This guidance
document is primarily
intended for:
Directors of Studies
Link Academic Advisers
Programme Leaders
Learning Partnerships
Office
Annual Monitoring of Programmes:
Collaborative Provision
1
Scope: The purpose of this guidance document is to support the process of Annual
Monitoring of Programmes. The full procedure for Annual Monitoring of Programmes is set
out in QA51 Annual Monitoring of Units and Programmes which is available online at: Code
of Practice statements | University of Bath. This guidance document will focus upon the
timeline and workflow for annual monitoring reports, and aspects of the process that are new
this year.
2
Annual Monitoring: The aim of the annual monitoring report for programmes is to produce
an evaluative overview that identifies aspects of good practice, areas for improvement and
key trends and issues relating to the programme. The report reflects back on progress made
in the previous year and sets out an action plan for the year ahead.
3
An Annual Monitoring report should be:
 frank and balanced, not attempting to hide problems and not forgetting to cover
strengths
 developmental, offering thoughts on how to improve what you do;
 inclusive, covering all aspects of the programme (including placements/work-based
learning, collaborative provision, exchanges/study abroad, use of e-learning and/or
distance learning) and all students (including part-time students, mature students,
distance learners)
 evaluative. You are not required to provide a lengthy description of what you do. The
emphasis should be on evaluation rather than description, summarising and analysing
issues and recording enhancement rather than providing a large amount of detail. This
may include asking yourself the following types of questions:
 what evidence do we have that this particular approach (e.g. teaching or assessment
method, use of e-learning, placement provision, exchange provision) is of benefit to the
student learning experience?
 are changes necessary/desirable?
 what support might be necessary for staff and students to ensure a new approach is
successful?
 focused, with clear action points, and an indicative timeline against each action.
4
The attached template sets out the elements required of an Annual Monitoring report. It is
open to the Director of Studies to incorporate reflection on any other aspects relevant to the
programme(s) or related arrangements. University Learning, Teaching and Quality
Committee may incorporate a theme of particular institutional interest.
5
External Examiners’ reports should be appended to the Annual Monitoring report together
with the Department/School response. It is then not necessary to duplicate the contents within
the body of the Annual Monitoring report, allowing you to concentrate instead on actions that
are being taken as a result and/or themes that have arisen over more than one year.
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6
Professional accreditation: You should make reference in your report to any forthcoming
professional accreditation exercise, and/or report back on progress on recommendations
made in the course of any professional accreditation exercises that have taken place in the
previous year (see QA8 Professional Accreditation).
7
A single line of reporting: There is now a single report, integrating reporting on retention
and survey data with the annual monitoring report (see attached template). This should
increase efficiency as well as ensure that data is reported within the context of the
programme(s).
a.
National Student Survey (undergraduate finalists): Further detailed guidance is
provided in the attached appendix. University and Faculty/School Learning, Teaching
and Quality Committees will continue to maintain an overview of National Student Survey
and other survey action plans. To support this review of the uses and responses to
student feedback generally, you are asked to email a copy of your annual monitoring
report to the Learning and Teaching Enhancement Office (email:
learningandteaching@bath.ac.uk) at the same time that you submit it to your
Learning, Teaching and Quality Committee.
b.
Student retention: The University considers student retention rates of less than 90% in the
first year of an undergraduate programme to be a marker of concern, except for programmes
delivered by local partner colleges under a franchised, licensed or validated agreement
where the marker for concern is a retention rate of less than 80%.The data that should be
used here are retention data that include supplementary assessment results. These
are made available on the intranet site from mid-October. Where there is a retention rate
of less than 90% (or 80% in the case of local partner colleges.), you are expected to
provide a commentary on the reasons for this and the actions that are being taken in
response. This commentary will be forwarded on by the Faculty/School/Learning,
Teaching and Quality Committee for consideration by University, Learning, Teaching and
Quality Committee.
8
Link Academic Advisers: For programmes delivered by collaborative partners, the Link
Academic Adviser should be invited to comment upon the Annual Monitoring report prior to its
consideration by the Faculty/School Learning, Teaching and Quality Committee.
9
Linkage to institutional level: There is a section of the report (section E) that invites you to
identify aspects of good practice for broader dissemination and to raise any issues for wider
consideration, either at Faculty/School or institutional level. Particular issues of service or
standards should still be raised first with the relevant office or service as a matter of course.
The focus here is on identifying issues with a wider impact. This might include matters of
policy that you feel require further consideration, e.g. plagiarism awareness, or an aspect of
service that might be enhanced, e.g. a case for additional staff development opportunities in
an emerging area. A summary of the items raised in this section will be reported to University,
Learning, Teaching and Quality Committee to ensure that the broader issues you raise are
considered at institutional level.
10
Staffing changes: Details of any staffing changes to the programme for the period under
review must be reported in section E for those partnerships defined as high risk according to
the risk assessment set out in QA20 Form 1. General details of staff members’ background
and qualifications should be included (without using individual staff names (see point 11
below).
11
Other notes:
 Please do not use individual staff or student names in the body of the report
 Please explain any acronyms.
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12
Further Advice: Advice on annual monitoring reports should be sought from your Assistant
Registrar (or equivalent) in the first instance. Queries about provision of statistics should be
directed to the Student Records and Examinations Office (email: sreo@bath.ac.uk). The
Learning and Teaching Enhancement Office can respond to queries regarding feedback
mechanisms such as the National Student Survey, Programme Evaluation and the process
of Annual Monitoring of Programmes respectively (email:
learningandteaching@bath.ac.uk).
13
Timeline: The following indicative timeline may assist you in compiling your report:
January

