Xpertis quality assurance handbook

Quality Assurance Handbook 2020 21 Table of Contents 1 Introduction 2 2 Senior Administrative Team 3 CEO 3 Programme Administrator 3 Centre Manager(s) 4 KPIs 4 3 Academic Staff 6 Unit Leaders 6 Lectur.

Quality Assurance Handbook 2020-21 Table of Contents Introduction 2 Senior Administrative Team CEO Programme Administrator Centre Manager(s) KPIs Academic Staff Unit Leaders Lecturers Committees Board of Governors Admissions and Programme Committee Assessment Board Programme Documentation Policies and Procedures Programme Specifications Unit Descriptors Programme Monitoring and Evaluation 10 Ongoing Quality Assurance and Improvement 10 Periodic Quality Assurance and Improvement 11 Assessment Sampling 13 Basis for Sampling 13 Sampling Procedure 13 Appendices 15 Appendix 1: Important Documentation 15 Appendix 2: Internal Quality Assurance Form 16 Appendix 3: Sampling Tracker Template © 2020 Xpertis College, All Rights Reserved Introduction The purpose of this handbook is to provide staff, students and external partners with a clear articulation of the college’s approach to quality assurance It describes the structures, roles, responsibilities and processes that the college implements to both provide a high-quality educational experience and to ensure this level of quality is maintained The contents of this handbook are informed by and seek to reflect the UK Quality Code for Higher Education, which staff are encouraged to read alongside this handbook; a link to this code can be found in the Appendices, along with details of other important documents © 2020 Xpertis College, All Rights Reserved Senior Administrative Team CEO The CEO is the primary decision-maker at the college They direct the senior administrative team and are responsible for the hiring of new staff and management of current employees The CEO is the accountable officer for quality assurance across the college, as many of the processes and checks which ensure quality is maintained either originate or receive their final approval from this position As part of QA, the CEO sets targets for academic achievement and student recruitment each year, organises a quarterly review of the assessment protocols and other academic matter with the programme administrator and ensures proper delivery of the college KPIs (see below) Programme Administrator Unlike some other colleges, Xpertis employs a single programme administrator who oversees and ensures the smooth operation of academic matters on all campuses The programme administrator is responsible for the upkeep of course timetables and keeping lecturers and students informed of any changes They are also required to keep student databases up to date and manage assessment deadlines to guarantee a standardised delivery In general, academic matters arising from lecturers or © 2020 Xpertis College, All Rights Reserved students will always be dealt with by the programme administrator, and as such they represent an important link between the academic staff and the higher management Centre Manager(s) Each centre has a centre manager In contrast to the programme administrator, whose concerns are with the proper running of academic matters on college-wide basis, the centre managers are responsible for maintaining the day-to-day college infrastructure This includes maintaining proper health and safety standards, prepping classrooms ahead of seminars or lectures and allocating resources such as computers or projection equipment Centre managers are also tasked with local marketing and student recruitment and are responsible for organising weekly staff briefings during term-time KPIs The profiles above describe the roles and responsibilities of the senior management team in a general sense Key Performance Indicators, or KPIs, are informed by these profiles and provide specific targets for the current academic year These KPIs must be reviewed, evaluated and updated every academic year For more details on this process of evaluation and review, see section of this document In the table which follows, the three roles above are represented by the acronyms CEO, PA and CM CEO 1: Securing centre approval with ATHE CEO 2: Establishment of two main centres (Manchester and Addis Ababa) CEO 3: Establishment of two further satellite centres (Leeds and Bishoftu) CEO 4: Hiring two unit leaders CEO 5: Hiring lecturers as required, in consultation with the programme administrator and unit leaders CEO 6: 60 students minimum registered in total during 2020-21 © 2020 Xpertis College, All Rights Reserved CEO 7: 85% of students progressed successfully this academic year CEO 8: Staff satisfaction is greater than on survey results PA 1: Collect and collate student feedback for each unit PA 2: Programme-related enquiries answered within an average of 48 hours CM 1: 15 students minimum enrolled at each centre during 2020-21 CM 2: 85% of enrolled students achieving pass grade by end of academic year CM 3: Operational enquiries answered within an average of 48 hours © 2020 Xpertis College, All Rights Reserved Academic Staff Unit Leaders The programmes offered by Xpertis, are governed by unit leaders These are senior and experienced members of academic