Summary of key Quality Assurance procedures

The reporting structure is as follows:

• Student-Staff Consultative Committee feeds in to
• Programme Committee, which reports to
• School Academic Board, which reports to
• Senate

For collaborative programmes the Programme Committee reports to the Joint Board of Studies which feeds in to the School Academic Board.

Note that whilst the School Academic Board reports directly to Senate, the following items of business are referred via the Learning and Teaching Panel and Student Experience Committee: External Examiners; extensions to review period.

1. The timelines for developing and approving a new programme are set out in detail in the Programme development, monitoring and review section.

To allow for marketing and inclusion in the prospectus, new programmes should have completed Part 3 approval through the School Academic Board as follows:

• Undergraduate programmes - 22 months before the start of the academic year.
• Postgraduate programmes - 18 months before the start of the academic year.

It may be possible to develop new collaborative programmes more quickly but it is best to allow a full year for all the stages of planning, approval and validation.

2.  A major change to a programme should be proposed 12 months before it is due to take effect. Similarly, programme teams should start the process of reviewing a programme 12 months before the next intake is due.

3. External examiners are normally appointed for 4 years and 3 months, eg from September 2022 to December 2026. This allows for a period of overlap between examiners. The process for nominating an examiner is as follows:

• six months prior to starting post - programme committee approves and passes to School Academic Board.
• five months prior - School Academic Board recommends nomination to Learning and Teaching Panel.
• four months prior - Learning and Teaching Panel considers nomination and recommends appointment on behalf of Student Experience Committee / Senate.
• three months prior - contract sent to Examiner by HR/GQE. Programme Leader sends programme specific information.

4.  Annual programme monitoring

• Programme team reflect on previous academic year in June.
• Part 1 submitted by 30 June.
• Additional data received over summer and after retrieval boards. Statistical information sent to programme leaders in October.
• Draft of final report agreed by programme committee (may be by correspondence).
• Final report submitted 31 October.
• Composite School reports drafted in January.
• Composite School report agreed by School Academic Board in February.

Collaborative programmes should allow time for consultation with the Collaborative Academic Lead before submitting Part 1 or Part 2 reports. Individual deadlines may be negotiated to fit with non-standard academic calendars.

The following items of programme business should be considered first by the programme committee (and, for collaborative programmes, the Joint Board of Studies). The Programme Leader should then submit the item for approval as below:

• Withdrawal of programme – submit to School Academic Board, then Senate.
• Extension of review period – submit to School Academic Board, then Learning and Teaching Panel and Student Experience Committee (on behalf of Senate).
• Extension to External Examiner appointment/reallocation of duties – submit to School Academic Board, then Learning and Teaching Panel and Student Experience Committee (on behalf of Senate).
• Change of Programme Title – submit to School Academic Board, then Learning and Teaching Panel and Student Experience Committee (on behalf of Senate).

• Change to module/withdrawal of module/addition of new module – submit to School Academic Board only. (See guidance on minor and major changes.)
• Change to programme specific regulation – submit to School Academic Board only.

Forms for programme changes and external examiner appointments may be found on the Quality website.

Documents relating to validation and review can be found in the Validation and Review section.