7Annual Monitoringand Enhancement (AME)
7.1Introduction
The purpose of the Annual Monitoring and Enhancement (AME) process is:
- To support staff in maintaining academic standards;
- To evaluate the student experience and student outcomes;
- To assess the quality of educational support and to enhance it;
- To inform the University of generic quality assurance issues;
- To identify good practice in learning, teaching and assessment and to share it widely to facilitate quality enhancement.
The annual monitoring process includes all programmes delivered by the university including all collaborative provision. Both teaching and research degrees are considered. The process considers whether programme outputs are satisfactory, in terms of meeting university key performance indicator (KPI) targets and whether programmes are effective in achieving stated aims and intended learning outcomes/objectives. It identifies issues associated with the achievement of programme standards and the quality of the student experience. Enhancement is achieved by ensuring that appropriate actions are taken to resolve issues, to improve standards and develop the student experience, and through the dissemination of good practice across the university.
7.2Undergraduate (UG) Procedure
The UG Annual Monitoring and Enhancement process will take place at 3 levels, as follows:
- Department Level (November to January)
- School Level (January/February)
- University Level (April/May)
7.2.1Department level
Each department will have an UG Annual Monitoring and Enhancement meeting(these may be at School level, where exceptionally agreed by Assurance Committee), which will take place in January each year.
Prior to the meeting, a UG AME briefing paper (Appendix 7b) will be prepared by AQS. The briefing paper will identify key outcomes from the evidence base. It will be circulated to the relevant Head of Department (HoD) or Deputy Dean, who will be giventhree to fourworking weeksto add comments and identify key actions, barriers, strategic developments or enhancements arising from the evidence base and to prepare an associated draft action plan. The briefing paper and draft action plan will be circulated to the panel, for consideration, one working week prior to the meeting.
The meeting will provide a forum for the Head of Department/Deputy Dean and key Department/School representatives to discuss with a senior University panel the successes and issues from the previous academic year and their plans for the current academic year. Meetings will focus in part on the Department’s performance against University defined key performance indicators and the contribution made by the Department to enable the University to meet its objectives. The KPIs within the University’s strategic plan will be a primary focus of monitoring UG level provision.
The composition of the senior University panel is:
- Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Learning and Innovation) – Chair
- Headof AQS (or nominee)
- Director of Learning, Teaching and Student Experience (or nominee)
- A Dean, Deputy Dean or Head of Department from another School
- Student representative(s)
- School Quality Enhancement Manager (observer)
- Quality Enhancement Manager/Officer (Secretary)
At the end of the Annual Monitoring and Enhancement meeting the panel will agree with the HoD/Deputy Dean a revised action plan which will support the development and enhancement of the Department’s provision (including collaborative provision and programmes delivered at Middlesex overseas campuses) (Appendix 7c). The action plan and a written record of the meeting, along with the briefing paper will constitute the Department’s UG Annual Monitoring and Enhancement Report (AMER).
7.2.2School Level
Department UG AMERs will be submitted to School Committees (with responsibility for quality assurance) in February or March each year for consideration. This will enable the School to exercise appropriate oversight of its provision (including collaborative and overseas campus provision), identify any themes and trends and areas of potential risk.
7.2.3Institutional Level
On completion of the Departmental Annual Monitoring and Enhancement meetings, the actions identified for response by University Heads of Service/Executive leads will be circulated by AQS, t. A meeting may be held with Service Heads/Executive leads, where necessary. Service responses will be collated by AQS and included in the final University Annual Monitoring and Enhancement overview report.
An overview report on the process will be submitted to Assurance Committee in April or May each year.This report will comment on University wide themes, items of institutional significance and good practice for sharing.
The final AMERs will be circulated to collaborative partners and relevant staff at overseas campuses by the Academic Quality Service, if appropriate.
7.3Postgraduate (PG) Procedure
The PGAnnual Monitoring and Enhancement process will cover both PG taught and PG research provision and will take place at 2 levels, as follows:
- School Level (March/April)
- University Level (April/May)
7.3.1 School level
A PG AME briefing paper (Appendix 7d) will be prepared by AQS. The briefing paper will identify key outcomes from the evidence base. It will be circulated to the relevant Deputy Dean, who will be given three to four working weeks to add comments and identify key actions, barriers, strategic developments or enhancements arising from the evidence base and to prepare an associated draft action plan. The briefing paper response and draft action plan will be sent to AQS for consideration and approval. Where Schools have a significant amount of PG provision, eg. more than 10% of their provision is at PG level, a PG AME panel meeting will be held to consider the briefing sheet and draft action plan. The latter will be revised as a result of the outcomes of the meeting. The action plan and a written record of the meeting, along with the briefing paper will constitute the Department’s PG Annual Monitoring and Enhancement Report (AMER). The PG AME panel membership will be the same as for the UG AME meeting, with the addition of the Director of Research.
School PG AMERs will be submitted to School Committees (with responsibility for quality assurance) in March or April each year for consideration. This will enable the School to exercise appropriate oversight of its PG provision (including collaborative and overseas campus provision), identify any themes and trends and areas of potential risk.
