Introducing our new Head of Membership Delivery

As QAA publishes its plans for the next Membership year, we thought it would be good to have a chat with our new Head of UK and International Membership Delivery about her reflections on her new role and her ambitions for the future impact of her team.

Steph Tindall joined QAA in February, coming from the University of Wales Trinity St David, where she served as Head of Organisational Development and, before that, Head of Educational Practice Development. Prior to that, she spent 12 years at Pembrokeshire College, working first and as lecturer before progressing to become Quality Improvement and Organisational Development Manager and 8 years on the senior leadership team.

Steph studied in her native Wales, gaining a BSc in Early Childhood Education & Teaching and a PGCE from the University of Glamorgan, and an MA in Education with Leadership from Wrexham University.  

As she reflects on her first couple of months in her new role, her enthusiasm is almost palpable. Energy comes off her in waves.

"I'm so delighted and thrilled to be working with such great people and for an organisation which does so much to support and enhance the quality of provision across our sector," she says. "It's wonderful to be in a place where we can support – and hopefully inspire – the aspirations of providers across our vital sector – providers, students and staff."

QAA's Membership Delivery team is responsible for the provision of resources, training, Collaborative Enhancement Projects, networks and events.

"We're here to serve and support our members and to have real impacts on their work to enhance the quality of their learning, teaching and assessment practices," she says. "We're very focused on listening to our members' needs and aspirations, and on working collaboratively with our members to support the processes of continual enhancement at a time when we all understand that resources have become increasingly constrained."

She is particularly eager to meet members' growing needs for support and professional development in the area of quality, and for members to make use of QAA as a resource to support their own quality processes.

"We're the go-to resource for quality," she explains. "I'd like to think of QAA as the LinkedIn Learning for quality – and for our members to use us as their own virtual learning environment. We can help our over-stretched colleagues across the sector manage increasingly heavy workloads through sharing resource and effective practices, and by being hands-on in supporting the operational aspects of quality assurance activities."

She stresses that it's therefore vital that all employees of QAA Member organisations realise that they are members of QAA and can access the wealth of resources, networks, events and opportunities for involvement that we offer. She sees that widening participation in our activities as a key to unlocking the full value that QAA Membership gives.

She is currently working to enhance the emphasis and impacts of QAA's networks to facilitate greater interactivity and collaboration and to foster long-term relationship-building between professionals and between providers, for the promotion of their mutual interests.

"Network meetings are hugely useful," she says. "And we'll be doing more to nurture and stimulate the development of those networking communities between those meetings."

Having spent much of her second month in her new role meeting with the leads of QAA's latest phase of Collaborative Enhancement Projects (CEPs), Steph feels inspired by the value that these innovative initiatives will bring to the enhancement of the sector – and by the enhanced levels of support which her team are able to offer these projects.

"QAA-funded CEPs bring huge benefits across the sector," she says. "It's a privilege to support this brilliant work – working with such inspirational colleagues from so many providers so focused on making things so much better – and also so much smoother, easier and more affordable – for everyone."

Steph's enthusiasm for this work is clearly motivated and energised by her passionate commitment to the sector-led and sector-owned principles which underpin the enhancement of the quality and the robust maintenance of the standards of our work.

"When we open up all these initiatives, activities, opportunities and resources, we find the principles of the UK Quality Code at the heart of all," she insists. "It's a bit like a stick of rock. The Quality Code and its principles aren't just a resource. They run through everything. They're at the core of our being. They're not just what we do. They're who we are."

Find out more about our plans for QAA Membership in 2025-26 here.