MEMO
To:
Deans of Schools
Associate Deans (Learning and Teaching)
Heads of Department
School and Departmental Secretaries and Administrators
School Examination Officers
Chairs of Boards of Examiners
Ms S Congdon, Pro-Vice Chancellor (Learning and Teaching)
Ms H Preston, Student Administration and Support
Ms J Sture, Graduate School
Ms A Hughes, Complaints and Appeals Manager
Professor G Bradshaw, Director of Quality Enhancement & Standards
Ms C Moran, Director of Academic Quality and Partnerships
Staff in AQPO
FROM:
Alison Carass, Assistant Registrar, Academic Quality and Partnerships
Office
DATE:
1st October 2014
QUORACY OF ASSESSMENT COMMITTEES AND BOARDS OF EXAMINERS
I write to inform you of an addition to Sections 4 and 7 of the Academic
Regulations Relating to Assessment which will take effect from the 2014/15
academic session.
As you will be aware, the need to introduce a quorum for both Assessment
Committees and Boards of Examiners was a requirement of the QAA, following
the recent Higher Education Review.
The following quorum has, therefore, been introduced to standardise processes
and to ensure that there are sufficient members of staff in attendance to carry out
the function of the committees. It was felt that the previous practice of such a
decision being at the discretion and academic judgement of the Chair was not
appropriate.
Assessment Committee
4.2
The Membership of an Assessment Committee shall comprise all those
members of academic staff and those others who have been approved by
the School Board as Internal Examiners for the modules to be considered by
the Assessment Committee.
4.3
To be quorate, the Assessment Committee must be attended by the Chair
and the module leader, or their nominee, of all modules under
consideration.
Board of Examiners
4.2
The Membership of a Board of Examiners shall comprise all those members
of academic staff and those others who, having been nominated by the
Schools concerned have, on the recommendation of the appropriate School
Board, been appointed by the Senate as Internal Examiners for the
assessments in question, together with the programme leaders and/or
personal academic tutors of the students under review and the External
Examiner(s) for the programme of study.
4.3
To be quorate, the Board of Examiners must be attended by the Chair, the
programme leader, or their nominee, of all the programmes under review,
and the External Examiner(s). A representative from the Academic Quality
and Partnerships Office must also be in attendance.
Please note that whilst there is the facility to appoint a nominee to attend in place
of the module leader or programme leader, it is expected that this would be done
only in exceptional cases where the module/programme leader was unable to
attend. In addition, the nominee representing a programme would need to be a
member of staff from the programme team who could speak authoritatively about
the students on the programme in question. It is expected that a nominee
representing a programme leader would not normally represent more than one
programme.
The standard agenda for the meetings now includes an item asking that quoracy
be confirmed. This should include consideration and confirmation of any
nominee as a suitable alternate.
The QAA Reviewers were concerned at the low numbers of staff recorded at some
Assessment Committees and Boards of Examiners. I am sure you will appreciate
the importance of full attendance at these meetings and the University will be
monitoring this during 2014/15.
I would be grateful if you could disseminate the above information to all
appropriate staff within your School.
If you have any queries or require any further information please do not hesitate
to contact me on Ext 3897 or at a.j.carass@bradford.ac.uk
A copy of this memo can be found on the AQPO website at the following link:
http://www.bradford.ac.uk/aqpo/documents-templates-and-downloads/
under the letter ‘M’ for Memo.