7.3.2Institutional Level
Any actions identified from PG AME briefing sheets or PG AME meetings for response by University Heads of Service/Executive leads will be forwarded to them by AQS. A meeting may be held with Service Heads/Executive leads, where necessary. Service responses to PG AME issues will be collated by AQS and included in the final University Annual Monitoring and Enhancement overview report.
A summary of the PG AME issues and process will be included in the AME report submitted to Assurance Committee in April or May each year.This report will comment on University wide themes, items of institutional significance and good practice for sharing.
The final PG AMERs will be circulated to collaborative partners and relevant staff at overseas campuses by the Academic Quality Service, if appropriate.
7.4Collaborative provision
Collaborative partners running validated (including enhanced validated partners), joint or franchised provision complete an Annual Monitoring Report (AMR) for each programme, or, where agreed by therelevant School/IWBL,cluster of programmes(template available in Appendix 7a). The reports will be authored by the Institution Link Tutor (ILT) and if necessary, the University Link Tutor will provide further guidance on the production of the AMR.Guidance for writing reports is available in guidance 7i and a guide on the use of evidence in 7ii.A report example is provided in 7(iv).Reports are due for submission to the AQS by 24 November each year.
Collaborative partner AMRs are considered byUniversity Link Tutors and Deputy Deans who evaluate the effectiveness of the provision and identify any risks in terms of academic standards and/or the quality of education provided to students. UG Collaborative provision will be discussed at the UG AME meeting and any significant issues/risks will be addressed within the action plan resulting from the meeting. PG collaborative provision will be considered in the PG AME briefing sheet and the PG AME meetings, where held. Any significant issues/risks will be addressed within the PG action plans.Feedback on each collaborative partner AMR will be provided by the relevant University Link tutor on a template provided by AQS.
Where a partner offers a range of provision across a large number of sites, discussions will take place between the partner and the Head of Academic Quality to determine the most appropriate approach for managing a large volume of annual monitoring reports. This may include campus, programme or regional approaches. A partner overview report will be provided, which will highlight major comments or concerns within the partnership as well as common issues across campuses, programmes or regions; together with an identification of good practice.
For phasing out programmes, where teaching is continuing, a reduced report is required addressing in particular progression, achievement and support of remaining students. For validated and validated funded programmes producing AMRs evidence must be appended, as well as CV details for new members of staff and a list of staff that have left.
In certain circumstances (e.g. the partner institution’s academic year is very different from that of the university; master’s programmes running over an 18 month period) alternative deadlines can be agreed by the relevant Deputy Dean of the link School/IWBL. Such arrangements should be agreed in advance of each monitoring cycle and communicated to the University Quality Enhancement Manager (Partnerships and Quality Monitoring) in AQS.
AMRs should be considered at the programme Boards of Study with comments minuted for action and at committees of the partner institution concerned with academic quality and standards.
Annual monitoring reports not submitted by partner institutions will be noted at the university’s Assurance Committee and non submission will be investigated and may prompt a review of the partnership.
7.5Overseas campuses
An AMR is produced for each programme, or cluster of programmes, running at all MU overseas campuses (template available in Appendix 7a). Guidance for writing reports is available in guidance 7i and a guide on the use of evidence in 7ii. A report example is provided in 7(iv). Reports are due for submission to the AQS by24 November each year.
AMRs for programmes delivered at an overseas campus will be submitted to a designated senior member of staff (e.g. Campus Director, Quality Manager) at the campus. The designated senior member of staff will forward the reports to the HoD, and also be responsible for writing a campus level overview report, covering all UG and PG level provision, which reflects on the AMRs and identifies any key themes and trends which require further monitoring at campus level and any operational matters relating to the campus and/or the University. The campus overview reports will be considered at University level and any items of significance requiring University action or oversight will be included within the University Annual Monitoring & Enhancement overview report. Campus level reports will be submitted to the Academic Quality Service in December each year to coincide with the submission of the Department AMERs.
Overseas campus AMRs are considered by Heads of Departmentwho evaluate the effectiveness of the provision and identify any risks in terms of academic standards and/or the quality of education provided to students. Provision at overseas campuses will be discussed at the Annual Monitoring and Enhancement meetings and any significant issues/risks will be addressed within the action plan resulting from the meeting. This will also enable Departments to draw comparisons between the same programme delivered in more than one location (e.g. in-house, at an overseas campus and by collaborative partners). Significant issues relating to provision at overseas campuses can be reported upwards to both the School and University through consideration of the AMERs at School Committee level and via the University Annual Monitoring and Enhancement overview report [see also paragraph 7.3.].
7.6Review of the annual and quality monitoring process
The Academic Quality Service will review the annual monitoring process on an annual basis.
7.7Consideration of data from annual monitoring
The Achievement Committee considers recruitment and student profile data (applications, enrolment), progression and achievement data for all in-house and collaborative provision on an annual basis.
Employability data are considered in programme annual monitoring reports, and by the Achievement Committee.
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