Sir, – With the news that the Minister for Education is considering the introduction of a UK-style Teaching Excellence Framework (Home News, July 25th) it is worth considering some of the quality processes that currently exist in the third-level sector, specifically my university, DCU.
In DCU we have: annual programme reviews (APRs); periodic programme reviews (PPRs); external examiner reports; school quality reviews; faculty quality reviews; professional / accreditation reviews; school advisory panels (typically initiated by schools themselves); student surveys of teaching (mandatory); student representation on programme boards; student representation on faculty teaching committee; student representation on academic council and university standards committee; and, finally, mandatory feedback on exam performance when requested by students. In addition we have the Irish survey of student engagement, but, most importantly, we have both annual and periodic reviews of our institution conducted by QQI (Quality Qualifications Ireland). Then there’s the HEA.
Just how much reviewing does an institution need? – Yours, etc,
GREG FOLEY BE MS PhD,
Dublin City University,
Glasnevin,
Dublin 9.