Diane Grayson

Director: Institutional Audits

2nd Period of Quality Assurance:Quality Enhancement in HE

…higher education has undergone deep changes that will shape the academic enterprise for decades to come. Perhaps the key engines of change consist of the massification of higher education in almost every country, the impact of information and communications technology and its impact on higher education, the "public good/ private good" debate, and the rise of the global knowledge economy and other manifestations of globalization…The 21st century revolution will continue to shape higher education in the coming decades.

This continuing revolution is intensifying…Making higher education more inclusive requires not only moving historically underrepresented groups into higher education but also meeting their unique needs.

Trends in Global Higher Education: Tracking an Academic Revolution (UNESCO 2009)

International

Ubiquitous, powerful ICT

Ready access to enormous amounts of information

Globalisation

Sustainability concerns

Workplace mobility and career changes

Recent

Global economic recessionHigh unemployment, especially among youth

21st Century context

Social and political upheaval

}

National

Lingering inequities

Serial curriculum changes at school level

Limited knowledge and skills of school-leavers

Stringent labour laws

Total population in five-year age groups and sex (Census 2011, Statistics SA)

Throughput rates for 2005 cohort in 3-year degree programmes excluding UNISA (CHE VitalStats)

Cumulative throughput rates by race for 2005 cohort in 3-year degree programmes excluding UNISA (CHE VitalStats)

Massive investments in the higher education system have not produced better outcomes in the level of academic performance or graduation rates. While enrolment and attainment gaps have narrowed across different race groups, the quality of education for the vast majority has remained poor at all levels. The higher education therefore tends to be a low-participation, high-attrition system.

National Planning Commission 2012

Higher education can no longer be owned by a community of disciplinary connoisseurs who transmit knowledge to students. Both the complexity and uncertainty of society and the economy will require institutions to continuously adapt while upholding standards. In practice, institutions will have to learn how best to serve the student community. Students have become the focal point of our learning approach in many areas of the world.

(Fostering Quality Teaching in Higher Education: Policies and Practices)

OECD Sept 2012

Convergence of imperatives for change

National needsSocial justice,

Economic development

ZeitgeistUniversities taking responsibility

for their students’success

21st century skillsInter-personal,Information processingLife-long learning

Students

Too often curricular reform efforts devolve into academic horse trading. Speaking with undergraduates helped save us from this fate, reminding us that our fundamental purpose was not to broker an accord among our faculty colleagues but to create new opportunities for our students to explore, think, and grow…. …We want our students not simply to succeed but to flourish; we want them to live not only usefully but also creatively, responsibly, and reflectively.

(The Study of Undergraduate Education at Stanford University, January 2012)

Stanford University

UK QAA-- Quality Assurance:

 “the means through which an institution ensures and confirms that the conditions are in place for students to achieve the standards set by it or by another awarding body” (QAA 2004),

Quality Enhancement:

 “the process of taking deliberate steps at institutional level to improve the quality of learning opportunities....” (QAA 2006).

Scottish QAA

“has defined enhancement as taking deliberate steps to bring about improvement in the effectiveness of the learning experiences of students.”

Second cycle– Quality enhancement

The enhancement of student learning with a view to producing an increased number of graduates with attributes that are personally, professionally and socially valuable.

1. enhanced student learning, leading to an

2. increased number of graduates that have

3. improved graduate attributes

STUDENT SUCCESS

Focus of the Quality Enhancement Project

1st cycle

Criteria specified from the beginning

Individual focus-Institutions engaged sequentially

One process used throughout (self-evaluation, visit, report, improvement plan, progress report)

2nd cycle

More inductive- themes will emerge during the process

System focus-Institutions engaged simultaneously

Different processes will be used at different stages

Iterative

Approach

Institutional submissions

Analysis

Feedback

Collaboration

Analysis

Symposia, working groups

Projects of other bodies

Institutional capacity

development

Research projects

Fe

edb

ack

Collaboration is key

We need collective impact resulting from collective engagement– combining our knowledge, skills, wisdom and experience.

The problem is too big, too complicated, too important for fragmented, individualistic or ad hoc approaches.

Efforts to promote student success need to be coherent

Research is needed to provide a sound theoretical and evidence base.

Intellectual rigour is essential

During the past several decades greater societal demands for accountability have prevailed. This has obliged universities to demonstrate that learning is taking place. A greater emphasis is placed on measuring learning outcomes; it is no longer sufficient to measure the "inputs"-what is being taught and how the curriculum is delivered to the students.

(UNESCO 2009, Trends in Global Higher Education: Tracking an Academic Revolution )

• Benchmarks and codes of good practice for quality undergraduate provision

• Policy recommendations

• Tools and resources for improving student success

• Research

• Communities of practice

Raise the bar for what can be expected of institutions in promoting student success in future audits

Expected outcomes of the QEP

• Teaching

• Curriculum

• Assessment

• Learning resources

• Student enrolment management

• Academic student support and development

• Non-academic student support and development

Factors that affect student success (from 1st cycle)

Enhancing…

Teaching

Curriculum

Assessment

Learning resources

Student enrolment management

Academic student support and development

Non-academic student support and development

University teachers

Student support

Learning environment

Course and programme enrolment

management

Can be tackled simultaneously by groups working in parallel.

Enhancing university teachers

Professional development, Reward and recogniton, workload, conditions of service, performance management

Enhancing student support

Career guidance and curriculum advising, life and academic skills, counselling, performance monitoring and referral

Enhancing the learning environment

Teaching and learning spaces, ICT infrastructure, access and resources, library

Enhancing course and programme enrolment management

Admissions, selection, placement, exclusions, pass rates in gateway courses, throughput

Initial focus areas

1. Enhancement of the quality of undergraduate provision

2. Enhancement of the quality of graduates

3. A higher education system that is improving continuously as members of the higher education community reflect and collaborate to share good practice and solve shared problems.

Beginning in 2014The Quality Enhancement Project