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Academic Quality Management

Academic quality assurance and enhancement arrangements in institutions usually contain the following features:

A quality policy or framework, which sets out guidelines, regulations and responsibilities for managing quality and safeguarding academic standards. This policy will be published and available to all staff, governors and students.
A charter or equivalent that sets out the expectations and responsibilities of students and the standards of care and service that they can expect from the institution and its staff.
A cycle of validations and accreditation for new programmes of study and reviews of existing programmes.
Systems for recruiting, training and reviewing staff and their performance.
Systems and procedures for assessing and examining student attainment, including the recruitment of external examiners.
Systems for seeking, reviewing and acting upon feedback from students and other stakeholders.
Performance targets and indicators in key areas (eg student recruitment, retention and attainment).
A programme to support quality improvement and development, building on key indicators and regular self-assessment.
A system for monitoring success (in relation to quality and standards), for undertaking systematic reviews and for resolving problems.

External Examiners

Each institution appoints external examiners who report to the head of the institution. External examiners are independent academic experts, drawn from other institutions, or from areas of relevant professional practice. Their main role is to assure the standards of awards.

A report arising from a review of the external examining system has been published by Universities UK.

Institutions are also required to adopt as part of their internal arrangements various processes required by the Quality Assurance Agency and other external agencies.

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