Managing Quality

Managing teaching/learning and quality/standards to ensure there is no conflict of interest is something higher education in the UK has been faced with for many years. Doctoral College therefore follows the UK Quality Code for Higher Education advice and guidance established by the Quality Assurance Agency in November 2018 (www.qaa.ac.uk/quality-code).

External Expertise

The Expectations and Core practices of the UK Quality Code for Higher Education (Quality Code) are mandatory for higher education providers in all parts of the UK.

Terminology

​External expertise: External experts are individuals who are not directly involved with a course and who can provide independent and impartial comment and input to a course design, its management, monitoring, evaluation and review. External experts will provide a level of independence that is important in decision-making and ensuring that quality and standards are met.

There are a variety of sources which a provider can access for external expertise. These include:

External examiners: Degree-awarding bodies engage external examiners to provide impartial and independent advice, as well as informative comment on the degree-awarding body’s standards and on student achievement in relation to those standards. External examiners confirm that the provider consistently and fairly implements their own policies and procedures to ensure the integrity and rigour of assessment practices. They also comment on the quality and standards of the courses in relation to the national standards and frameworks and comment on the reasonable comparability of standards achieved at other UK providers with whom the examiner has experience. External examiners also comment on good practice, and make recommendations for enhancement. External examiners will have sufficient standing, credibility and breadth of experience within the discipline to be able to command the respect of academic peers, and where appropriate, professional peers. External examiners do not contribute to delivery through teaching or any other direct capacity.

External advisers: Used to provide academic and professional expertise during the development and validation of new courses and at other relevant times. They can be called upon to provide academic, professional and industry/employer/business expertise to inform course design and to contribute to lecturing or teaching at the provider or in a professional setting, for example, workplace supervisors/ mentors for education, nursing, apprenticeships, and students on placement.

• Professional, statutory and regulatory bodies (PSRBs) – PSRBs are a varied group of bodies, regulators and those with statutory authority over a profession or group of professionals. PSRBs may provide membership services and accredit or approve courses as confirmation that the courses meet their standards and expectations. PSRBs are recognised by employers; achievement of a PSRB-recognised course can be an essential requirement for entry to a particular role or occupation.

• Employers and other external stakeholders – Providers are encouraged to engage with employers and other external stakeholders at all stages of course design, approval and review in order to ensure that their courses continue to be relevant and fit for purpose in line with employer needs. There may be mandatory external requirements to involve employers and other external stakeholders in course design, approval and review; providers need to ensure they meet all relevant requirements for external input into their courses. There may be specific groups with whom education providers are required to engage, for example, user groups for courses in, and related to, health and employers for apprenticeships.

• Guest speakers and visiting academics – Providers can promote a wider engagement with guest speakers and visiting academics to support and enhance the overall student learning experience. This type of external expertise can provide students and staff with first-hand experience in a specialist area and facilitate students’ motivation. It can also help to promote opportunities for networking, and improve community relations and connections between the higher education sector, industry and businesses.

• Students and alumni – Students and alumni from similar, and different, courses can provide useful input to course development, evaluation and review. They can also be invited to meet with applicants and new students to share their experiences and manage expectations. 

Conflicts of interest: Conflicts may arise during engagement or tenure, where providers reasonably believe the interests of one party affect the motivations or impartiality of another. This might include close personal or professional relationships with staff, students, or previous experts involved in their area of responsibility, an excessive influence due to their standing in other roles, or because their inclusion in a team of experts creates an unbalanced view. A conflict of interest might build up over time because of an excessive engagement period or re-engagement by the same provider.

Reciprocal arrangements: These may arise during the engagement or tenure of an external expert, if a reasonable person would interpret one service in exchange for another. For example, if one provider engages an expert from another provider and then provides an expert to the same or closely-related provision in return.

Expectations and Practices

The Quality Code requires providers to seek external, impartial and independent academic and/or professional expertise ensuring that the standards and quality of a providers’ courses cohere with the relevant national qualifications framework, Subject Benchmark Statements, Characteristics Statements and any relevant professional or other requirements. Providers can also use external expertise to identify good practice in learning, teaching and assessment, areas for enhancement and to inform the continuous improvement of their courses.

Expectations for Standards

The academic standards of courses meet the requirements of the relevant national qualifications framework. External experts, including external advisers and external examiners, contribute to course design and approval, course review, setting and maintaining academic standards and alignment with the relevant national qualifications framework, Characteristics Statements and their alignment with Subject Benchmark Statements, and any other requirements, such as those from PSRBs or funding bodies.

The value of qualifications awarded to students at the point of qualification and over time is in line with sector-recognised standards. External examiners comment on the consistent application of the provider’s standards and confirm their alignment with UK-recognised standards in determining awards.

Core Practices:

• The provider ensures that the threshold standards for its qualifications are consistent with the relevant national qualifications frameworks. In practice, this means that external experts contribute to course design, delivery and review and pay due attention to the requirements of the relevant national qualifications frameworks, Characteristics Statements and Subject Benchmark Statements. External examiners comment on the maintenance and application of academic standards through internal marking practices.

• The provider ensures that students who are awarded qualifications have the opportunity to achieve standards beyond the threshold level that are reasonably comparable with those achieved in other UK providers. In practice, this means that external examiners, and other external experts, comment on whether students have the opportunity to achieve standards beyond the threshold level.

• Where a provider works in partnership with other organisations, it has in place effective arrangements to ensure that the standards of its awards are credible and secure irrespective of where or how courses are delivered or who delivers them. In practice, this means that the external examiner role for provision in partnership with other organisations is consistent with the degree-awarding body’s approved practices and, where appropriate, consideration is given to comparison of cohorts across location and provider.

