1. Thursday 2nd of February 2017 College Development Network
How good is our college?
Thursday 2nd of February 2017
College Development Network

2. Introduction and structure of event

3. Aims of the event
to introduce you to the How good is our college? framework and the new review process;
to explain your role in the new quality process;
to explore how to approach answering the HGIOC challenge questions relating to student engagement;
to explore how to gather student views to input into the review process.

4. Time
Activity
11:00
Introduction to the new arrangements and How good is our college? Framework
Overview by Education Scotland, the Scottish Funding Council and sparqs
12:30
Lunch
13:15
How well are we doing?
This session will explore the student engagement challenge questions in HGIOC
14:45
Gathering students’ views
This session will look at how to gather a wide range of students’ views for the Evaluation Report and Enhancement Plan
15:30
Discussion and next steps
16:00
Close

5. Background to college quality arrangements
SFC has statutory responsibility for quality assurance in colleges Colleges have primary responsibility for ensuring that academic standards are maintained and that quality is evaluated systematically and enhanced. SFC contracts with Education Scotland to provide assurance and to support improvement in the college sector.

6. Principles of quality arrangements
High quality learning
Student engagement
Quality culture
Expectation of public information

7. Old quality arrangements
Cyclical inspection of colleges every four years by Education Scotland
Annual Engagement Visits by Education Scotland HMIs to every college
Annual quality reports by colleges and statement of assurance from Boards

8. Aims of new arrangements
Integrate with SFC outcome agreement monitoring
Develop regional approaches to the management of quality
Strengthen college ownership of evaluation and planning for improvement
Provide external challenge and validation
New arrangements to reflect changes:
Scottish Government / SFC introduced Outcome Agreements in 2012 as the means by which we agree funding with colleges. Every year we negotiate with every college what we expect them to deliver for their funding and we monitor how they are doing against a set of national Performance Indicators. Colleges have to produce an annual OA and an annual evaluation of their OA. Colleges also had to separately report annually on quality of learning and teaching. So the integration aim is aiming to simplify, streamline and align planning, improvement and reporting for colleges and enable SFC to receive one report on the performance of the college, signed off by the Board.
2012 also saw the creation of regional colleges and regional governance. Recognition that each college is delivering in their regional context and that this needs to be recognised in the way that colleges are resourced and assessed. So a national template approach no longer appropriate.
Ownership Desire to recognise the maturity of the college sector; inspections have found that quality is largely above threshold standards. Agenda is generally about enhancement and improvement- where there are problems, the best way is increasing ownership of problems and working in partnership to support improvement.
However a mature system must be open to external challenge. Outcome Agreements process involves high expectation of stakeholder engagement in planning provision. Under the new arrangements we want colleges to consider how to extend this to validating their assessments of their performance. This must include engaging students as well as employers, local authorities, schools etc.

9. Key features of new arrangements
Annual evaluations & enhancement plans by colleges – endorsed by stakeholders; externally validated by Education Scotland and SFC;
No four-yearly inspections, instead continuous engagement by ES and SFC to support improvement and challenge
One national reporting framework encompassing Outcome Agreement PIs and Quality Indicators;
Colleges design their own evaluation and improvement approach to fit their context and priorities.

10. Key features of new arrangements
Student engagement
SFC expectation that students are involved in Outcome Agreements and quality arrangements;
Minimum – consultation and feedback
Ambition – student contributing to improvements and enhancing the experience of learners
AY is a year of development.

11. Features of new arrangements
Integrate with SFC outcome agreement monitoring
Develop regional approaches to the management of quality
Strengthen college ownership of evaluation and planning for improvement
Provide external challenge and validation
Alison

12. Four principles: Leadership and quality culture;
Delivery of learning and services to support learning?;
Outcomes and impact;
Capacity for improvement.

