Quality and Standards Committee

The Quality and Standards Committee (QSC) is one of the University’s Committees, which assists the Teaching and Learning Committee in discharging its responsibilities for the University's academic quality and standards.  In turn, the Teaching and Learning committee reports to the University Education and Student Experience Committee, which reports to the Senate. QSC also provides advice to University senior committees on the implications for quality and standards of any educational strategies and policies under development and on portfolio diversification. 

The purpose of the Quality and Standards Committee is to:

• To oversee the development and review of all academic Quality and Standards related regulations, policies, procedures and codes of practice at the University of Nottingham.   This includes Memoranda of Agreement for approval and renewal as well as new/revised programme and module specifications (including microcredential modules and UoNO verification work).
• To keep relevant Quality Manual regulations, policies and procedures under regular review.
• To approve the withdrawal of programmes upon which students are currently registered or for which applicants hold offers.
• To approve requests for cases outside of regulations.
• To approve the appointment of External Examiners, Internal Assessors and External Assessors and to receive External Examiners' Reports and School responses for consideration as well as receiving reports from professional statutory and regulatory bodies with regard to accredited programmes for consideration.
• To receive Schools' annual monitoring reports for consideration and provide University summaries of areas of commendations and concerns as they relate to Academic Quality and Standards.

This information is relevant to staff and students, learners and apprentices across all of the UK, China and Malaysia campuses.  

Current members of Quality and Standards Committee

	Name
Chair	Kim Edwards
Deputy Chair	Harriet Allen
Appointed Representatives
Faculty of Arts (UNUK)	Sean Matthews
	Monica White
Faculty of Social Sciences (UNUK)	David Harvey
	Venga Sarma
Faculty of Science (UNUK)	Shailesh Mistry
	Colin Johnson
Faculty of Engineering (UNUK)	Katy Voisey
	Ed Morris
Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences (UNUK)	Ian Kerr
	Alison Mostyn
Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (UNM)	Wendy Siew Wei Gan
Faculty of Science and Engineering (UNM)	Nishanth Chemmangattvalappil
Foundation Programmes (UNM)	Premanand Krishnan
Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences (UNNC)	Shaun Goldfinch
Faculty of Science and Engineering (UNNC)	Nicholas Hamm
Nottingham University Business School China (UNNC)	Andrew Edwards
Student Representatives
Education Officer (Nottingham)	Scarlett (Jiale) Zhang
Education Officer (Malaysia)	Kayla Shaffiyah
Education Officer (China)	Lucy (Luxi) Cai
Postgraduate Officer (Nottingham)	Clement Asante
Ex Officio Members
Associate Dean, University of Nottingham Malaysia	Wei Keong Too
	Jessica Price
Associate Dean, University of Nottingham Ningbo Campus	Hao Tan
	Dave Towey
	Derek Irwin
Associate Director Quality and Student Management System, Registry and Academic Affairs	Sandra Mienczakowski
Head of Student Registry	Joo Pei Poh
Director of Academic Services Office	Maggie Yang
Associate Director of Assessments, Registry and Academic Affairs	Carolyn Taylor
Associate Director Student Wellbeing	Claire Thompson
Researcher Academy	Jeanette Woolard
Chair of Foundation Year Committee	Beverley Allan
Academic Director of Professional and Work Based Learning	Jonathan Tallant
Head of Operations, Institute for Professional and Work Based Learning	Alison Reeves
Associate Director Education Excellence	Sarah Seeley
Senior Quality Assurance Manager	Ian Bainbridge
Secretary	Educational Excellence

4.2.1 Background

Quality and Standards Committee (QSC) is key to university processes and ensuring standards, with a membership spanning all Faculties and Campuses. Additional members from Professional services departments and hold a post on QSC are 'ex offico' (i.e the role on QSC comes with the underlying role)

For the faculty representatives in the UK, this will include separate representatives for undergraduate and postgraduate levels within each Faculty.

The international campuses currently operate slightly differently in that the Associate Deans for Teaching and Learning are members, by virtue of their post. Thus for UNNC and UNM, there is one additional QSC representative for each Faculty (not two). 

