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As many colleagues will be aware, the future of subject-based academic review has been under discussion at national level during the last 2 or 3 months. Following these discussions, a jointly prepared consultation paper (01/45) has recently been published by HEFCE, UUK, SCOP and the QAA. Please note that this paper relates only to England. It can be downloaded from: http://www.hefce.ac.uk/Pubs/hefce/2001/01_45.htm In essence, the proposals in the paper are to develop further the process of institutional level review in such a way that there would in future not be a separate review programme at the subject level. However, the details in the paper are quite complex and there are circumstances in which reviews of individual departments or programmes could be conducted by subject specialists. If you need further information you are strongly advised therefore to read the original document. The document is being sent for consultation to all Higher Education institutions and HEFCE funded further education colleges and to a wide range of other interested parties in England. It is also being distributed for information to all Higher Education Institutions in Scotland, Wales and N. Ireland where separate discussions about future arrangements are in train. It is apparently still the intention to try to retain a UK wide framework as far as possible but at this stage it is by no means certain that this will be achieved. The period of consultation closes on Friday 26th October 2001. The LTSN-GEES Subject Centre will try to keep its three discipline-based communities up to date with any further developments in the quality field. The LTSN Subject Centre for Geography, Earth & Environmental Sciences University of Plymouth Room 509, The Moneycentre Drake Circus Plymouth PL4 8AA Tel. 01752 - 233531 Fax. 01752 - 233534 www.gees.ac.uk