13. Leadership and quality culture
How good is our leadership and approach to improvement?
Governance and leadership of change
Leadership of learning and teaching
Leadership of services to support learning
Evaluation leading to improvement

14. Delivery of learning and services to support learning
How good is the quality of the provision and services we deliver?
Safeguarding and child protection
Curriculum
Learning, teaching and assessment
Services to support learning
Transitions
Partnerships

15. Outcomes and impact
How good are we at ensuring the best possible outcomes for all our learners?
Wellbeing, equality and inclusion
Equity, attainment and achievement for all learners

16. Capacity to improve What is our capacity for improvement?
Leadership and quality culture
Delivery of learning and services to support learning
Outcomes and impact
Capacity to improve

17. Key points Engagement with external stakeholders Curriculum teams
Services to support learning
Transitions
Engagement with learners
Governance
Capacity to improve

18. Arrangements On-going engagement between college, ES and SFC
Tripartite meeting November/December 2016
Schedule of activities Dec – Sept. 2017
Production of Evaluative Report and Enhancement Plan – October 2017
Endorsement process October – November 2017

19. Evaluative Report How good is/our (for each key principle)?
How do we know?
How have we gathered and used internal and external stakeholder feedback to inform and substantiate our evaluation?
What is working well?
What needs to work better?

20. Enhancement Plan What are our priorities?
What are our areas for development?
What are our main points for action?
What actions will we take to address these main points for action?
What do we aim to achieve and by when?
How will we engage learners, staff and other stakeholders in developing and implementing enhancement activity?

21. Role of the Student Team Member
Support the College HMI in carrying out activities to evaluate the experience of learners.
Provide input on the views of learners.
Maintain appropriate records of engagement with colleges and relevant stakeholders.

22. Student engagement in the Framework
Code of Good Governance
for Scotland’s Colleges
B.1 The board must have close regard to the voice of its students and the quality of the student experience should be central to all board decisions.
B.2 The board must lead by example in relation to openness, by ensuring that there is meaningful on-going engagement and dialogue with students, the students’ association in relation to the quality of the student experience.

23. NUS Framework for the Development of Strong and Effective College Students’ Associations

25. A Student Engagement Framework for Scotland
There are five key elements:
Students feeling part of a supportive institution.
Students engaging in their own learning.
Students working with their institution in shaping the direction of learning.
Formal mechanisms for quality and governance.
Influencing the student experience at national level.
The use of the term ‘learning’ throughout the framework can apply to learning, teaching and assessment.

26. A Student Engagement Framework for Scotland
There are six features of effective student engagement:
A culture of engagement.
Students as partners.
Responding to diversity.
Valuing the student contribution.
Focus on enhancement and change.
Appropriate resources and support.

28. Student engagement in college self-evaluation
From feedback to partnership
partner
expert
authentic & constructive dialogue
actor
recognised as experts in learning
information provider
collector & analyst of feedback
a completer of surveys

29. Questions? Have a look at the handouts.
What do you think of the new arrangements?
What is the students’ association’s role in this?
What are the challenges?
What are the opportunities?

30. Lunch

31. Welcome back

32. Objectives of the event
to introduce you to the How good is our college? framework and the new review process;
to explain your role in the new quality process;
to explore how to approach answering the HGIOC challenge questions relating to student engagement;
to explore how to gather student views to input into the review process.

33. College evaluation
Colleges design their own evaluation and improvement approach to fit their context and priorities. Students should be key in this process.

34. Student engagement in college self-evaluation
From feedback to partnership
partner
expert
authentic & constructive dialogue
actor
recognised as experts in learning
information provider
collector & analyst of feedback
a completer of surveys

35. Activity
Each group will get a dialogue sheet and pack of student engagement challenge cards.
For each question think about:
What are we doing?
2. How well are we doing? How do we know – what evidence do we have?
How can we improve on this?
What’s the nature of student involvement in each stage of this?

36. Gathering students’ views

37. Evaluative Report How good is/our (for each key principle)?
How do we know?
How have we gathered and used internal and external stakeholder feedback to inform and substantiate our evaluation?
What is working well?
What needs to work better?

38. Enhancement Plan What are our priorities?
What are our areas for development?
What are our main points for action?
What actions will we take to address these main points for action?
What do we aim to achieve and by when?
How will we engage learners, staff and other stakeholders in developing and implementing enhancement activity?

39. Who and how?
Who is best placed to research the student view on learning?
How can this work be done?

40. Who? Course reps Faculty/department reps
Other student researchers or trainers?

41. How? Existing tools! Some survey and research ideas…
Reps are doing this anyway.
Existing knowledge base and structures.
Some survey and research ideas…

42. Exploring tools Exploring each tool, discuss in groups…
The value of this tool to the process.
When, how, by whom and with whom it could be used.
What resources or other colleagues need to be considered or involved.
Likely timescales.

43. Next steps
What are you going to do when you get back to the college?

44. Questions and support Contact us! Hannah.Clarke@sparqs.ac.uk