Effective colleges & universities
Effective colleges & universities
The Council aims to support the development of colleges and universities to ensure that they are well led, well run, financially sound institutions which meet all the legal and other requirements placed upon them, including those related to employment, diversity, equality and sustainability.
The Council does this through issuing guidance, through monitoring of institutional performance, and through funding of development agencies which provide advice, guidance and other services to colleges and universities. This area of activity also includes our work at a sectoral level, through support for national initiatives in areas such as quality enhancement, learner engagement, e-Learning, and internationalisation.
While the primary responsibility for quality assurance and enhancement lies with the institution, we contract with the Quality Assurance Agency (for the universities) and Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Education (for colleges) to carry out independent, external review.
By governance we refer to the oversight and setting of direction of a college or university by a 'governing body'. This body is made up primarily of people from outside that organisation. The governing body is not involved in day to day operations: it holds senior managers accountable for the system of management an organisation chooses to work within.
We provide funding for governance, leadership and management development in colleges and universities and contribute to sector groups and networks that share information and work to improve practice.
We ask that universities and colleges plan strategically and manage risk, so that they can respond better to the 'unexpected' as well as implement their own plans for the future.
Our Further Education Development Group (FEDD) responds to requests from colleges for assistance on various issues of governance and management. The FEDD provides high-calibre peer expertise by providing, in the main, practicing or recently retired senior college managers or people who have had a strong association with the sector through, for example, membership of college boards of management.