Admissions quantitative data available.
July/August

Receipt of External Examiners’ report.

Monitoring of units undertaken.

First destinations quantitative data available.
September

National Student Survey data available from the Learning and Teaching
Enhancement Office.
October

Quantitative data relating to retention and degree classification available.

Departmental information on students who have undertaken supplementary
assessments available.

Submit report to departmental/programme committee meeting (or equivalent).

Make any amendments in light of discussion.

Submit report to Faculty/School/ Learning, Teaching and Quality Committee
meeting.

Make any amendments in light of discussion.

Faculty/School/ LearningTeaching and Quality Committee submits summary
report to University Learning, Teaching and Quality Committee, indicating
issues of an institutional nature or concern.
November
November/
December
January
Learning and Teaching Enhancement Office
Aug 2015
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Appendix
Responding to data from the National Student Survey (Undergraduate programmes: final year
students)
All Departments, Schools and partner colleges are being asked, as in previous years, to consider
carefully the National Student Survey (NSS) and internal survey data applicable to them. For the
majority of programmes, National Student Survey data are available at programme level, and it is
these that should be used to support Annual Monitoring. Where this data is not available (due to
cohort size or response rate), then departmental data should be used.
The University would like you to compare this year’s student responses to last year’s and the year
before, but you are also expected to compare the NSS scores of your discipline against those of
other institutions (at JACS code level).
If you have questions about the methodology or the data, please contact the Learning and Teaching
Enhancement Office: learningandteaching@bath.ac.uk The results of particular survey questions
indicating overall satisfaction also appear in the ‘Vital Statistics’ datasheets and are available
alongside the normal programme statistics from the SREO website.
Should you wish to work with someone on addressing any of the themes in the survey, please contact
the Director of Learning and Teaching Enhancement or email your request to
learningandteaching@bath.ac.uk LTEO can provide guidance, references to good practice,
facilitation of departmental learning and teaching discussion, or find appropriate internal or external
peers to support your Department.
You may wish to consider if you should adjust your internal systems for student evaluation to monitor
any areas of concern identified by NSS data, in the next few years.
In completing Annual Monitoring Reports for programmes, Directors of Study are asked to report on
the mechanisms used by the Department or School by which students are informed of the actions
taken in response to issues raised in all forms of student feedback, including the results of national
and internal student surveys in the last year.
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QA51 Guidance & Form 3 Collaborative Provision for reports on 2014/15
Annual Monitoring of Programmes
Report Template
Collaborative Provision
DEPARTMENT/PARTNER
ORGANISATION:
TITLE OF ALL PROGRAMME(S)
COVERED BY THE REPORT:
PERIOD COVERED BY THE
REPORT:
The purpose of this template is to support the process of the Annual Monitoring of Programmes.
The full procedure for the Annual Monitoring of Programmes is set out in QA51 Annual Monitoring
of Units and Programmes, available online at Code of Practice statements | University of Bath
Further advice on completing this form, and dates for its submission, can be provided by the
Learning Partnerships Office. A summary of annual statistical data is available from the "Vital
Statistics" web pages. Queries about the provision of statistics may be directed to the Student
Records and Examinations Office (email: sreo@bath.ac). If you have questions about NSS data,
please contact the Learning and Teaching Enhancement Office (email:
learningandteaching@bath.ac.uk).
Please note that the names of individual staff or students should be omitted from the body of this
report.
A. BRIEF INTRODUCTORY STATEMENT OF THE YEAR UNDER REVIEW
Please provide an introductory overview statement on the performance of the programme. This
may include key reflections on any Degree Scheme Review or Professional Accreditation that
has taken place since the last report. It is not necessary to repeat detail covered in other
sections of the report.
Brief Overview of Student Feedback received.
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QA51 Guidance & Form 3 Collaborative Provision for reports on 2014/15
B . UPDATE ON PROGRESS WITH ACTIONS FROM THE PREVIOUS REPORT
In this section, actions identified in the previous annual monitoring report and resulting from Degree Scheme Reviews and professional accreditation
activity should be listed and progress against each action indicated. (Alternatively Faculty/School Learning, Teaching and Quality Committees may
require actions resulting from Degree Scheme Reviews and Professional Accreditations to be appended to this report. See QA13 Degree Scheme
Reviews and QA8 Professional Accreditation for further information.)
Action
Timeline for
completion
Person(s) responsible
for action (role)
Update on progress
1
2
3
4
5
C . SUMMARY OF SIGNIFICANT POSITIVE FEEDBACK, GOOD PRACTICE AND SUCCESS IN RELATION TO THE PROGRAMME(S)
In this summary, background to good practice, including evidence and how it originated, should also be provided, where appropriate.
1
2
3
4
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QA51 Guidance & Form 3 Collaborative Provision for reports on 2014/15
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D . SUMMARY OF SIGNIFICANT ISSUES AND ACTION TAKEN OR PROPOSED IN RESPONSE
Please note that reporting should be “by exception”. Therefore, where the indicators show consistently good performance and where there are no
obvious issues, there is no need to report. However, where there is a significant deviation in data from one year to the next, where University or
Faculty/School or Department targets (eg in admissions or retention) have not been met or where there is no improvement in an area which has been
raised in previous reports, issues and resulting/proposed actions should be reported. Where NSS scores are below the national or University average
or where there has been a significant drop in score(s), the reasons for this should be indicated and actions to address the issues identified.
Issue
Should cover any significant issues of concern
relating to:

