Institutional Audit

1. What is Institutional Audit (IA)?

Institutional Audit is the new QAA process which will test the quality of our courses of
study; the standards of our awards and our internal procedures for securing quality
and standards. Institutional Audit is a form of evidence-based peer review which is
student-centred. IA will focus on the quality and transparency of information provided
to students; the ways in which their learning is facilitated and supported, and the
academic standards they are expected to achieve, and achieve in practice.
Institutional Audit combines scrutiny of internal QA systems at institutional level with
investigations into the operation of those systems in departments.

2. When will IA take place?

IA will take place e very 6 years. The QAA will make brief progress visits at the 3 year
mid-point between Audits. Warwick will undergo its first IA in the first week of March
2004. A briefing visit of 3 days duration will take place 5 weeks in advance. The
briefing visit is a fundamental part of the IA process and will, to a large extent,
determine the programme for, and lines of enquiry to be followed during, the Audit
visit. Details of the schedule for Warwick’s IA are provided in a separate paper.

3. What are the aims an d objectives of IA?

The QAA states that the aims of the IA process are to meet the public interest in
knowing that HEIs are:

(a) Providing higher education awards and qualifications of an acceptable quality

and an appropriate academic standard.

(b) Exercising their legal powers to award degrees in a proper manner.

The QAA sees as the objectives of the IA process as being:

(c) To contribute to the promotion and enhancement of teaching and learning.

(d) To ensure that students, employers and others can have ready access to
easily comprehensible, meaningful and reliable public information about the
extent to which HEIs are offering courses which meet national expectations in
respect of standards and quality.

(e) To ensure that the process ensures rapid remedial action in the event that
courses or standards are found to be weak or deficient.

(f) To secure accountability for the use of public funds.

4. What will IA examine?

(a) The effectiveness of Warwick’s internal QA structure and mechanisms.

(b) The accuracy, completeness and reliability of the information we publish.

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 (c) Examples of Warwick’s internal QA processes at work in departments (DATs)
and across the University (Thematic Enquiries) to demonstrate the validity
and reliability of the information generated by 4(a).

5. What will IA focus on?

Audit teams will concentrate on:

(a) The processes and outcomes of Annual Course Review and Periodic Review.

(b) The use made of external reference points; the Code of Practice; the
Framework for Higher Education Qualifications and Subject Benchmark
Statements. (A separate paper has been provided in this pack on these
external reference points.)

(c) Publicly available information about quality and standards.

(d) The contribution made by internal information management systems to the

effective oversight of quality and standards.

(e) The development, use and publication of course specifications.

(f) Academic standards expected of, and achieved by, students.

(g) The experience of students as learners.

(h) The quality assurance of teaching staff, including the University’s appointment
criteria and the ways in which teaching effectiveness is appraised, improved
and rewarded.

6. What evidence base will be used in IA?

IA teams will make judgements based on:

(a) The Cooke Report Teaching Quality Information requirements.

(b) Warwick's Self-Evaluation Document.

(c) Self Evaluation Documents produced by departments chosen for Discipline

Audit Trails, and associated supporting documentation.

(d) The institutional Student Submission.

(e) Professional and Statutory Body reports on areas of Warwick’s provision.

(f) The 1998/99 Continuation Audit Report on Warwick.

(g) Oral and written information acquired during the Briefing and Audit Visits.

7. Judgements

The QAA will publish a formal report on the Institutional Audit of the University
addressing:

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 (a) The confidence which can be placed in the soundness of Warwick's present
and likely future management of the quality of its courses and the standards
of its awards.

(b) The reliance which can be placed on the accuracy, completeness and
frankness of information published by the University about its courses and
standards.

The QAA ‘Handbook for Institutional Audit: England’ is available online at

http://www.qaa.ac.uk/public/inst_audit_hbook/institutional_audit.htm