staff, who will lead the teaching of their unit in practical terms and oversee some administrative aspects The primary responsibility of the unit leaders is therefore to deliver the content of their respective courses in line with the requirements of the validated programme, which involves developing assessment schemes, designing the curriculum and considering what learning resources will be required They will also need to reflect and act upon student feedback as the academic year progresses In order to achieve these goals, the unit leaders need to liaise closely with both the centre managers and the programme administrator Finally, as part of the college’s QA protocols, the unit leaders will need to conduct systematic tri-annual reviews of their programmes, with a view to ongoing improvement, enhancement and development Lecturers Although unit leaders teach part of their programmes, some aspects of the course— such as vocational components or specialist sections—will be taught by other lecturers hired by the college These teachers need to ensure they deliver the academic content in line with the curriculum and goals developed by their unit leader Also, these lecturers will be involved with marking, and discussing and assigning second markers where necessary © 2020 Xpertis College, All Rights Reserved Committees Along with the individual positions noted in the previous sections, committees made up from both administrative staff, academic staff and external members act as an important part of the quality assurance process, and are generally tasked with a gatekeeper role, ensuring that every part of the college’s operation is subjected to proper scrutiny A description of their more specific responsibilities follows Board of Governors The board of governors acts as an independent check and balance on the core members of the management team and is the overall arbiter of the college’s policies, both academic and business-related The board approves all strategic objectives set out by the CEO and serves a vital function in ensuring that institutional standards are upheld in all aspects of the college’s operation The board will generally convene a minimum of four times a year but may be called upon in specific instances to approve of an administrative action or oversee a disciplinary matter © 2020 Xpertis College, All Rights Reserved Admissions and Programme Committee The admissions and programme committee is made up from the centre manager, programme administrator and unit leaders This committee convenes as necessary to approve and make final decisions on admissions and programme changes, ensuring that no single member or members of this group can make large-scale changes without consensus agreement Assessment Board The assessment board approves the framework for examination designed by the unit leaders and provisionally approved by the programme administrator This board comprises the lecturers employed by the college at that time, at least one member of the board of governors and the programme administrator They are also responsible for approving the final marks at the end of an academic year and awarding pass/fail grades based on this information © 2020 Xpertis College, All Rights Reserved Programme Documentation Policies and Procedures A list of Xpertis policies and procedures are included as appendices to this document These provide detail on the precise procedures to follow to ensure and assure the quality of our academic provision All documents are freely available through the college Moodle Programme Specifications The requirements for each programme are set out in the programme specification for each course These programme specifications must be followed rigidly They indicate the required number of credits for each level, including which units are core and which are optional, as well as the different pathways that may be followed through each programme A curriculum map accompanies the programme specification, setting out the skills taught and assessed in each unit, thus linking units to the content of the programme specification Unit Descriptors Unit descriptors set out the intended learning outcomes, modes of teaching, credit value and assessment methods for each unit It is imperative that assessment tasks are designed to assess whether or not the student has achieved the learning outcomes as specified in the unit descriptors Unit descriptors indicate the requirements for passing each unit in terms of component assessment tasks They also indicate the required contact hours broken down by mode of teaching These requirements must be strictly followed © 2020 Xpertis College, All Rights Reserved Programme Monitoring and Evaluation All programmes are subjected to continuous monitoring and review by the college to ensure good practice, improvement and enhancement of the college’s educational provision The maintenance and enhancement of quality in existing units is ultimately the responsibility of the admissions and programme committee and the CEO Ongoing Quality Assurance and Improvement Continuous quality assurance and improvement is enabled by the following mechanisms: - Continuous monitoring of student complaints (both formal and informal) by the programme