EE Online report teaching quality information summaries for academic year 2006/07.

A summary of the responses made by external examiners to a number of key quality assurance questions for the academic year 2006/07 are summarised below. Note: due to a change in the reporting cycle, for this year only, the summary represents a shorter period and covers reports received January 1 2007 to 31 August 2007.

External examiners are asked to respond to the following key questions:

1. Are the standards set, through the aims and learning outcomes specified for the programme and its components (including placements and work experience), appropriate for the level(s) you examined and the award?
2. Did the student work compare with the standards achieved by students on comparable programmes in other HEIs?
3. Were the processes for assessment, examination and determination of awards sound and fairly conducted?

The judgements of our externals continue to be overwhelmingly positive. If we focus on the three key standards judgements there was only one ‘No’ (“not applicable”) response to question 2– an impressive confirmation of the standards of the University’s programmes. With this qualified exception, all other responses were positive.

*it should be noted that the external examiner in question qualified his ‘no’ response to question 2,  explaining that it was not possible to make a comparison for this particular programme.

The commendations and recommendations made by external examiners are a key part of the quality assurance and enhancement procedures at Nottingham Tent University.  External examiners are provided with feedback directly from the relevant School and programme team, they are also informed about the actions taken in response to their comments.