NOTTINGHAM TRENT UNIVERSISTYOCTOBER 2012

GUIDANCE ON COLLABORATIVE PROVISION

Category I:Validation Service

Definition: The partner delivers its own courses to its own students and centres; the courses are validated by NTU. Students receive an award certificate with the NTU crestalongside the partner’s name, and in some cases their logo and signatory. Validation Service courses are managed by CPO. See Section 10of the ASQH for further details.

Stage 1: Collaborative Provision Business Planning Process

  • Firstly, School Executive, College Management Team and Senior Management Team sign off must be obtained prior to academic approval (including completion and sign off of Partnership Arrangement Risk Assessment Tool, due diligence and the outline/full business case). The business case is initiated by the Collaborative Partnerships Office (CPO) using a bespoke business case template. Business cases for validation service should NOT be initiated by Schools.
  • If the partner is a Further Education College, the proposers should contact CADQ to facilitate Pro Vice Chancellor (Academic) strategic sign off (on behalf of NTU) prior to College/School sign off.

Stage 2: Prior to academic approval

  • Validated Centres should contact CPO in the first instance (for new courses and changes to courses).
  • ACADQ Officer will provide advice on the academic approval documentation and agree with the Centre an indicative timeline for the production of the documents, iteration and for the academic approval event.
  • If the proposal is a Foundation Degree where a specific progression route to NTU is proposed, liaison between the Validated Centre and the relevant NTU School to discuss progression opportunities is encouraged.
  • A draft Institutional Agreement (CPO) and Financial Schedule (School) must be produced before the academic approval event and its broad terms agreed with the partner.
  • CPO should be kept informed of progress by the Centre and CADQ Officer.

Stage 3: Documentation requirements

  • Centre Document – The Centre Approval Document (prepared by the Validated Centre) is intended to provide evidence to the University that the Centre is appropriate to deliver the University’s awards and has the academic and administrative infrastructure required, against a number of criteria.
  • Course Documentation –course approval documentation (prepared by the Validated Centre) is intended to assure the University that the Centre has designed a course that is appropriate for the subject, the students and the requirements of a UK higher education award. Documentation includes: CourseSpecification(NTU format), Module Specifications(NTU format) and aContextual Document (including CVs from staff delivering the course).

Stage 4: Academic approval

  • Validation Service collaborations are approved by an approval panel process. A Centre visit will normally be required, and Centre approval is required as part of the initial approval process;
  • CADQ manages the academic approval arrangements.
  • CADQ (in liaison with CPO) is responsible for arranging travel and accommodation for the panel. The Centrenormally bears the associated costs of academic approval.
  • If approved, the partner(s)becomes a Validated Centre of Nottingham Trent University for the course(s) in question.

Stage 5: Post academic approval

  • CPO is responsible for all post academic approval operational requirements including registering students (who are not NTU students but students of the partner), training the Verifier and organising an annual briefing for Verifiers, coordination of conferments, on-going liaison with each Centre, invoicing Centres and day to day running of the course.
  • A Collaborative Agreement must be signed before students are registered.
  • A collaborative specification must be completed by the CADQ Officer and the partnership added to the collaborative register by CPO.

Stage 6: Collaborative review

  • All Validation Service partners and courses will be approved for a fixed period of three years. Prior to expiry the partner and course(s) will be reviewed. At a review event, the emphasis will be on evaluation of the operation of the Centre as a Validated Centre of NTU and on how the course(s) has run at the collaborative partner. Input from all stakeholders is important, particularly students.

February 2010/See Section 10 of the ASQH for more detail