Circular letter CL07/06

Number	CL07/06
Subject	Nomination of institutional auditors and audit secretaries for institutional audit in England and Northern Ireland
Publication date	Thursday 7 September 2006
Recipients	Heads of higher education institutions in Scotland
Of interest to	Anyone in Scotland with an interest in becoming a reviewer
Further information	Nicola Channon 01452 557104, n.channon@qaa.ac.uk
Response date	Friday 13 October 2006
Respond to	Val Menzies 01452 557034, v.menzies@qaa.ac.uk
Attachments	Details of the posts, including the method of nomination

Dear Colleague

Recruitment of institutional auditors and audit secretaries for England and Northern Ireland

As you know, QAA will be starting the new cycle of institutional audit in England and Northern Ireland early next year. The revised Handbookfor institutional audit is available on our website. We now need to recruit those people who will be conducting the audit with us, as auditors and audit secretaries. I am writing to you to ask for your assistance in nominating suitable people for these roles.

The group we hope to form will be made up in part from our existing, experienced auditors and audit secretaries, who will be asked separately for an expression of interest in working with us in the new process, and in part from those selected from the nominations from heads of institutions. We wish to appoint, in the main, senior serving members of institutions’ staff, including those with appropriate experience from teaching, student support, management, administration or other posts. All prospective auditor and audit secretaries will be selected in the light of the relevant person specification.

Several respondents to the consultation on the draft Handbook for institutional audit commented on the importance of the calibre of those appointed as auditors and audit secretaries to the success of the institutional audit process. This was a point also strongly made in the 2005 report of the Quality Assurance Framework Review Group. We fully agree that the audit process is critically dependent on the availability of good auditors and audit secretaries, and ask institutions to support institutional audit by nominating for these appointments high calibre colleagues with appropriate experience and expertise.

Auditors and audit secretaries will initially be appointed for a period of two years, and may be invited to continue for a further period. During the period of appointment, we will need auditors and audit secretaries to be available to participate in up to three audits. We cannot guarantee to offer a particular number of audits during a two-year appointment, but no auditor or audit secretary will be expected to undertake more than two activities in any year.

We will select people whose characteristics indicate that they will be able to fulfil their responsibilities effectively. All applications will be assessed against the relevant selection criteria. First and foremost nominees should have a demonstrable commitment to the principles of quality assurance within higher education. It is our aim to achieve a balance which takes account of discipline base, as well as geography and other factors.

Details of the posts, including the method of nomination, are attached and are also available on the website www.qaa.ac.uk/aboutus/appointments

It would be very helpful if nominations could be with us by Friday 13 October 2006. Any queries you may have should be directed in the first instance to Nicola Channon (01452 557104, n.channon@qaa.ac.uk ).

Yours sincerely

Peter Williams

Chief Executive