Training for quality assurance in higher education: practical insights for effective design and successful delivery

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Table 1. Topics to be considered in designing quality assurance training programmes (at advanced and initial levels)

Content blocks	Topics
A. Setting the scene	Understanding quality in higher education (What constitutes quality? Where can it be observed? How is it manifesting?) Aims, objectives and approaches to quality assurance (What is quality assurance trying to achieve and why? Who should engage and how?) Features of quality assurance systems or frameworks. The assurance continuum (What is compliance? What is assurance? What is enhancement? What is excellence? What is a quality culture?)
	Consideration of national contexts (What are national/regional/international motivators? Who influences sectoral directions? What requirements do institutions need to comply with? What standards are expected? How do institutions compare at system level?) Consideration of institutional contexts (What is specific about the institutions represented? What is the interplay between various structures and roles in driving quality)
B. Internal quality assurance	Overview of areas in focus for internal quality assurance (What is subject to internal quality assurance? How are interdependencies accounted for?)
	Benefits and challenges of internal quality assurance procedures (What structural set-ups are available? How can quality assurance support institutional development? What quality assurance instruments can render effective outcomes?)
	Detailed analysis of problematic areas (How are standards/expectations increasing? What must be addressed?) Context-specific solutions available for institutional implementation […] (What are effective ways of addressing problematic areas?)
	Involvement of stakeholders in internal quality assurance (How to involve various stakeholder groups? What contributions may be expected? What impact may such contributions have?)
C. External quality assurance	Overview of areas in focus for external quality assurance (How are areas clustered? What reference points are applicable?)
	Benefits and challenges of external quality assurance procedures (What is the rationale for external review/assessments? What contributions can they make institutionally/nationally/regionally/internationally?)
	External quality assurance methodologies for institutional or programme review/assessment (What are defining features? What is likely to happen during a review? What are reviewers likely to focus on? What standards are used and how?) Outcomes from external quality assurance methodologies (How are outcomes arrived at? What outcomes are possible and what consequences do they carry? What is frequently commended/recommended?)
	Involvement of stakeholders in external quality assurance (How to involve various stakeholder groups? What contributions may be expected? What impact may such contributions have?)
Conclusions	Discussion of the synergies between internal and external quality assurance. Summary of key messages relevant for quality assurance development. Summary of expectations of roles involved with quality assurance.

Table 2. Internal quality assurance areas of development worth highlighting in training

Suggested discussion points for internal quality assurance

What are more effective solutions for …? engaging stakeholders, including students, staff, employers, regulators; promoting mission and vision as consistent drivers for strategic and operational decision-making; developing and maintaining an employability focus across teaching, learning, research, service-to-society; ensuring parity and sustainability for student and staff experiences, covering academic, research, industry-based and administrative experiences in face-to-face, blended, hybrid or fully online modes; guaranteeing continuity through student and staff retention models; proposing strategic approaches to staff development and professional growth opportunities; developing more meaningful staff performance appraisal systems; widening participation in higher education for underrepresented or disadvantaged students; supporting students with disabilities, focusing on accessibility; embedding recognition of prior learning models, including for informal/non-formal/experiential learning; encouraging, at system level, and monitoring research-infused teaching; integrating internships, especially where these are compulsory within the programme curriculum; closing the feedback loop and communicating effectively, including on social media; providing mental health monitoring and support, including for online arrangements; protecting students from major changes or programme or institutional closures.

Table 3. Non-exhaustive list of areas likely to be scrutinised as part of external quality assurance

Suggested discussion points for external quality assurance

What are acceptable descriptors and adequate procedures for…? translating mission, vision, core values into operational planning and implementation across all levels; defining institutional quality culture; measuring successful quality assurance; managing risk and minimising its impact on the student experience; safeguarding and promoting academic freedom through governance; embedding (internal and external) externality; establishing academically viable and legally robust partnerships; enhancing accessibility and transparency in response to public accountability demands; managing public information, including aspects of version control, approval and sign-off; ensuring meaningful and confident student contribution to senior committees; attributing responsibility for institutional roles (nomination, election, competition); explicitly quantifying workload expectations and monitoring performance accordingly; ensuring alignment between staff development and strategic drivers; stimulating learning autonomy and student-centeredness; planning and developing internationalisation practices aligned with mission and vision; using innovative technology and safe social or virtual media for educational interaction (data protection); demonstrating academic integrity; capturing and escalating appeals and complaints (including for admission processes); clarifying graduate attributes and integrating transferrable, interdisciplinary 21^st century citizenship skills.

