Review Report
School of Health Sciences
Finalised: 08/03/2011
Reviewers
Prof Pam Enderby (Chair); Prof Hannah McGee, Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland; Ms Biddy O’Neill,
HSE; Prof Fidelma Dunne, School of Medicine, NUI Galway (Cognate); Dr Dagmar Stengel, Botany and
Plant Science, NUI Galway (Coordinator).
Key Strengths
Academic Staff
 knowledgeable, committed and enthusiastic staff.
 with the exception of Health Promotion (HP), staff are accommodated in excellent building
with exemplary teaching facilities.
 excellent progress in the high standard of uni-disciplinary education provision.
 good external examiner reports.
 research profile of HP.
 achievement of professional body accreditations for new programmes.
 progress in developing uni-disciplinary programmes.
 engagement with CELT.
 engagement with key stakeholders in the health services.
 strong civic engagement.
 happy contented students in all disciplines.
 committed enthusiastic practice educators.
 committed hard working administrative staff.
Undergraduate
excellent student experience:
 good communication with academic staff.
 valued on-site clinic.
 excellent learning facilities.
 65% of students’ first choice.
 56% from local catchment.
 91% completion rate.
 graduates highly valued by employers.
Postgraduate
o
o
o
motivated and self directed.
excellent peer support, e.g. valued interdisciplinary seminar series.
number of funded PhDs, alongside staff PhDs as career development.
o opportunities for personal development.
Key Recommendations
The staff within the School found the self assessment exercise a positive experience and expressed a
willingness and timeliness of this quality review leading to the next phase in the development of the
School
1. Disciplines need to work together to exploit the opportunity of being a cohesive school
within the College of Medicine Nursing and Health Sciences. The leadership of the School
needs to be strengthened in this next phase of development, through additional independent
(non-cognate) support separate from the heads of disciplines, to drive forward a collegiate
spirit, to ensure the School adds value to each of the disciplines, to share and use resources
more cost effectively, to encourage integration of disciplines, and to facilitate closer working
across the College.
2. Accommodation for HP within the Aras Moyola building is urgently required if this discipline
is to be appropriately integrated into the School. We recommend a review of facilities within
the overall building which we believe could be used more effectively to allow the integration
of HP. We suggest the Vice President for Capital Projects meets with Heads of Schools and
discipline leaders in Aras Moyola.
3. The School level structures need to be strengthened, including the establishment of a
teaching and learning committee, joint research seminar programme, and programme
development committee. The School board needs to address strategic issues and needs to
work towards the strategic plan. It needs to be promoted as the most significant meeting of
the school calendar requiring attendance (including student representation) and be seen as a
forum where attendance is both required and valued.
4. School-wide communication needs to be improved, e.g. setting up of electronic news page
for all students and staff where news can be posted; establish student-run Health Sciences
society to integrate undergraduate and postgraduate students.
5. There should be clear targets for integrating more interdisciplinary modules within the
curricula of each of the taught academic programmes, with consideration being given to
developing modules with disciplines from across the College of Medicine, Nursing and Health
Sciences. This could include the possibility of a combined first year. The present unidisciplinary students do not adequately benefit from being educated in a School providing
education to other disciplines. The stated Mission Statement of the School is ‘excellence and
innovation in teaching and research through interdisciplinary Health Sciences’. Achieving this
goal can provide added value and uniqueness to this School that may be protective in a
challenging economic environment.
6. Student evaluation and feedback to students should be mandatory for all modules, be
monitored by the teaching and learning committee and be in line with University policy.
7. Closer links need to be established with professional course leaders in other universities, and
with professional bodies, to influence and negotiate regarding accreditation and the
8.
9.
10.
11.
evolution of interdisciplinary learning. School engagement with HSE should be developed
perhaps through the Western Academic Health Network (WAHN), providing them a voice in
curriculum development.
Central University services (e.g. marketing, registration, student orientation and support
services for all types of students) need to be available and used more effectively.
The research clusters need to be developed from within the School and College, exploiting
translational and interdisciplinary opportunities and ensuring research influences teachingembedding knowledge into practice.
The complimentary skills found in the different disciplines within the School could be used
more broadly, e.g. research and mentoring skills of HP can benefit to the other disciplines
while the clinical disciplines can support HP in further development of placement activity and
education for their programmes.
The administration should be centralised to streamline administrative support and provide
greater flexibility.
Other Recommendations
a) ensure that part-time students have access to all facilities and supports available to full-time
students.
b) the School should contribute to and benefit from the Academic Simplification Project being
rolled out across the University.
c) the School should consider applying for funding (e.g. teaching and learning innovation fund,
NAIRTL) to develop a strategic approach and implementation plan incorporating targets for
increasing in interdisciplinary learning .
d) promote the ‘identity’ of the School in every forum – e.g. website, staff email and University
addresses, presentations. Introduce appropriate induction programmes for staff and
postgraduate students and access to relevant up-to-date information.
e) there is a requirement to facilitate greater collaboration of staff within the School by
developing seminar and social programmes.
Comments on Review Process
 Hard work!

Would have been useful to have the metrics provided by Ms Flanagan at an earlier point in the
programme (or in advance by email, with further interpretation early on Day 1)

Arrange meetings with key university staff (e.g. Capital Projects, Registrar, VP Research, Dean of
Graduate Studies) early on during the visit

Would have been useful if the Chair could have been appointed prior to the review meeting

Secretarial support on the day

More student representation on the panel

A member of a professional body (OT/SLT) would have helped and we could have introduced
the concept of sharing of curricula.
I personally would prefer 2 days only.