Quality Assurance

Mortha Halls of Ivy has a longstanding commitment to ensuring that it provides high-quality education and training services to students and employers. Throughout the planning period, the College’s quality improvement strategy will focus on:

• Ensuring that the quality standards of all awarding bodies are met
• College-wide effective self-evaluation for quality improvement
• Dissemination and embedding of good practice
• Completion of an annual audit program
• Achieving key performance targets in relation to student retention and achievement, and lesson observation grades.
• Ensuring that College quality standards reflect the requirements of the HMIE Quality Framework for Further Education
• Benchmarking of key business processes with public and private sector organizations.

Our approach to quality assurance is ambitious and challenging, as we believe that quality is about how we build our expertise and capacity to improve. As well as academic, vocational and English language teaching staff, there is a curriculum and quality principal whose primary role is to continuously develop our approach and practices in teaching and learning. Before the beginning of each academic year, Mortha Halls of Ivy reviews the breadth and scope of its curriculum, in line with national and local trends in higher education. The outcome of this review determines how the curriculum is shaped and delivered, to ensure a fit for the purpose learning environment that puts the student at the center of everything we do.

Approach to quality assurance will consider and ensure that we:

• Devise and review teaching and learning plans which address key issues and identify future development needs, including teaching and learning objectives, personal development planning, systems review and development, student and staff feedback, assessment methods, inclusiveness, added value and use of ICT.
• Enhance the quality of teaching and learning by continuous monitoring of the provision and standards, through evaluation of staff, student and stakeholder feedback.
• Maintain the College’s own diverse approach that values equality of opportunity in the quality of our teaching and learning.
• Develop and implement rigorous review and feedback mechanisms that support progression and track student progress, retention and achievement.
• Maintain a curriculum that meets student, employer, local, national and international needs. Encourage program development where modernization is needed.
• Ensure that the college has adequate resources in place for students and staff to manage their workload effectively.

The Programme Review is carried out annually, during the curriculum planning process. The review discusses all aspects of the subject programs and suitability and relevance for inclusion in future curriculum plans.

Program review will consider and include:

• Review of all subject programs to ensure that they are current and valid in light of changes and development of national standards.
• Evaluate how the learning outcomes are being attained and suitability of delivery and assessment methods. Do these methods continue to be fit for purpose and effective?
• Analyse and take account of internal and external views of examiners and verifiers in program reviews.
• Student and staff views are evaluated and considered.
• Identify and disseminate good practice within and across subject areas and programs.
• All recommendations and actions are used to remedy and develop changes to improve the delivery of the program.

The Unit/Module Review is a process that reflects on the delivery of teaching and learning of a specific unit/module. In doing this the program team will:

Unit/Module Review:

• Review and evaluate student achievement and assessment instruments against the unit aim and learning outcomes.
• Take account of student performance, formative feedback and observations of the teaching and assessment staff.
• Review how the unit meets the overall program objectives and consider if, still suitable for inclusion in future programs.
• Identify good practice in teaching and learning and disseminate in future review meetings.

Overall, quality assurance is a continuous cycle of self- assessment and target setting for new and interesting challenges to help us make improvements.