Table 4. Suggested quality assurance principles to be highlighted in the two types of training

Quality assurance principles to be highlighted
What does quality assurance strive for?
Level: Initial Type: Capacity building	Formalisation of practice: reducing informal interactions (where formality is beneficial) and ensuring relevant (quantitative/qualitative) information is collected and documentation is compiled to support parity, continuity and sustainability of actions. Institutionalisation of activities: employing system-based procedures that capture specific practices and allow for effective oversight (across planning, development, allocation of resources). Alignment to mission and vision: having a strategic filter for all actions proposed or approved and clear understanding of how individual actions contribute to strategic aims and support the fulfilment of the institutional mission and its short/medium/long-term vision. Calibration of structures: ensuring centralised and decentralised arrangements are fit-for-purpose and streamlined to render effectiveness. Coordination of initiatives: harmonising bottom-up and top-down initiatives and proposing sufficiently distributed ownership to allow a collective sense of responsibility. Preoccupation for good practice: constant focus on identifying/labelling, capturing/collecting and disseminating/multiplying good practice at all institutional and cross-institutional levels.
Level: Advanced Type: Professional development	Consideration of context-specificity and culture-sensitivity: a clear sense of how these guide quality assurance developments and decisions in the absence of highly prescriptive qualitative or quantitative indicators. Risk assessment and management: integrated into internal management processes for all areas of higher education delivery (teaching, learning, assessment, research, professional support services, community/industry-involvement). Usage of and reliance on data-driven indicators: to ascertain progress and analyse risk. Benchmarking: fit-for-purpose and supportive of institutional strategic aims. Reflective practice: developing and instituting formal opportunities for continuous reflection, monitoring and adjustment for increased effectiveness. Application of recognition and empowerment models: ensuring distributed, collective responsibility for maintaining and improving quality. Action planning: effectively carried out to include considerations of proportionality, prioritisation, involvement of externality, clear lines of accountability, system-wide integration, manageable action points (forming S.M.A.R.T. action lines), realistic timelines and sustainable resourcing.

Table 5. Suggested learning outcomes for training programmes focusing on quality assurance in higher education

Knowledge, awareness and understanding of…	Competences, abilities and skills to…	Values, beliefs and attitudes to…
Key drivers (by stakeholder type) and underlying principles of quality assurance in higher education; Key areas of higher education that contribute directly or indirectly to the educational experience of students, staff, other stakeholders; Contextual variables and how these need to be considered for quality assurance purposes; Internal and external procedures, mechanisms and tools applied to improve (from unsatisfactory to good), maintain or enhance (from good to better) the quality of the educational experience; Institutional roles that interplay for quality assurance purposes (including expectations of own role).	Promote quality assurance objectives to ensure effective engagement by stakeholders; Act as a catalyst for institutional debates on key areas of higher education; Assess the relevance of contextual elements, propose and implement actions that are fit-for-context and render measurable benefits; Engage with, apply and develop quality assurance procedures, mechanisms and tools by considering both effort and impact; Recognise emerging discrepancies, anticipate conflicting reactions amongst institutional roles and stakeholders; and diplomatically assess the validity, reliability and usability of specific motivators.	Be committed to contributing to the development of a high-quality experience for students, staff and other stakeholders; Be considerate of different opinions and mindful of competing priorities expressed by various stakeholders; Be attentive to national requirements, institutional dynamics, conventions, habits and individual professional sensitivities; Be conscious of the limitations of particular roles and capable of balancing pressures, tackling challenges and reducing dissatisfactions.