Quality at Queen Margaret University

Quality Enhancement

This page provides links to key documents and internal and external websites related to quality enhancement of the student experience. Whilst quality assurance and quality enhancement are very closely linked, and it is therefore difficult to separate one from the other, the following reference points have a particularly strong focus on deliberate steps taken to improve current provision, building on existing good practice.

Internal website links

Centre for Academic Practice
This links to the website for the Centre for Academic Practice (CAP), which gives an overview of the work of the Centre and details events, workshops and projects.

Good Practice at QMU
The Good Practice website presents thematically grouped short case studies based on learning and teaching practice at QMU. Contact details for contributors are included, and staff who are interested in the examples presented are encouraged to liaise directly with the person named at the top of each submission.

Links to internal documents

The Strategy for Quality Enhancement of Learning, Teaching and Assessment (MSWord)
This links to the updated QELTA Strategy and implementation plan. A programme of activities for dissemination and engagement is on-going. For further information, please contact dmartin1@qmu.ac.uk

Peer observation policy and forms (MSWord)
The policy for peer observation at QMU and related forms. Peer observation is encouraged at QMU as a constructive and enabling staff development strategy. The attached forms can be used to record and learn from experiences. Further information on peer observation is available from the Centre for Academic Practice

External website links

Enhancement Themes
The Scottish Enhancement Themes provide opportunity, through a programme of national events, for the sector to reflect on current and future practice in Higher Education. Outputs from the Themes can be used by staff to inform their approach to learning and teaching, as well as student support. QMU's Student Experience Committee regularly reviews the involvement of staff and students in the Enhancement Themes and other external initiatives to share learning and maximise the impact of the Themes. The current Enhancement Theme, Developing and Enhancing the Curriculum, was launched earlier in 2011, and an institutional team will be formed in due course to co-ordinate activities at QMU.

SPARQS
The SPARQS development service supports institutions with student engagement in quality assurance and enhancement. Staff from the Quality Enhancement Unit and Students' Union at QMU work closely with SPARQS Development Advisers to monitor and improve student representation in all quality related activities.

Higher Education Academy
The Higher Education Academy (HEA) works with individual academic staff, discipline groups and senior managers in institutions across the UK to identify and share effective teaching practice in order to provide the best possible learning experience for all students. The Academy offers a series of resources to institutions. Staff also have the opportunity to participate in conferences and other sector wide events. Within Scotland the Academy tailors its activities to fit with the distinctive quality enhancement led culture.