demand and recruitment

content of the programme, methods of delivery
and assessment

support and guidance for students

learning and teaching resources

placement provision

personal tutoring

retention, progression, degree classifications

staffing and staff development

employability

collaborative working/partnership.
Performance indicator(s)
For example:

vital statistics data (ie demand, recruitment,
retention, progression, classifications and first
destinations)

external examiner feedback

student feedback (eg SSLC annual report, survey,
and unit evaluation data, including National Student
Survey/UKES data)

staff feedback (eg annual monitoring of units,
minutes of the relevant programme/teaching
committee)

other feedback (eg recommendations from
professional accrediting bodies, employers,
placement providers).
Action taken or proposed
Include, where appropriate,
information on:
 student involvement in
any enhancements
 mechanisms for feeding
back completed actions to
students.
1
2
3
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QA51 Guidance & Form 3 Collaborative Provision for reports on 2014/15
4
5
E . ANY OTHER COMMENTS
Any aspects of good practice meriting broader dissemination, or issues for wider consideration, at either Faculty/School or institutional level, should be
raised here. For any high-risk partnerships (as identified in the risk assessment QA20 Form 1 which forms part of QA20 Collaborative Provision),
please also give details of any changes to staffing for the programme during the period under review.
F . COMMENTS OF THE LINK ACADEMIC ADVISER
G . ONGOING ACTION LIST
The action list should include any outstanding actions referred to in this report including where appropriate the actions arising from a recent DSR or
professional body accreditation.
1
Action relating to NSS data (undergraduate programmes)
Timeline for completion
Person(s) responsible for action
(role)
a
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QA51 Guidance & Form 3 Collaborative Provision for reports on 2014/15
b
c
d
2
Other Actions
a
b
c
d
H . SUMMARY OF MAJOR AND INTERMEDIATE CHANGES APPROVED, TO THE PROGRAMME(S) AND CORE UNITS SINCE
PROGRAMME APPROVAL OR THE LAST DEGREE SCHEME REVIEW (WHICHEVER IS THE MORE RECENT)
Type of change
Indicate whether
‘programme’ or
‘core unit’
Name (and code)
of programme or
core unit
Level of change (e.g.
major or intermediate)
Brief description of change
Academic year of
approval of
change
1
2
3
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QA51 Guidance & Form 3 Collaborative Provision for reports on 2014/15
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5
DIRECTOR OF STUDIES:
DATE:
LINK ACADEMIC ADVISER:
DATE:
ATTACHMENTS
The following documents must be appended to the report
i)
ii)
iii)
"Vital Statistics" summaries are available on-line.
External Examiners’ Report(s) and the college/organisation’s response(s)
Placement unit convenors’ report on issues and good practice (see QA6) where applicable.
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