Collaborative Academic Advisers

If the collaborative arrangement is that of Validation, a Collaborative Academic Adviser from the relevant School must be allocated to each collaborative programme (or group of). An Adviser is appointed by and reports to the relevant Head of School and the Vice-President (Teaching, Learning and Students). S/he should be available to deal with queries and advise on the development of programmes and to assist the University in ensuring the maintenance of quality and standards at the validated partner. A Collaborative Academic Adviser should have experience of operating within the University’s framework for academic quality, with experience of programme administration and/or external examining/quality assurance.

It is expected that an experienced member of staff within the school will perform this role and be appointed by the Head of School. It is also expected that they will be able to operate as a subject specialist. The Head of School, in liaison with the appropriate Heads of Subject Area and Teaching and Learning Delivery (TLD), are responsible for ensuring that the functions of a Collaborative Academic Adviser are undertaken in an appropriate and timely manner. The Collaborative Academic Adviser should have responsibility for the following;

To play a key role in helping the University to manage the standards and quality of its collaborative programmes.
To provide the initial academic advice on content of programme proposals, and then continuing advice on programme development.
To advise on and check the operation of assessment and examination practices/ procedures and monitor the operation of the examinations procedure on an annual basis.
To advise on comparability with other similar programmes in the University and offer advice on the QAA Academic Infrastructure.
To advise on the suitability of staff in the partner organisation to teach on the collaborative programme.
To visit the partner at least annually and undertake activities as specified in the visit agendas, which feed into the annual report and the school committee structure.
To annually review the publicity material and note in the annual report that this has been deemed suitable for publication.
To receive minutes of any partner quality committee or equivalent where reviews/approvals/ amendments are to be considered and act as a scrutineer to the documentation for reporting to the relevant School and Faculty committee.

Collaborative Academic Advisers will be asked to provide an annual report which will be received by the University’s Teaching and Learning Delivery (TLD) team on behalf of the Vice-President (Teaching, Learning and Students). The reports will be reviewed by TLD in a similar manner to External Examiner Reports and will inform an executive summary for the Annual Review of Teaching and Learning. The reports will also be copied to the relevant School, Faculty and collaborative partner so that they can form part of the continuous monitoring process.

A Collaborative Academic Adviser should make a visit to the collaborative partner at least once per year and ideally should also attend examination boards where necessary and possible. During visits, and where appropriate, the Adviser should complete areas of review and moderation required by the University to ensure standards of the provision. It is recognised that it may not be feasible for Collaborative Academic Advisers to visit overseas collaborative partners more than once per year.

Collaborative Academic Adviser visits

Advisers are normally required to visit a partner twice in an academic year but it is appreciated that some partners (because of distance) may only receive one visit per year.

The first visit should take place during the first semester, the second at the end of the academic year to coincide with examination boards. It is the responsibility of the School to ensure University representation at the board and if the Adviser is unable to attend, then an alternative representative must be provided from the School.

The first semester visit must include the following activities:- programme development and review of action plans and activities as a result of continuous monitoring or institutional/periodic review (if applicable). There must be a general review of resources during this visit as well as meetings with staff and students. This should also be seen as an opportunity for staff development events to take place should they be needed.

Attendees (whether that be the Collaborative Academic Adviser or an alternative representative) at the examination board must ensure that the University’s regulations are complied with, that there is an external examiner present and that all students are treated fairly and equitably. During this visit they must also take the opportunity to review programme information to students for the following academic year, discuss the approval of new teaching staff, annual monitoring arrangements and the approval of publicity material for the following year.

Agenda (visit 1)

1. Programme Development.
2. Review of Action Plans:

Continuous monitoring.
Periodic Review (where applicable)
Institutional Review (where applicable)

3. Review of Resources.
4. Staff Development Events (as applicable).
5. Meeting with Staff.
6. Meeting with Students.
7. Any other Business.

Agenda (visit 2)

1. Attendance at Examination Board.
2. Approval of new Teaching staff.
3. Approval of student information for next academic year.
4. Approval of publicity material for next academic year.
5. Preparation for continuous monitoring.
6. Consideration of results.
7. Programme Development.
8. Any other Business.