Learning and Quality - Scottish Funding Council

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We invest in education that gives learners a high-quality learning experience and supports them to succeed in their studies. This investment provides opportunities for students to not only participate in life-long learning, but equips them to flourish in employment, further study and to lead more fulfilling lives.

SFC has a statutory responsibility to ensure the quality of fundable provision across Further and Higher Education in Scotland’s colleges and universities. We also support policies that promote the continuing quality assurance and enhancement of Learning and Teaching in Scottish colleges and higher education institutions. SFC also supports the engagement of the university sector in Scotland with the UK Quality Code and is recommending that colleges start to use it as a reference point too.

We work to secure quality learning and teaching provision, protecting and enhancing the student learning experience, and ensure quality assurance processes are robust and transparent and support confidence in standards.

Our ambition is to make Scotland an outstanding place to learn and educate – now and for the future. Our purpose is to sustain a world-leading system of tertiary education that enables students and staff to flourish, and which changes lives for the better.

Scotland’s approach to quality

Scotland is internationally recognised as a sector leader in its approach to quality assurance and enhancement and our colleges and universities are committed to putting our students at the centre of delivering a high-quality learning experience.

Though each of the UK nations have their own policies and system for quality assurance and regulation, there are shared underpinning principles agreed by the UK Standing Committee for Quality Assessment (now the Quality Council for UK Higher Education, which are:

Delivering a high-quality academic experience.
Providing excellent learning and teaching.
Supporting student participation in quality.
Encouraging student engagement.
Maintaining high-quality academic standards.
Promoting international recognition.

In addition, the UK Quality Code is essential to Scotland’s Higher Education institutions and provides a shared understanding for quality practices across the UK nations.

Scotland’s approach to quality in our tertiary education sector is also set against a wider international context. The Scottish Government is a signatory to the Bologna Process and is a member of the European Higher Education Area. As a member, Scotland’s quality frameworks are aligned with the European Standards and Guidelines.

Scotland’s Tertiary Quality Enhancement Framework

Scotland’s Tertiary Quality Enhancement Framework (TQEF) is our tertiary education sector’s new approach to quality assurance and enhancement for colleges and universities. It is built on the legacy of the last 20 years of Scotland’s leading approach to quality assurance and enhancement.

The TQEF comprises a shared set of principles, delivery mechanisms and outputs that can be applied to the different contexts of our colleges and universities to give assurance on academic standards, the quality of the student experience and ensure accountability for public investment in learning and teaching.

SFC Guidance on quality for colleges and universities AY 2024-25 to AY 2030-31

SFC has developed, in discussion with the sector, the SFC Guidance on quality for colleges and universities AY 2024-25 to AY 2030-31 which outlines the key elements of the TQEF and will support our colleges and universities to implement the new framework during academic year 2024-25 and up to 2030-31.

Institutions should begin the development of their Self-Evaluation and Action Plans (SEAPs), in line with the guidance, for submission to SFC on 30 November 2024 (or the first working day thereafter).

Institutional SEAPs should be sent to the SFC at: quality@sfc.ac.uk.

Student Engagement and Partnership

Colleges and universities should involve and engage learners in their quality activities. The Student Engagement Framework for Scotland sets out the expectations and features of student engagement in Scotland.

Student partnerships in quality Scotland (sparqs) is SFC-funded national development service for student representatives. sparqs works to support learners, students’ associations and institutions to improve the effectiveness of student engagement in quality. It also provides SFC with advice on student involvement.

sparqs have produced an update to their Student Learning Experience (SLE) model. The SLE is a tool that students and institutional staff can use to review and enhance their student engagement, support and the quality of the learning experience. sparqs is also developing a Student Partnership Ambition statement and features along with a suite of resources to support institutions to engage with both the model and the ambition statement, as these will be key sector reference points for student engagement and partnership within the TQEF.

Quality enhancement and learning for staff

We believe that staff development has an essential part to play in developing a culture of high quality and continuous improvement in every college and university.

Through our annual funding agreements with the Quality Assurance Agency and College Development Network we commission these agencies to work with universities and colleges to provide various services to support quality enhancement of learning and teaching.

Advance HE supports the professional development of individual staff and universities. It supports communities of practice through subject centres and contributes to national policy.

