced Unit to fulfill its role  QA representation on all key committees  Collegial approach  Robust communication  Measuring impact and ensuring good outcomes known 14

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