Introduction
This guide is aimed at student representatives and the staff who support them. It is intended to help you to improve the quality of teaching and learning at your college by explaining how you can take part in an external review of higher education. This review process is called Integrated quality and enhancement review (IQER).
Almost all further education colleges in England that offer higher education courses will participate in IQER over the next few years. The ultimate aim of IQER is to help each college improve the service it offers to students, so it is important that students' views are considered.
How does IQER work?
IQER has two roles: to make sure that academic standards at your college are appropriate; and to help your college improve the learning opportunities available to students.
Both roles are based on peer review. This means that a team of people who work for other colleges and universities will visit your college to discuss how the college meets your needs. We call this team of peers, reviewers.
At the end of the review, the reviewers will write a report about your college. This report might include advice to the college on how to spread good practice or improve things.
How do you get involved?
One of the aims of IQER is to support colleges in reviewing and improving the management of their higher education provision for the benefit of students. The reviewers need to identify students' views on their experiences as learners, and to draw on these views in making conclusions about the college's provision.
To do this, the reviewers will meet students during the visit in scheduled meetings. They will also invite students to produce a written submission before the visit, to make sure that students' views are taken into account when the visit is arranged and that the team of reviewers have a clear understanding of how students view their learning experience. For instance, the review teams will use the student submission to help them decide who to meet and what sort of questions to ask.
Student representatives can help reviewers understand the views of students at your college in several ways:
- by producing or contributing to a student submission for the reviewers to read before visiting your college
- by coming along to a preparatory meeting between your college and the person coordinating the review
- by talking to the reviewers when they visit the college.
Developing a written submission
Student submissions may take a variety of different forms. They might be a summary of responses to recent student questionnaires or a written report from a student focus group. Irrespective of its form, the submission should reflect the views of students about their experiences as learners.
Colleges may help students to prepare a submission, for example they might share information with them or offer support to gather student views, and facilitate focus groups.
Perhaps the most important thing to say about the student submission is that it should, as far as possible, reflect the views of the majority of higher education students rather than just a minority. This is why we are asking student representatives to produce the submission.
We appreciate this might be difficult, but as a student representative you will already know about the sorts of issues that are regularly raised with you by the students you represent. You may also find that you already have lots of useful information to help you prepare a response that represents the views of the majority of students, for example, student survey results, college survey results or records of meetings you have had with other students and college staff. You could consider running your own survey of students' views, or alternatively, you might meet with your fellow student representatives to identify the important issues. Whatever you decide to include, you must explain how you compiled the submission, who wrote it, and how far it has been shared and agreed with the higher education student body as a whole. For example, if you have only included the views of full-time undergraduate students, you need to make this clear.
You should also make sure that the submission does not include personal grievances or single out individual members of staff.
At the preparatory meeting, the review coordinator from QAA will be more than happy to talk to you about the student submission and discuss different ways you can get your views across. If you would like to discuss your ideas or want some more guidance then make sure you attend this meeting.
What sort of things should you cover?
The areas you cover in your student submission will, of course, depend to a large extent on the views of your fellow students. It will be very helpful to the reviewers if you also consider the areas which they are being asked to discuss with your college. These include:
- the information the college publishes about itself and whether it is accurate and complete
- the information the college gives you about its expectations of your academic performance (this might be in your student handbook)
- your experience as a learner, including the quality of academic and personal support
- the feedback you get from your tutor
- the quality of the learning resources and facilities available to you
- the opportunities you have to take part in the management of higher education programmes within the college (this might include opportunities for committee representation at college and programme level, and other means of providing feedback to staff).
Do not worry if you do not have the information to cover all these points, anything you tell the reviewers about these areas is useful.
What you can do |
How you can do it |
What you may need to do it |
|---|---|---|
| Produce or contribute to a student submission for the reviewers to read before they visit your college. | Decide on whose views the student submission will represent. Decide on how you will represent the views. You might:
|
Access to student survey results from your college. Access to the timetables of other higher education programmes, particularly those who study on part-time courses, so that you can liaise with a full range of higher education students. |
| Come along to a preparatory meeting between your college and the person coordinating the review. | Find out which member of staff is managing the IQER review in the college. Contact them and let them know that you would like to attend the preliminary meeting. | Information about which member of staff is managing the IQER review at the college. |
| Talk to the reviewers when they visit. | Find out which member of staff is managing the IQER review in the college. Contact them and let them know that you would like to attend student meetings scheduled during the review visits. | Information about which member of staff is managing the IQER review at the college. |
How much detail should you include?