The process and terms of appointment for the Faculty QSC Representative role is as follows:

• An outline person specification (see below) is available to prospective members.
• As vacancies become available University and Faculty networks will be used to advise academic staff a replacement committee member is required.
• Staff in schools may nominate themselves.
• If there is more than one nomination, candidates will be invited to interview.  In a situation where there is only one nomination the Chair will meet with the academic to discuss the role and remit of a QSC member.
• The term for service on the committee will be four years or for the duration of an 'ex offico' post is held.
• When a member reaches the end of their term they will only be asked to do a further year in exceptional circumstances. 
• Members cannot return to the Committee as representatives for 5 years after the end of their previous term; members can apply for the Chair and Deputy role within 5 years of a previous term.

4.2.2 Person specification

• Experience of Quality and Standards and related Quality Assurance structures
• Knowledge of the Quality Manual and the University of Nottingham Qualifications Framework (UNQF)
• Understanding of the roles and responsibilities of the Committee, as set out in the Terms of Reference
• Awareness of University strategic objectives
• Ability to influence, and champion the committee’s interests and aims as appropriate
• Strong analytical and communication skills 
• Critical listening and appraisal skills
• Ability to work within a framework of collective decision-making in the best interests of the Committee and the University
• Integrity to act without self-interest
• Willingness to contribute knowledge, experience and views
• Vision and commitment

4.2.3 Conditions

• Attendance at five QSC meetings annually - normally October/November, January, March, May, June, with an extra meeting in July if necessary
• Approximately 150 hours per year as set out in the Workload Planning Model
• Act as an Educational Enhancement and Assurance Review (EEAR) panel member in a Quality Assurance role. 
• Prior agreement to be sought from line manager

4.3.1 Duties of Committee members

Responsibilities of Quality and Standards Committee (QSC) members include: 

• attendance at meetings of QSC and such working groups of that committee as may be established
• membership of the pool of members constituting Academic Appeals Panels and Academic Misconduct Committees, often in the role of Chair. Determining also whether individual appeals and complaints warrant a hearing before a Panel
• attendance at regular Faculty meetings with the purpose of communicating QSC discussions and decisions, as well as receiving Faculty concerns about quality assurance matters.
• being responsible for providing interpretation and agreeing minor amendments of an allocated section of the Quality Manual on behalf of QSC
• scrutinising and making recommendations with respect to new programme specifications
• making recommendations with respect to withdrawal of programmes
• approving revised programme specifications and new and revised modules where the Quality Manual requires the involvement of QSC due to the particular nature of the new/revised material
• approving nominations for the appointment of External Examiners that fall outside the stipulations of the Quality Manual and considering External Examiners' reports 
• deciding individual student/applicant cases falling out with the Quality Manual/Regulations. Such cases must be submitted for consideration by QSC by an appropriate person with delegated authority on behalf of the relevant school or professional service
• monitoring Schools' decisions on extenuating circumstances claims
• being prepared to act as members of working groups, or periodic review panels established by the University’s Education and Student Experience Committee and to assist the University’s Assistant Pro-Vice-Chancellor (APVC) for Teaching and Curriculum Leadership in communicating with Schools on teaching and learning developments

4.3.2 Conflict of duties

Members of QSC may not be able to take on posts at school or faculty level which may sometimes be in conflict with the duties of the role as outlined above.

Members of QSC will not be given items for consideration which have been put forward for approval by their own School.

4.3.3 Support for Committee members

In all of the above activities, members can expect to receive full support and guidance from appropriate members of Registry and the Admissions team. This will include providing information on precedents in handling appeals cases and on arranging discussion of issues arising from the approval of programme specifications.

In some cases, the Committee may need to take actions notwithstanding regulations. Guidance, in the event of such situations, can be found in the following:

• QSC guidance on decisions notwithstanding regulations  

From July 2020, all Policies included within the Quality Manual havewill also been listed within a dedicated Policies section, which will functions as a directory. This can be accessed at any time by using the “Policies A - Z” button in the lower left corner of every page (within the Quality Manual)

How to propose changes to the Quality Manual

How to submit an 'outside' regulation case to the Quality and Standards Committee

Version Control Table

Version Number	Purpose/Change	Approving Committee	Date
1.0	Reformatted to align with new University of Nottingham Policy Management Framework; Content also reviewed and updated to incorporate changes to TOR for additional UNNC and UNM members.	QSC	July 2024