College celebrates high ratings for higher education
7th June 2018 6:28pm - Return to press releases
East Riding College is celebrating after the Quality Assurance Agency (QAA), the body responsible for assuring the quality of higher education provision, gave the College the highest level of confidence it can bestow upon a provider.
The quality visit provides an expert, independent judgement on the quality of the College’s degree level provision.
Like Ofsted for schools and further education, a QAA visit ensures that student interest is protected and that the College has effective arrangements to maintain academic standards and ensure the quality of the student academic experience.
The reviewers’ report found that they had “confidence that the academic standards are reliable, meet UK requirements, and are reasonably comparable with standards set and achieved in other providers in the UK.” There were no specified improvements and no areas for development identified in this area.
In addition, the reviewers reached a judgement of “confidence that the quality of the student academic experience meets baseline regulatory requirements” and that “All members of staff actively engage in improving the quality of learning opportunities.”
A QAA review involves students throughout the process and includes a student submission and student representatives. Plus, one of the review team is also a student from another university. Student feedback forms part of the report, which highlights that, “the College makes good use of student feedback” and “students feel that they are a priority.”
Stephanie Hudson, the lead student representative for the process said, “I felt that myself and the students were as equally involved as the staff throughout the whole process and the student voice played a huge role. It was a great experience and I am grateful I got to be a part of it representing my College and the HE students.”
Mike Welsh, Principal and Chief Executive of the College said, “I’m very pleased to see such a show of confidence in our higher education provision and wish to thank the staff for the work they do all year round to ensure an excellent - and academically rigorous - experience for our HE students. The report confirms what we already know, that our students pursuing degrees, HNCs or HNDs and master’s degrees with us are receiving a high quality academic experience and enjoying high satisfaction levels, at a significantly lower price than most universities.
“It was encouraging to see our good practice, high levels of student satisfaction and student involvement recognised. The work the College does with employers and the local enterprise partnerships to ensure its higher level provision meets their skills requirements was also acknowledged by the reviewers.”
The East Riding College QAA report is available online:
