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Quality assurance framework

The quality assurance framework (QAF) is designed to secure the quality of teaching and the standard of awards in higher education institutions (HEIs). It consists of:

• institutional audit (all HEIs will receive one audit during a six-year cycle)
• collaborative provision audit, for large and complex collaborative provision
• publication of teaching quality information (TQI) through the Unistats web-site - this includes the National Student Survey (NSS) and the Destinations of Leavers from Higher Education survey.

Audits are carried out by the Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) on HEFCE's behalf. These started in 2002-03 with a three-year 'transitional' cycle and are currently in a six-year cycle up to the end of 2010-11.

After the transitional cycle was completed, a group of sector representatives, chaired by Dame Sandra Burslem, reviewed the QAF to ensure that it was fit for purpose. Reports from the three phases of the review are available:

• Phase one (institutional audit)
• Phase two (TQI)
• Phase three (collaborative provision audit)

The QAF includes provision delivered in further education colleges (FECs) which is indirectly funded via an HEI. The quality assurance method for FECs, Integrated Quality and Enhancement Review, looks at how an FEC manages its entire portfolio of higher education, both directly and indirectly funded. The QAA also carry out this work, which is intended to be as similar as possible to institutional audit in HEIs to allow for comparable outcomes. The two methods are not exactly the same for a number of reasons, including that HEFCE does not have a 'whole institution remit' for FECs as it does for HEIs.

Future of quality assurance

As part of our continued work in the area of assuring quality we are working with several stakeholder organisations to discuss the future of quality assurance.

Addressing unsatisfactory quality

We have published a policy for engaging with institutions that demonstrate unsatisfactory quality in learning and teaching (as established by the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education's (QAA's) audit or review processes). The policy sets out steps that will be taken where a HEI or FEC has failed to address issues of unsatisfactory quality under the existing processes.

• Policy for addressing unsatisfactory quality in institutions (HEFCE 2009/31)

We have formally assessed the impact of this policy on the HE sector in terms of regulatory burden, equality and diversity, and sustainable development.

Sector impact assessment of addressing unsatisfactory teaching quality in HEFCE-funded institutions

[ Adobe PDF 25K | MS Word 109K ]

Last updated 1 December 2009