Circular letter CL14/04

Number	CL 14/04
Subject	Three revised sections of the Code of practice for the assurance of academic quality and standards in higher education
Publication date	19 November 2004
Recipients	Heads of HEIs and Heads of quality
Of interest to	Individuals with institutional responsibilities for quality assurance

Dear colleague

As you may know, the Agency has started its task of reviewing and revising the various sections of the Code of practice for the assurance of academic quality and standards in higher education (the Code ). I am now pleased to enclose copies of the first three sections to be revised:

The revision process for these three sections of the Code has been led by working groups whose membership has included representatives from institutions and other interested organisations. The consultation process has also been supported by some 'round table' events, all of which were well attended by colleagues from institutions.

I should like to take this opportunity to thank you for the constructive and positive responses we received from institutions, both in writing and at the round table meetings. We believe that your comments and suggestions have resulted in significant improvements to the revised documents.

All three sections of the Code enclosed are intended to meet the recommendations of the Better Regulation Task Force*. To do this we have removed the 'guidance' material, and have restructured the documents into a series of precepts and accompanying explanations. Key matters of principle are expressed in the precepts, with the explanations showing why the precepts are important.

The three revised sections should now be regarded as the currently valid versions, although they will not be used by the Agency as reference points for audit and review purposes until September/October 2005. In the meantime, institutions will continue to be asked about their engagement with relevant matters as set out in the respective first editions. It is intended that the Code will continue to be applicable on a UK-wide basis (although there are some details which have specific national relevance).

We hope that our new approach to the format of the Code , using precepts and explanations, will further reinforce the message that the Agency does not see it as a document to be complied with unquestioningly. The Code is a reference source for advice and good practice to support institutions in the management of their quality assurance processes and maintenance of their academic standards.

The revised Section 1 of the Code (Postgraduate research programmes) has a slightly different emphasis to the other sections. The outputs of the Agency's audit and review processes in relation to the management of postgraduate research programmes, together with statistical data provided by the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) will, from 2006, be used by other agencies, in particular the UK HE funding councils, for monitoring purposes. At the request of HEFCE, a special review of postgraduate research programmes will take place during 2005-06 in England and Wales. We will be consulting institutions early in 2005 on the method to be used in this review.

You may be interested to learn that, in response to recent initiatives that affect the sector, we will be starting during this academic year on the revision of the section of the Code that deals with recruitment and admissions (Section 10).

I hope that you will find the revised documents useful in your own institution.

With best wishes

Yours sincerely

Peter Williams

Chief Executive

* Higher Education: Easing the Burden , July 2002, Recommendation 4 (part 4).