Expectations on Higher Education providers to monitor their enhancement and compliance activities are diverging across the UK with major implications for the management of partnerships. The Office for Students has consulted on minimum standards and proposes new quality definitions to replace the UK Quality Code. No such changes will be mandatory in Scotland and Wales where it is likely that institutions will continue to work to a more wide-ranging enhancement approach.
Speakers from across the UK will outline models for monitoring enhancement within and across partnerships and provide expect perspectives on the future of enhancement. They will also consider implications for a single UK-HE brand in transnational education.

2pm Chair’s Welcome and Overview Dr. Myfanwy Davies, Bangor University

2.05 pm
Prof Michael Young, DVC University of Sunderland

Academic quality enhancement in TNE – present and future

The University of Sunderland has for many years successfully used adaptable franchise models for TNE, involving close cooperation between on-campus and partner-based academics and an overall approach closely aligned to the QAA Quality Code. This talk will explore how these existing approaches to quality monitoring, support and partner engagement are being rethought in response to radical changes proposed by the English regulator, the Office for Students.

2.30 pm
Prof Oliver Turnbull, DVC Bangor University

Learning from our mistakes: an enhancement approach from Wales

Setting up and maintaining partnerships is a complex and challenging exercise. This talk offers five pieces of hard-won advice, with particular reference to the Welsh sector and TNE. We’ve made the mistakes, so you don’t have to! The suggestions reflect some advice about: setting up good systems at the initial phases; assigning manageable tasks to responsible people; building in good governance; taking advantage of what might be described as ‘Celtic’ approaches to regulation; and finally, the advantages of Celtic approaches to quality enhancement. Partnerships can be a difficult to set up and maintain, but can also be rewarding, and the talk ends with a brief list of the positives, for both staff and students.
2.55 pm
Dr. Margaret King, Head of Academic Quality, Herriot-Watt University
Multi-Mode Partnerships in a Multi-Location, Multi-Mode Institution: The Challenges of Enhancement”.

3.20 Break

3.25 pm
Dr. Elizabeth Gormley-Fleming, Associate Director Academic Quality Assurance and
Dr. Jo Cahill, Deputy Associate Dean - Quality Assurance and Enhancement, e, University of Hertfordshire.
“Transnational Education in Egypt: a case study examining how quality is ensured at institutional and programme level in a new and rapidly expanding partner during the Covid 19 Pandemic”

3.45-4pm
Q&A