August 2012

Preparations for the QAA Institutional Review in December are progressing well. The first stage of the review involves the University producing a Self Evaluation Document (SED) and the Students Union producing a Student Written Submission (SWS).

An away day was held in June and the first draft of the SED was considered by Quality and Scrutiny Committee on 31st July. The final version of both the SED and SWS will be submitted to QAA during week commencing 24th September.

An initial meeting with QAA about the process is scheduled for 21st August, and the QAA Review Team will meet with the VC and other key staff and Students Union Officers on 30th and 31st October. Following this meeting we will receive notifications of the agenda for the visit in December and an indication of the lines of enquiry.

The University has recently commissioned Gill Clarke to undertake a piece of work to advise the University of Sheffield on the effectiveness of the academic management systems we put in place in 2008 at the time of the creation of the new Faculty structure.

Gill Clarke recently become a doctoral student at the University of Oxford, researching for a thesis entitled "The final assessment of the doctorate: a study of how examiners assess PhD candidates." She was previously Director of the Education Support Unit at the University of Bristol and she has also been an Assistant Director at the Quality Assurance Agency. Gill has wide experience of quality assurance and quality enhancement in all levels of student programmes and has advised a number of bodies and organisations on the effectiveness of their systems. She was recently elected as Vice-Chair of the UK's Council for Graduate Education.

Gill has been reviewing a variety of TUOS documents which set out our policies, procedures and practices relating to both taught and research provision and is meeting representatives from Learning and Teaching Committee and its Sub-Committees, staff involved in Research and Innovation Committees and staff involved in recent collaborative developments prior to finalising her report.

The information exchange with HEFCE for the Key Information Set return and publication is well underway. We have now uploaded institutional data and are awaiting further communication from HEFCE for the next phase of the process.

National Student Survey Results from the 2012 survey are now being issued to institutions by Ipsos Mori. The first phase, comprising of our own data only, has been made available http://www.shef.ac.uk/nss/2012 and subsequent phases will be released on 31 August (our own students’ comments) and 17 September (sector data).

On Wednesday 8th August Andrew West hosted a visitor from University of New South Wales, Sydney. Bill Ashraf manages Evaluation Services within the Learning and Teaching Unit at UNSW, and is particularly interested in the 'student voice'. 

Regarding the "Student Voice Project" at UNSW Bill says "essentially, we wish to explore good practice occurring in other universities and the way they capture the 'student voice' and act on the information / data obtained. There are currently major developments impacting on the Australian HE landscape, particularly with the development and roll out of national performance measures for teaching quality (analogous to the NSS) and their publication on the MyUniversity website. This is somewhat uncharted territory for the Aussies. However, having worked at the universities of Bradford and Sussex I appreciate the importance of getting our approach right and aligning our strategies and operations to cope with the challenges/opportunities ahead."

Bill also met with Deanna Meth and Amy Jeffries who manage a number of strategic 'learning and teaching' projects, and Simon Beecroft who oversees a number of institutional student surveys and evaluations . They identified potential areas for sharing information, particularly around continuing professional development.

The Faculty of Arts and Humanities have a number of exciting events coming up including workshops, conferences, concerts (of which many are free!) and films.

A key event for August is the British Association for Victorian Studies Conference 2012, "Victorian Value: Ethics Economics, Aesthetics" which will be held from Thursday 30th August to Saturday 1st September.  The conference is aimed at academics and postgraduate students.  Further details and booking information are available here: http://www.shef.ac.uk/english/bavs

The Faculty of Engineering in collaboration with its team of Student Ambassadors for Learning and Teaching (SALT) have completed the review of the "Before" section of the Engineering Central website; a site "written by students for students" providing study tips, department specific information, useful links, videos and explanations.  It covers everything from "What is a module?" to which professional bodies each department work with.

This first section is now available to new and prospective students to help them with their transition between A Levels and University life. 

Special thanks go to Matthew Marson and Bernadette Deere for their support with the review process.

Registrations have now opened for the annual learning and teaching event: Sustaining Excellence in Research Led Teaching in the Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health.

This exciting new annual learning and teaching event will provide you with the opportunity to hear from Tony Weetman, Faculty Pro Vice Chancellor, Paul Hellewell, Faculty Director of Research and Innovation, Susan Bridgeford, Faculty Director of Operations, Margaret Freeman, Faculty Director of Learning and Teaching and colleagues across the University, understand & contribute to the learning & teaching priorities of your Faculty, access professional development & support for your teaching role, become an active member of our research-led teaching community and
see a showcase of good practice in Technology Enhanced Learning or Development of New Programmes.

The event is taking place on Tuesday, 25th September 2012 from 9.15 a.m. to 1.00 p.m. at The Edge, The Endcliffe Village, Endcliffe Crescent, Sheffield S10 3ED.

Escape the office and join us at The Edge ... set in landscaped gardens looking out over the piazza. There is car parking, free of charge. The Edge is also on a very reliable bus route that runs through the city centre, just hop on the number 40 or 120. **Refreshments and lunch will be provided**.

To take advantage of this great opportunity register at: http://www.sheffield.ac.uk/faculty/medicine-dentistry-health/landtinfosession

The Faculty of Arts and Humanities online events calendar is located here and provides details and links to all upcoming events.