Not too much. Remember that the reviewers will have been given a great deal of information to read about your college both from publicly available documents and by the college. The reviewers are interested in the information contained in the student submission; therefore a short but focused written submission is better than a long and rambling document. Aim for a maximum of three pages.
You might find it useful, when you start writing the student submission, to think about the key messages that you want to give the reviewers and then use the information you have to provide evidence to support those messages. So, for example, if you want to comment on how well the student views are listened to, you might wish to describe how student representatives are included in committees and discussions, but then go on to illustrate your point with a particular event or project where student views were sought, or could have been sought, but were not. In this way the reviewers will be able to understand how students are involved in processes within your college.
You should always make reference to the evidence upon which the views expressed in the submission are based (for example, feedback from student representatives). Giving evidence of your claims, such as reference to minutes of meetings, will help the reviewers when they are making their judgements and writing their final report.
Which students' views should be represented in the submission?
IQER generally looks at higher education across the college as a whole, so the opinions of all higher education student groups will be relevant, including, but not exclusively, students who are full-time, students who are part-time, mature students, those on franchised courses, undergraduate and postgraduate students, overseas students, students with disabilities and minority groups. Your college will be able to provide you with information on the scope of IQER.
You may find that it is not possible to reflect the views of some student groups and the review team will understand this, as long as you make it clear in your submission whose views are being represented and why others are not.
Can your written submission be confidential?
Yes it can, but we strongly encourage you to share your submission with the college. We also encourage the college to share the submission that they make about themselves (called the self-evaluation) with you. This openness is desirable because it enables the reviewers to discuss both documents freely with staff and students during the reviews, and to check the accuracy of their contents.
However, you may request that your written submission is kept confidential to the review team. We will respect this wish, although the usefulness of your submission will then be restricted by the fact that its contents are unknown to the college's staff, and the reviewers will not be able to discuss it with them nor comment upon its content in the report.
If you want the student submission to be confidential, this must be stated clearly on the front of the document.
What the student submission might cover |
Where you might get the information |
Whose views might be represented |
|---|---|---|
The information the college publishes about itself and whether it is accurate and complete The information the college gives you about its expectations of your academic performance Your experience as a learner, including the quality of academic and personal support The feedback you get from your tutor The quality of the learning resources and facilities available to you The opportunities you have to take part in the management of higher education programmes within the college |
Student surveys College prospectus College website Student handbook Assignment briefs Assignment feedback records Tutorial records Arrangements for accessing your tutor Library stock Library opening hours Computing equipment Arrangements for accessing computing resources Specialist resources Arrangements for accessing specialist resources Records of your involvement in formal college higher education meetings (college and programme meetings about higher education) Minutes and records of meetings between student representatives and college staff National Student Survey results |
Full-time higher education students Part-time higher education students |
How long will it take to write?
This depends on how much you want to tell the reviewers. However, you should start the submission at least two months before the preparatory meeting so that it does not become a bit of a rush as the deadline approaches. This will also help if the preparation time overlaps with changes in student representatives, which are bound to happen in some cases.
What happens to the submission once it has been written?
The student submission should be sent to QAA four weeks before the visit. The final deadline will be agreed at the preparatory visit. The written submission will be read and considered by the reviewers.
Is what we say going to make a difference?
Yes. The reviewers will consider all information given in the student submission and in meetings. The submission informs the types of questions the team asks throughout the visit but may not directly inform the final judgements that the team makes.
The reviewers have to interpret all of the information they are given, including the information given in the student submission and by students in meetings. This may lead the reviewers to find out something good about how the college works, or to something that students are concerned about. For example, if students feel that their opinions are not valued by the college or, on the other hand, if they think the college really listens to them, this is likely to become apparent through talking to the students and through reading the written submission.
What happens if the student written submission conflicts with the institution's self-evaluation?
The reviewers use both documents to inform its lines of enquiry during the visit. Conflicting information might indicate an area for further discussion with the college.
Where can you go for help?
QAA is more than happy to provide any help and advice you should need. Call us on 01452 557029; ask to speak to the IQER method coordinator or the duty officer who will be able to give you some tips and advice on ways of preparing the student submission, the process of IQER and how you can get your views across.
Alternatively, go to the Quality Takes Time section on the NUS website: www.officeronline.co.uk/library/qtt/270949.aspx
ISBN 978 1 84482 800 5
Top