Micro-credentials good practice: A tertiary view from Scotland
17/11/2023 - Dr Anne Tierney, Deputy Chair of the Scottish Tertiary Education Network for Micro-credentials
We have expertise in safeguarding academic standards and enhancing the quality of the student experience offered in Scotland wherever and however delivered. We promote excellent, responsive and inspiring learning provided in partnership with students.
New for 2023-24
Tertiary Quality Project
QAA is delighted to have been commissioned by the Scottish Funding Council (SFC) to lead key areas of Scotland’s Tertiary Quality Project (TQP). The TQP involves the development and delivery of a common approach to assuring and enhancing quality in Scotland’s tertiary sector from academic year 2024-25.
We are leading on two important project workstreams in collaboration with the SFC, sector agencies, and staff and students from Scotland’s colleges and universities.
Quality arrangements for 2024-25
Our current external review method is Tertiary Quality Enhancement Review (TQER).
The Tertiary Enhancement Topic is 'The future of learning and teaching: Defining and delivering an effective and inclusive digital/blended offering'.
Latest news
QAA and CDN STEP up for a third time
| Date: | March 27 - 2025 |
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On Wednesday 26 March, QAA Scotland and the College Development Network (CDN) hosted a day-long event in Glasgow as part of a major new initiative to support further and higher education.
Called Scotland's Tertiary Enhancement Programme (STEP), this initiative has been commissioned by the Scottish Funding Council, and is run in partnership between CDN and QAA Scotland.
The STEP initiative is Scotland’s new national enhancement programme for colleges and universities. It is designed to enable colleges and universities to work together to improve and enhance learning, teaching, the student experience and staff development across tertiary education in Scotland.
Launched last autumn, STEP supports and promotes the development of collaborative projects designed to create positive impacts for Scotland's tertiary education sector. Each four-year cycle of STEP activities will be themed around a particular topic. The topic of STEP's first cycle of activities, which will run until 2028, is the development of strategies to support diverse learner journeys.
This week's third STEP event followed similar events which took place in Stirling in December and in Inverness in January.
The Glasgow event included sessions in which participants shared ideas around approaches to student engagement and the evaluation of the impacts of the outcomes of planned projects.
"It's brilliant to see colleagues exploring how they can really make a difference for students," said Alison Eales, Quality Enhancement Manager at QAA Scotland.
Dr Gail Toms, Delivery and Engagement Partner at CDN, added: "It's been fantastic to see such creative and forward-thinking ideas come together. The enthusiasm from participants shows how much potential there is to make a real impact across Scotland’s tertiary sector."
Blogs
Quality enhancement through collaboration, trust and empowerment (a celebration of the Scottish approach)
28/09/22 - Sir Paul Grice, Principal and Vice-Chancellor, Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh
Past, present and future: Evaluating Enhancement Themes - a journey through space time?
10/08/22 - Clare Parks, Quality Enhancement Specialist, QAA Scotland
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