| Term/Abbreviation | Definition |
|---|
| Academic session (or academic year) |
The 12-month period, beginning in September, during which courses are taught and assessed |
| Academic standards |
The standards that individual degree-awarding bodies set and maintain for the award of their academic credit or qualifications. These may exceed the threshold academic standards. They include the standards of performance that a student needs to demonstrate to achieve a particular classification of a qualification, such as a first-class honours degree classification in a certain subject or the award of merit or distinction in a master’s degree. |
| Academic quality |
How, and how well, the higher education provider supports students to enable them to achieve their award. It covers learning, teaching and assessment, and all the different resources and processes a provider puts in place to help students progress and fulfil their potential. |
| Award |
The degree, certificate or diploma which is conferred following the successful completion of a defined programme of study |
| Credit |
A means of quantifying and recognising learning whenever and wherever it is achieved. Credit is awarded in recognition of achievement of learning outcomes at a specified level |
| Credit Level |
An indicator of the relative complexity, demand and/or depth of learning |
| Degree Classification |
The final grade that denotes overall achievement on a Taught Programme. |
| EEARS |
Educational Enhancement and Assurance Review |
| Formative Assessment |
An assessment that does not count towards final grade but supports learning |
| Learning outcomes |
Statement of what a learner is expected to know, understand and/or be able to demonstrate after completion of a process of learning. |
| Micro-credential |
A unit of learning that is credit-bearing against a recognised level of the Qualifications Frameworks. Whilst there is no upper or lower limits of credit that a micro-credential carries it is not normally an award in its own right on the Qualifications Frameworks. |
| Module |
A discrete ‘chunk’ or unit of learning with its own learning outcomes and, usually, its own assessment. |
| Monitoring |
The routine collection and analysis of information that focuses on an area of work, project or programme/course, undertaken while the area of work, project or programme/course is ongoing |
| OfS |
Office for Students |
| PACER |
Periodic Assurance and Continuous Enhancement Review |
| Programme |
Comprises the approved curriculum followed by a student for a specified award upon which the student is registered |
| Progression |
The formal journey that students take through a course, or from one course to another, requiring study at a particular level, typically enabled by achieving a minimum number of credits in order to move to the next stage. |
| PSRB |
Professional, statutory, or regulatory body |
| QAA |
Quality Assurance Agency |
| QM |
Quality Manual |
| QSC |
Quality and Standards Committee |
| Quality Assurance |
The process for checking that the academic standards and quality of higher education provision meet agreed expectations |
| Quality enhancement |
Deliberate steps taken at provider level to improve the quality of students' learning opportunities. |
| Summative Assessment |
Assessment that counts towards your final mark/Degree classification |
| Threshold academic standards |
The minimum acceptable level of achievement that a student has to demonstrate to be eligible for the award of academic credit or a qualification. For equivalent qualification, the threshold level of achievements is agreed across the UK |
| UoNO |
University of Nottingham Online |