Here are some comments that I received last night (someone works
unusual hours!!) from the QAA regarding Charles' "assertions" e-mail
of last week. They were sent to me in a Word document, but are
given here in plain text, with URLs added for convenience. Any
thoughts/comments?
Best wishes,
Adrian
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QUALITY ASSURANCE AGENCY
FOR HIGHER EDUCATION
Comments on eMail from Professor Oppenheim
General points
1. There is nothing new in reviewers seeing student work. Any
assessment that did not take account of actual student work would
lack credibility. In general, institutions regard the provision of
student work as an opportunity to provide evidence of good student
achievement.
2. Reviewers do not make judgements about individual students.
In particular, they do not second guess the judgements of external
examiners. Reviewers will not normally expect to see work that is
currently under consideration by external examiners. For a note on
the respective roles of the Agency's reviewers, and external
examiners, see Appendix 3 to Section 4 (External Examining) of the
Agency's Code of Practice.
[http://www.qaa.ac.uk/COPee/appendix3.htm]
3. The reasons why reviewers need to see student work, and the
evaluation they will make as a result of seeing it, are set out in
the Handbook for Academic Review published by the Agency. See, in
particular, Annex H, paragraphs 4 and 5.
[http://www.qaa.ac.uk/AcRevHbook/annexh.htm]
4. In addition to the specific matters mentioned in Annex H of
the Handbook, sight of student work enables reviewers to establish
such things as the quality of feedback to students.
5. In the view of the Agency, review of student work is a part
of the overall academic process, in the same way that consideration
of that work by external examiners, or by professional body
assessors, is a part of that process. However, any institution that
felt it needed any general consent from students, could obtain this
through an appropriate provision in the general regulations to which
students assent on registering.
Specific Points
6. Past examination scripts, etc, will normally be the property
of the institution. Institutions will themselves use these documents
for their own quality assurance purposes for example to check year
on year consistency in marking. There is nothing improper in using
them for external quality assurance purposes.
7. Current student work can only be used with the consent of the
student, for the simple reason that it will normally be in the
possession of the student.
8. The Agency is happy to use anonymised documents.
9. The review process does not involve reviewers sitting in on one
to one feedback sessions between a member of staff and a student.
There is provision for observation of teaching (Handbook, Annex I)
and meetings with students (Handbook, Annex J).
[http://www.qaa.ac.uk/AcRevHbook/annexi.htm]
[http://www.qaa.ac.uk/AcRevHbook/annexj.htm
10. The review process does not result in comments being made on
named individuals. All review reports are published, and as such,
available to anyone interested in them.
16.7.00
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Adrian Tribe <[log in to unmask]>
Web Editor, Birkbeck College, University of London
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