• The provider uses external expertise, assessment and classification processes that are reliable, fair and transparent. In practice, this means that providers ensure that appropriate criteria are applied in the engagement of external experts, paying due attention to the relevant expertise of each and the avoidance of conflicts of interest. External examiners comment on the setting, maintenance and application of academic standards through rigorous assessment processes, to the best of their professional knowledge.

​​Common Practices:

• The provider reviews its core practices for standards regularly and uses the outcomes to drive improvement and enhancement. In practice, this means that external experts are used to contribute to reviews within a provider and to comment on areas of good practice, innovation and enhancement.​

Expectation for Quality

Courses are well-designed, provide a high-quality academic experience for all students and enable a student’s achievement to be reliably assessed. External experts, including relevant PSRBs, employers and other external stakeholders, contribute to course design and review. External examiners play an important role in identifying good practice and making recommendations for enhancement of assessment policies and procedures.

Key Practices:

• The provider designs and/or delivers high-quality courses. In practice, this means that external experts such as advisers and, where relevant, PSRB and employer requirements, inform course design and approval, and course review. Course design and review involves consideration of all elements contributing to the learning journey including staff and resources to deliver a high-quality academic experience.

• Where a provider works in partnership with other organisations, it has in place effective arrangements to ensure that the academic experience is high-quality irrespective of where or how courses are delivered or who delivers them. In practice, this means that at course design, approval and review, and as part of ongoing monitoring, external expertise forms part of the evidence by which providers assure the quality of the student learning experience when working in partnership with other organisations.​

Common Practice:

• The provider’s approach to managing quality takes account of external expertise. In practice, this means that at course design, approval and review, and as part of ongoing monitoring, external expertise forms part of the evidence by which providers manage the quality of the student academic experience. The provider ensures external advisers are engaged to advise on new and revised aspects of provision which may have a substantial impact on the quality of student learning opportunities. This includes new policies, or major changes to these, for example, on student support or access to learning resources.

Guiding principles

The guiding principles given here are not mandatory for any provider. They are a concise expression of the fundamental practices of the higher education sector, based on the experience of a wide range of providers. They are intended as a framework for providers to consider when establishing new or looking at existing higher education provision. They are not exhaustive and there will be other ways for providers to meet their requirements.

1. Providers use one or more external experts as advisers to provide impartial and independent scrutiny on the approval and review of all provision that leads to the award of credit or a qualification. Providers should make use of a range of external experts appropriate to the provision that is being developed or that is under review. These advisers may include PSRBs, employers, subject experts, past students, students and academic staff from other courses, subject librarians, care users, and so on. To ensure independence of decision-making, those involved with the submission of a proposal should not be the same as those who approve it.

2. Degree-awarding bodies engage independent external examiners to comment impartially and informatively on academic standards, student achievement and assessment processes for all provision that leads to the award of credit or a qualification. External examiners need to be experts on the subject matter and the intended mode(s) of delivery and they will be familiar with quality and standards and quality assurance in a higher education context. Where this cannot be achieved by one external examiner, or the workload is extensive, additional engagements may need to be made, for example, where a programme is accredited by a professional body there may be a requirement for one external examiner with academic expertise and another from professional practice.

3. Degree-awarding bodies have processes for the nomination, approval and engagement of external examiners and other independent external experts. Degree-awarding bodies provide clear guidance and procedures that set out the nomination process for the external examiners and other external advisers that need to be engaged to provide an appropriate range of expertise to inform the design and review of all of its provision. The approval and engagement processes are also clear and transparent, sufficiently robust and avoid conflicts of interest including reciprocal arrangements.

4. Providers ensure that the roles of those providing external expertise are clear to students, staff and other stakeholders. All providers will provide clear and transparent information on the roles of external experts (examiners and advisers) involved in the assurance of standards, maintenance and enhancement of the quality of the student learning experience. This information will be accessible to students, staff and other stakeholders.

5. Providers ensure that external experts are given sufficient and timely evidence and training to enable them to carry out their responsibilities. External examiners and external advisers will need to be supported by the provider to fully understand and appropriately fulfill the role that they are asked to undertake. This may include a range of training and guidance and may vary depending on any previous experience in the role. External experts will need access to a range of evidence to enable them to fulfill their role; providers should be clear on what evidence will be provided and ensure that it is made available in a timely manner in line with the requirements of the experts’ responsibilities.

6. Providers have effective mechanisms in place to provide a response to input from external examiners and external advisers. External examiners and external advisers offer an important service to providers to ensure that all provision can meet a range of requirements including the achievement of quality standards and quality assurance, alignment with external frameworks, standards and benchmarks and a range of other stakeholder needs. Providers will have effective measures in place to ensure that input from external experts is considered, and where appropriate is actioned, a timely and reasoned response is made to the experts on actions taken or not taken as a consequence.​

Practical advice

This section provides practical, contextualised advice to providers on external expertise. Where relevant, we have indicated which guiding principles the advice will help you achieve. Please bear in mind that this guidance is illustrative, and intended to inform the approaches you consider and ultimately implement.

In line with the Core practice, ‘The provider actively engages students, individually and collectively, in the quality of their educational experience, providers can include student representation within their practices and procedures related to partnerships. Appropriate training and support will need to be given to enable students to fully engage with the activities. 

This practical advice is aligned to the three key stages identified in Figure 1, which shows a course life cycle and where and how external expertise can be used in course design, quality and standards, and monitoring and review.