Governing bodies should know that sound arrangements are in place to assure the quality and standards of the institution’s work. In England, the HEFCE Financial Memorandum with institutions now includes the provision that the governing body should 'ensure that there is an effective framework - overseen buy the academic board or equivalent - to manage the quality of learning and teaching and to maintain academic standards.'
This has to be done in partnership with the senate or academic board, which will generally have a major role in academic governance and be responsible for academic quality assurance processes. The governing body should expect:
Governors will also want to ensure that the quality implications associated with reputational risk are being effectively managed.
Governors may take a particular interest in annual targets for student recruitment, retention and attainment and may expect to monitor the progress of an institution in meeting such targets. They will also wish to ensure that action is being taken to address any areas of poor institutional performance.
See Chapter 6 of Getting to Grips with Research and Knowledge Transfer for more on the governing body's responsibilities for research and knowledge transfer.