Scholarly activity in CHE: a QAA
perspective
MEG conference 2 May 2014
Elizabeth Halford and Ian Welch,
QAA
QAA’s Research Strategy
Intentions:
 To inform policy making (at national and institutional


levels)
To provide an analysis of current trends in higher
education (and their social and economic
consequences)
To enhance practice and the student experience in
higher education (and the learning gain resulting
from the experience)
Commissioned research project
In 2012-13 a project was commissioned by
QAA and undertaken by Jonathan Simmons
(UWE) and John Lea (Canterbury Christ
Church University)
“Capturing a higher education ethos in
college higher education”
This explores the context in which FECs in
England respond to the opportunities and
challenges of providing HE programmes

Methodology




The research provides a contextual setting for CHE
practice, drawing on the existing literature
It discusses what it means for colleges to be” higher”
and “scholarly” – the four lenses, and draws upon
the four scholarship models of Boyer (1990)
It provides a summary review of IQER findings and
emergent themes
Six anonymised case studies of CHE
Main recommendations




Making sure partnership and validation
arrangements meet the needs of students
Promoting a higher education ethos at colleges with
smaller scale provision
Investigating academic and vocational drift
The research environment should provide a context
for taught courses
RCHE and IR outcomes

5 out of 79 recommendations about
Scholarly activity

4 out of 38 Good practice about scholarly
activity
What we found:
–
–
–
–
Formalise the leadership and coordination of
teaching and learning scholarship and
research
Produce and reflect on an overview for
scholarship activity.
Develop a systematic approach to analyse the
impact of teaching and learning, scholarly
activity and staff development
develop a higher education staff development
plan to include teaching and learning and
scholarly activity
Themes




HE identity and ethos supported by
scholarship initiatives
Overview of scholarly activity to HE support
strategic aims and enhancement
Link between scholarly activity and staff
development
Link between scholarly activity and teaching
and learning
The report is available

Through links on the QAA website:

http://www.qaa.ac.uk/Publications/InformationAndGui
dance/Pages/HE-ethos-Lea-Simmons.aspx
© The Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education 2012. Registered charity numbers 1062746 and SC037786