Student feedback surveys

Student feedback is essential to driving the enhancement of the learning experience. Key sector level surveys that students can take part in, include:

Colleges

The Student Satisfaction and Engagement Survey (SSES) is a national approach to monitoring student satisfaction and engagement and provides a means to evaluate and enhance college provision in Scotland.

The online survey delivered by SFC is completed by students who are on courses of 4 credits (160 hours) or more and takes place between March and April each academic year. Data collected through the survey is used by colleges to improve the quality of their learning and teaching.

SFC’s Student Satisfaction and Engagement Survey reports are available on the Statistical publication schedule.

Universities

The National Student Survey (NSS) is an annual survey of students across the UK. The survey gathers opinions from final year undergraduate students about their time in higher education, asking them to provide feedback on what it has been like to study on their course at their institution. Participation in the survey is a condition of grant for universities in Scotland.

NSS is a jointly owned by the four UK HE funding and regulatory bodies.

The results of NSS 2024, and previous years’ surveys, are available on the Office for Students (OfS) website.

Postgraduate Taught

For students studying a Masters, Postgraduate Certificate or Diploma course, the Postgraduate Taught Experience Survey (PTES) is managed by Advance HE. The survey is available UK wide and gains insights from postgraduate students about their learning and teaching experience.

Postgraduate Research

For Doctoral and Research Masters level students, Advance HE manages the Postgraduate Research Experience Survey (PRES), and as with the PTES, it is an important survey which captures student feedback on their experience and helps to enhance the Postgraduate Research experience.

Discover Uni

Discover Uni is a joint initiative of the UK higher education funding and regulatory bodies to provide an official and independent source of information about undergraduate higher education programmes.

The online resource uses official statistics about UK HE courses taken from national surveys and data collected from universities to better inform student choice.

Briefings, Reports and Analysis

The Future of learning and teaching – digital/blended learning

The Scottish Funding Council identified the design and delivery of an effective and inclusive digital/blended offering as its Tertiary Enhancement Topic in its guidance on quality for 2022-23. It asked Scotland’s quality agencies to work together on a report which laid the foundations for providing the most effective and inclusive mix of digital and traditional learning.

The report and accompanying summary report are based on external review work undertaken in colleges and universities by the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA Scotland), Education Scotland, College Development Network (CDN) and sparqs.

College Sector Overview Report

SFC contracted Education Scotland to provide external assurance on quality and to support improvement in the college sector.

The College Sector Overview Report was commissioned from Education Scotland by SFC, and the AY 2022-23 report is now available.

Institution-Led Review (ILR)

Universities in Scotland are responsible for reviewing their own academic subjects and professional services, reviewing all subject provision in a maximum six-year cycle. Universities submit an annual statement of assurance to SFC from their governing bodies – see the Analysis of institutional annual statements on Institution-led Review Session 2022-23.

TQEF Briefings

SFC has been working closely with colleagues from our colleges, universities and sector agency partners to co-create Scotland’s Tertiary Quality Enhancement Framework (TQEF).

To provide more information about the TQEF, SFC has developed a set of briefings, with input from QAA and sparqs:

Staff Briefing – TQEF: Enhancing the student learning experience through partnership.
Student Briefing – TQEF: Enhancing the student learning experience.

Scotland’s Quality Legacy

Enhancement Frameworks

Over the last 20 years, Scotland’s tertiary education sector has used two key enhancements frameworks.

Quality Enhancement Framework

In our universities, from 2003 the Quality Enhancement Framework (QEF) was Scotland’s distinct enhancement-led approach to quality assurance, with a focus on continuous improvement, partnership working and student engagement.

SFC partnered with the Quality Assurance Agency, who managed the key elements of the framework, Universities Scotland, NUS Scotland and sparqs.

How Good is Our College?

In our colleges, introduced during academic year 2016-17, How Good is Our College? (HGIOC) was utilised and facilitated by Education Scotland (ES). Colleges previously produced Evaluative Reports and Enhancement Plans (EREPs) which were paused during the COVID pandemic.

Tertiary Quality Project

During 2020 Scottish Ministers commissioned SFC to undertake a review of coherent provision and sustainability. Following the publication SFC Review of Coherent Provision and Sustainability, the Scottish Government accepted the recommendation to explore the development of a single tertiary quality framework for Scotland’s colleges and universities.

SFC established the Tertiary Quality Project (TQP) which led on the development of the TQEF.

For more information please contact quality@sfc.ac.uk.