administrator - Peer review of teaching by the unit leaders - Continuous monitoring of informal student feedback by lecturers, the programme administrator and centre managers - Continuous monitoring of student attendance and engagement by unit leaders, lecturers and centre managers - Continuous monitoring of student attainment by the programme administrator, especially by means of formative assessments These processes enable the programme administrator, in particular, to respond immediately to issues or concerns and so improve the programmes in real time without waiting for formal six-monthly reviews So, for instance, if students (either through feedback, complaints or formative assessments) indicate that they have struggled to learn a particular component of a course then the programme director will communicate this to the unit leaders and then discuss a way to provide more teaching input on that component before the formal unit feedback or unit assessments are undertaken © 2020 Xpertis College, All Rights Reserved Periodic Quality Assurance and Improvement In addition to the continuous quality assurance mechanisms indicated above, the college also utilises a range of periodic quality assurance mechanisms: Unit Evaluation Forms All students on all units are required to complete a unit evaluation form at the end of each unit These forms are designed to appraise both the unit in terms of its content and the facilitation in terms of the teaching style, ability to engage students and so on The unit evaluation forms are collated by centre managers and then delivered to the programme administrator at the end of each unit Student Representatives Each year group in each centre has a student representative Student representatives can raise issues with the unit leaders or lecturers and/or the centre manager at any point In addition, once per semester, the student representatives complete a feedback form on behalf of their cohort These feedback forms are then discussed at the biannual meeting of the admissions and programme committee, where improvements are identified and actioned Programme Administrator Reports Twice each year, following discussion at the board of studies meetings, the programme administrator completes programme evaluation reports These reports cover known issues with programme delivery and action points to address those issues They also indicate any proposed new developments that may also have been discussed during the meeting of the admissions and programme committee In addition, once each year, the programme administrator conducts systematic annual reviews which not only incorporate student feedback from the whole year but also findings from peer observations, student attainment across the whole of their programmes and considerations outlined in their external © 2020 Xpertis College, All Rights Reserved examiner report This information is scrutinised in order to generate developments and enhancements for the following year Enhancement Report Once per year, the admissions and programme committee will produce an enhancement report, coordinated by the unit leaders This report will examine information relating to student outcomes in terms of grades and enrolment, as well as any issues identified by the academic staff during the year The enhancement report will be the be reported to the CEO, programme administrator and board of governors for further consideration Board of Governors The board of governors meets quarterly, and its purpose is to scrutinise the reports outlined above, with particular reference to attainment data, unit feedback and outcomes from the assessment and programme committee, enhancement reports, peer evaluation, external examiner reports and QAA reviews Any proposed changes that have been suggested as a result of this information must be approved by the board before they can be implemented © 2020 Xpertis College, All Rights Reserved Assessment Sampling Basis for Sampling Our programmes of teaching are designed to comply with the standards set out by the awarding body of the college, Awards for Training and Higher Education (ATHE) As such, it is vital that the assessment outcomes of classes are subject to sampling to ensure that the assessment criteria are being properly met This is undertaken through a process of internal quality assurance (IQA) Sampling Procedure Every assessment task set for Xpertis students must be sampled for consistency in marking This process is undertaken within the college, by a designated Internal Quality Assurer selected from among the academic staff It is important to distinguish between this position and that of a second marker – assignments are marked by two members of staff as per the college’s Assessment Strategy and Marking Procedure, whereas the Internal Quality Assurer must be a third party to this process The role of the Internal Quality Assurer, therefore, is to check and verify that these two markers have produced consistent results Initial Marking The marking of the students’ assignments is carried out as dictated in the college’s Assessment Strategy and Marking Procedure, a final mark agreed, and the comment sheet filled in Sample Identification The sample size from the class