SECTION THREE: FACULTY DETAILS

  1. What does the Faculty seek to achieve for itself and the discipline?
  2. Rationale for the Faculty:
    • Mission, key aims and purposes of the Faculty, how these are determined, and how these align themselves to the university’s plans, and national and international trends
    • What does the Faculty seek to achieve for the university?
    • What does the Faculty seek to achieve for the wider community?
  3. What are the specific objectives of the Faculty?
  4. How the Faculty aligns itself to the university mission
  5. Meeting students’ and stakeholders’ needs
  6. What are the aims that are geared towards quality assurance?
  7. Faculty‘s role in advancing the state of the field or discipline
  8. How does the Faculty know that its aims, goals, purposes and objectives have been achieved?
  9. Medium of instruction
  10. Equity principles
  11. Commentary on how issues of employability and career development are taken into account in the design and delivery of the Faculty’s programs
  12. How are new and modified programs designed, approved and brought into effect?
  13. Curriculum content of the Faculty: program by program:
    • quality of the curriculum
    • coherence of the curriculum within and across programs (and, where appropriate, other Faculties)
    • clarity and guidance for students
    • academic quality and integrity of the Faculty
    • how recently the curricula and programs have been reviewed or amended
    • how does the Faculty assure itself of the continuing relevance of its programs and their contents?
    • How does the Faculty assure itself that the highest academic quality is ensured in its programs, to meet the needs of stakeholders?
    • How is input from different stakeholders and partners gathered and used on the programs in the Faculty?
  14. Structure of the Faculty and its contributing programs
  15. Communication of organizing principles of the Faculty
  16. How the Faculty meets students’ different needs, abilities, rates of learning, and learning strategies and styles
  17. Accelerated learning on the Faculty’s programs
  18. Student learning in the Faculty:
    • provision for, and suitability of, learning opportunities for students on different programs in the Faculty
    • quality of student learning
    • active student learning on the programs and engagement in them
    • students’ higher order thinking and application in the programs
    • opportunities for, and uptake of, internship
    • student exchange arrangements
    • e-learning and blended learning, and the support for these (e.g. hardware, software, access, speed, stability of system)
    • incorporation of new technologies for student learning
    • collaborative and cooperative learning
    • fieldwork
    • depth and breadth of student learning
    • strategies for ensuring maximum student participation and sustained success and high quality
    • implementation and evolution of the Faculty’s learning strategies and internal arrangements for reviewing these
    • internal arrangements in the Faculty for reviewing its provision of learning opportunities
    • improvements/enhancements to the learning on the Faculty’s programs over a specified period
    • evaluation of the ways of judging, and the criteria for judging, how students progress through the Faculty, and how this progression is supported, monitored and reviewed, from admission to graduation
    • disciplinary procedures and appeals in the Faculty
    • staff development provided in the Faculty, and the uptake and impact of these
  19. Teaching in the Faculty
    • provision for, and quality of, teaching
    • diversity and suitability of teaching strategies and processes
    • guidance provided on teaching
    • supervision of research students
    • what core teaching competencies are there, how are they determined, and how do these relate to the Faculty’s mission and for teaching and learning and to their programs and curricula?
    • how, and how high, is the quality of teaching and learning, how are data gathered on this, and how are improvements made?
    • evaluation of the teaching in the Faculty and how it supports students in their achievement on programs
    • internal arrangements in the Faculty for reviewing teaching
    • improvements/enhancements to the teaching on the Faculty’s programs over a specified period
    • staff development provided for developing teaching in the Faculty
    • relationship between teaching and research
    • strategies and processes for improving teaching, and the impact of these
    • strategies and processes for staff development of teaching, and the impact of these
    • is any of the teaching outsourced, and, if so, how is the quality assured?
  20. Research
    • provision for, and quality of, research and publication
    • diversity and research
    • support for research and publication
    • funded and non-funded research in the Faculty
    • research teams, individuals, their work and its impact
    • functioning of research centres
    • evaluation of the research and publication in the Faculty.  How does the Faculty evaluate the quality of its research?
    • What national, international and cross-institutional research is undertaken in the Faculty?
