E - Quality and standards assurance and enhancement
As highlighted in Section C Goldsmiths' approach to the management and assurance of academic quality and standards is based on an institution-wide shared ethos of professional concern for the quality of teaching provision and the student learning experience. While the academic departments are most directly responsible for the quality of teaching provision, all areas of the College underpin and support this provision and together contribute in a vital way to the overall learning experience of the student.
We aim to ensure that we have appropriate policies and processes to assure the standards of our awards and the quality of the student learning experience through Goldsmiths' Quality Assurance and Enhancement Framework which will encompass all students from part-time access courses through to research degrees and will apply to all provision, including collaborative provision and partnerships (see Quality Handbook [pdf] for clarification of the role of departmental learning and teaching committees - how programme monitoring works in relation to annual programme review, and in turn how that feeds into periodic review). The framework provides the means by which Goldsmiths and academic departments can evaluate the effectiveness of their Learning Teaching and Assessment Strategies and monitor the standards attained by students.
E1 Our Strategy for quality assurance and enhancement will be underpinned by the following principles and values:
- That the quality assurance structures and processes are in place to secure the standards of the awards, to assure the quality of the student learning experience in enabling them to achieve the awards, and to promote the enhancement of learning and teaching. Goldsmiths is committed to ensuring that its quality assurance procedures promote rather than impede the enhancement of practice;
- That quality assurance and enhancement structures and processes are predicated on trust in academics as professionals who reflect upon their practice as university teachers and scholars/researchers;
- That students are central to the process of quality assurance and enhancement through participating in the review and development of programmes and curricula and by soliciting and taking account of student feedback on courses and programmes;
- That externality will be incorporated, where appropriate, in quality assurance processes, in particular through the role of External Examiners in assuring the standards of awards and contributing to improvements and enhancement of teaching and learning;
- That our approach to quality assurance and enhancement recognises the role of the QAA Academic Infrastructure in promoting good practice in higher education provision and aims to engage with its precepts in an intelligent and informed way in the development of a strategy that is fit for purpose for Goldsmiths, its students and staff.
E2 The key elements of the Goldsmiths Quality and Standards Framework are:
- A supportive but rigorous programme design and approval process, Annual Programme Review and Periodic Programme/Departmental Review, which are informed by the QAA Academic Infrastructure, external peers and stakeholders;
- A regulatory framework to assure the standards of the awards that takes account of the QAA Academic Infrastructure, in particular the Framework for Higher Education Qualifications and requirements of other public and statutory regulatory bodies as appropriate;
- The articulation of explicit standards, in terms of the levels of academic attainment used to describe and measure the academic requirements and achievements of students, that are communicated clearly to students and other stakeholders;
- An effective process of examinations and assessment overseen and informed by External Examiners and a system for ensuring the consistency of the awarding process and for monitoring the comparability of standards;
- An effective system of student feedback that not only helps to assure the quality of their learning experience but encourages them to engage in the learning process and contribute to the enhancement of learning opportunities;
- A strategic planning process and governance and committee structure that facilitates the appropriate allocation of resources for learning and teaching and student support to maintain standards and improve the quality of learning opportunities.
- A system of management information, to provide data (both external and internal) to support the monitoring and maintenance of standards and quality assurance and enhancement processes.
The Quality and Standards Framework will be accompanied by a strategy for communicating the details of it to staff, students and other stakeholders and aspects of it will be reviewed periodically to ensure the Framework is fit for purpose.
Printable version of Quality and Standards [pdf]
Printable version of complete Learning, Teaching and Assessment Strategy [pdf]