must be identified The standard sample size is 10 students plus 10% of the total number of students taking the qualification (so, for a class of 30 students, the sample size would be 13) If there are less than 10 students in the class, then all will be checked by the Internal Quality Assurer Where a sample needs to be selected from among the class, the members of this sample will be chosen at random © 2020 Xpertis College, All Rights Reserved IQA Form and Assessor Feedback The Internal Quality Assurer checks the marks given by the first and second markers according to the college’s Assessment Strategy and Marking Procedure to establish whether these results are consistent across the cohort Once this has been completed, the Internal Quality Assurer fills out an IQA form, as found in Appendix If problems are identified in the marking process, these will be delivered to the relevant assessor and changes will be made IQA Tracking Sheet Once any necessary amendments have been made by the assessors and final marks have been confirmed by the Internal Quality assurer, the IQA tracking sheet for the course is updated to reflect the process A template for this tracking sheet can be found in Appendix The first unit of a course is used as a control group and every student within the identified sample will have their first and second marks checked If every student receives consistent results from both markers, in subsequent units one student will be chosen at random, and only this student’s marks need be checked If the sampling process reveals consistent issues with the marking quality of either the first or second marker of a course, they will be removed from their position In this instance a replacement assessor will be chosen, and the next unit of the course will see every member of the sample group assessed by the Internal Quality Assurer Where recommended by the Internal Quality Assurer, the assessor who has been removed may be subject to the disciplinary procedures found in the Staff Handbook © 2020 Xpertis College, All Rights Reserved Appendices Appendix 1: Important Documentation The UK Quality Code for Higher Education, which informs much of this document’s contents and Xpertis’ procedures, can be downloaded from the Quality Assurance Agency website, at: https://www.qaa.ac.uk/quality-code An important supporting document for this code, which outlines specific benchmarks for the study and teaching of Business and Management, can be found at this address: https://www.qaa.ac.uk/docs/qaa/subject-benchmark-statements/sbs-business-andmanagement-15.pdf Xpertis’ current policy documents can be downloaded from Moodle They include: - Staff Handbook - Staff Style Guide - Student Style Guide - Student Referencing Guide - Harassment and Bullying Policy - Discipline Procedure - Student Complaints Procedure - Data Protection Policy - Assessment Framework These documents will be updated frequently, and it is the responsibility of all students and staff to ensure that they are familiar with the most current versions © 2020 Xpertis College, All Rights Reserved Appendix 2: Internal Quality Assurance Form Qualification Title Unit Title Assignment Name Learner Name Learner ID number Date of Assessment Name of Assessor Is the feedback to the learner linked to relevant learning outcomes and assessment criteria? Yes/No Provide evidence for your judgement Has the learner work been assessed to the correct standards as stated by the ACs Yes/No Provide evidence for your judgement Is the assessor feedback to the learner detailed so they understand what has been achieved and the areas for improvement? Provide evidence for your judgement © 2020 Xpertis College, All Rights Reserved Yes/No Identify the action(s) required by the assessor which have resulted from the quality assurance sampling Date(s) for the action to be completed by the assessor and when the learner work needs to be returned to the IQA Date Confirmation of actions completed Date IQA Name and Signature Assessor Name and Signature © 2020 Xpertis College, All Rights Reserved Appendix 3: Sampling Tracker Template Course Title Start and end dates Internal Quality Assurer No of Learners Centre name In the box below please briefly explain your sampling strategy You should sample across: • • A wide range of units All Units Learner • • Assessor Unit # All Assessors All assessment methods Unit # Unit # Unit # 1 2 (Add further rows as necessary) Mark with √ to show where IQA process has been applied Highlight control unit in list below and table above in green Unit title(s) 1: 2: 3: 4: 5: 6: © 2020 Xpertis College, All Rights Reserved 19 ... enhancement of quality in existing units is ultimately the responsibility of the admissions and programme committee and the CEO Ongoing Quality Assurance and Improvement Continuous quality assurance. .. unit assessments are undertaken © 2020 Xpertis College, All Rights Reserved Periodic Quality Assurance and Improvement In addition to the continuous quality assurance mechanisms indicated above,... Internal Quality Assurer Where recommended by the Internal Quality Assurer, the assessor who has been removed may be subject to the disciplinary procedures found in the Staff Handbook © 2020 Xpertis