    • range and coherence of research in the Faculty
    • percentage of full-time and part-time staff who are active in research
    • internal arrangements in the Faculty for reviewing research, publication and their development
    • alignment of the research to the Faculty’s mission and goals
    • improvements/enhancements to the research in the Faculty over a specified period
    • relationship between teaching and research
    • strategies and methods for improving research and publication, and the impact of these; staff development provided for developing research and publication in the Faculty and the impact of these
    • study leave and its uptake
    • provision and support for encouraging excellence in research and publication at local, national and international levels
    • research training and knowledge transfer provided in the Faculty and by the university, for whom, and the uptake, impact and effectiveness of these
    • dissemination of research to key communities
    • research seminars and other related programs in the Faculty
    • research evaluation and productivity: how it is monitored, developed and its quality improved in the Faculty
    • how the support for research is evaluated, and how effective that support is
    • how new research opportunities are identified and addressed
    • resources for research in the Faculty
    • developing competencies for staff and students in research
    • how staff and students are encouraged to undertake, report and disseminate research at local, national and international levels
    • how a research culture and climate is developed and sustained in the Faculty for staff and students
    • how supervision of research is undertaken, how effective it is, and how this is evaluated and improved
    • how staff and students are inducted into research
    • what key services are provided by the Faculty for research and its development, and how these are evaluated
  21. Supervision
    • provision for, and quality of, supervision
    • support for supervision of research and research students
    • supervisor training and development
    • evaluation and review of the supervision arrangements and practices, and their effectiveness, in the Faculty
    • improvements/enhancements to the supervision arrangements and practices in the Faculty over a specified period
    • strategies for improving supervision arrangements, practices and quality, and the impact of these; staff development provided for developing supervision in the Faculty and the impact of these
  22. Resources for the Faculty
    • Adequacy of resources for learning and student support in the Faculty
    • quality of resources and facilities
    • physical space and requirements
    • library, computing, media matters and new technologies
    • how resources are used
    • administrative and technical support in the Faculty, for staff and students, and support personnel
    • physical facilities: classrooms, laboratories, office space, tutorial rooms
    • equipment and instruments, and equipment needs
    • specialist/dedicated resources
    • access by students to resources and equipment
    • Faculty costs for resources/equipment
    • planned increases in resources
  23. Health and safety in the Faculty
  24. Ethical matters relating to the work of the Faculty
  25. Student assessment and examination in the Faculty, strategies for improving student assessment, and the impact of these, strategies for staff development on student assessment, and the impact of these
  26. Marking, grading and confirmation
  27. Communication of criteria  to students for judging their work
  28. Actual student outcomes and standards
    • student outcomes and standards reached
    • trends in examination results
    • comparability of standards with other institutions
    • comments of External Examiners
    • action taken by the Faculty as a result of data on standards and achievements
    • employment and career outcomes of the students
    • feedback from former students and on their career destinations and post-graduation activities;
    • surveys of employer satisfaction with the Faculty’s graduates.
    • external measures of success
    • strategies for improving students’ achievement and standards, and the impact of these
    • strategies for staff development to improve student outcomes, and the impact of these
  29. Faculty evaluation
    • annual Faculty Review
    • peer review and assessment
    • sharing of best practice
    • benchmarking
    • periodic review (how frequently and regularly, and by whom)
    • plans for ongoing Faculty Review
    • fitness for purpose and fitness of purposes of the kinds, criteria, contents, methods, comprehensiveness, rigour of Faculty evaluation, and the clarity and suitability of these for the Faculty
    • regularity and frequency of Faculty and program evaluation
    • outcomes and impact of Faculty evaluation on Faculty and program development
    • use made of Faculty and program evaluations
    • comprehensiveness and appropriacy of Faculty reviews
    • external and internal review
    • strategies for improving Faculty evaluation, and the impact of these
    • strategies for staff development to improve Faculty evaluation, and the impact of these
    • how are data collected and used (and what data) for Faculty development and improvement
    • how does the Faculty manage the organizational knowledge and information for transfer and sharing in the Faculty (from, and to, staff, students and stakeholders)?
  30. What measures of academic performance does the Faculty use?
    How are measures of academic performance used for decision making, improvement and development, and to identify priorities and opportunities?
  31. External review and quality assurance
  32. Current strengths and weaknesses
  33. Future directions
  34. Key challenges and prospects
  35. Key opportunities


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