A Balancing of Responsibilities

Tom EvershedHigher Education Manager, Warwickshire College

Warwickshire College• Mature and confident provider of HE• Six centres, all with higher education• Over 1000 HE students• A wide range of subjects and awards• Six awarding bodies (five HEIs)• Currently applying for Foundation Degree-

Awarding Powers

Six Different Relationships

• Coventry University• The University of Worcester• The University of Gloucestershire• Birmingham City University• The University of Warwick• Edexcel

Chapter B10 – Managing Higher Education Provision With Others

• Expectation: Degree-awarding bodies take ultimate responsibility for academic standards and the quality of learning opportunities, irrespective of where these are delivered or who provides them. Arrangements for delivering learning opportunities with organisations other than the degree-awarding body are implemented securely and managed effectively.

Chapter B10 – Managing Higher Education Provision With Others

• Indicator 2: Governance arrangements at appropriate levels are in place for all learning opportunities which are not directly provided by the degree-awarding body. Arrangements for learning to be delivered, or support to be provided, are developed, agreed and managed in accordance with the formally stated policies and procedures of the degree-awarding body.

Chapter B10 – Managing Higher Education Provision With Others

• Indicator 5: The risks of each arrangement to deliver learning opportunities with others are assessed at the outset and reviewed subsequently on a periodic basis. Appropriate and proportionate safeguards to manage the risks of the various arrangements are determined and put in place.

Chapter B10 – Managing Higher Education Provision With Others• Indicator 11: Degree-awarding bodies are responsible for

the academic standards of all credit and qualifications granted in their name. This responsibility is never delegated. Therefore, degree-awarding bodies ensure that the standards of any of their awards involving learning opportunities delivered by others are equivalent to the standards set for other awards that they confer at the same level. They are also consistent with UK national requirements.

Six Different Approaches to Chapter B10

• Six relationships potentially means six different ways to meet Chapters B3 & B5

• How much responsibility do colleges want to take for each different Indicator?

• How much should they want to take?

• And how much should they be delegated?

Chapter B3 – Learning & Teaching

• Indicator 1: Higher education providers articulate and implement a strategic approach to learning and teaching and promote a shared understanding of this approach among their staff, students and other stakeholders.

• Indicator 2: Learning and teaching activities and associated resources provide every student with an equal and effective opportunity to achieve the intended learning outcomes.

Chapter B3 – Learning & Teaching

• Indicator 3: Learning and teaching practices are informed by reflection, evaluation of professional practice, and subject-specific and educational scholarship.

• Indicator 4: Higher education providers assure themselves that everyone involved in teaching or supporting student learning is appropriately qualified, supported and developed.

Chapter B5 – Student Engagement

• Indicator 1: Higher education providers, in partnership with their student body, define and promote the range of opportunities for any student to engage in educational enhancement and quality assurance.

• Indicator 3: Arrangements exist for the effective representation of the collective student voice at all organisational levels, and these arrangements provide opportunities for all students to be heard.

Chapter B5 – Student Engagement

• Indicator 4: Higher education providers ensure that student representatives and staff have access to training and ongoing support to equip them to fulfil their roles in educational enhancement and quality assurance effectively.

What Kind Of Relationships Do We Want?

• Can we be trusted?

• The fight for respect

• Culture change

• What are the implications for the relationships between HEIs and colleges with HE?

The Way We Do Things Around Here

• Wherever we use our own procedures we focus on enhancement; this cannot happen in the same way where we use others’ procedures

Questions

• To what degree do students belong to their awarding body institution? To what extent should they belong?

• It is easier to manage one system than six – for HEIs and for us – but is equality of opportunity confused by six different cultures?

• Can cultures of HE-ness and enhancement be fostered without ownership of the culture?

• Should HEIs work harder to build HE-related learning and teaching skills at FECs? If so, how?

• “We are made wise not by the recollection of our past but by the responsibility for our future.”

George Bernard Shaw

tevershed@warkscol.ac.uk