QAA Scotland & CDN STEP up again

On 29 January, QAA Scotland and the College Development Network (CDN) hosted the second day-long event 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 (SFC).

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.

STEP was launched at an event at the University of Stirling in December, which introduced the current STEP cycle's Topic Leads: Adelayo Adebayo, Vice President Education at the University of Stirling Students' Union; Chloe Sandilands, Student President at New College Lanarkshire; Dr Derek Robertson, Director of Student Experience at City of Glasgow College; and Professor Steve Tucker, Dean of Quality Assurance and Enhancement at the University of Aberdeen.

This second STEP Discovery Day took place in Inverness, and focused on shaping collaborative enhancement projects and forming project teams, with staff and students from colleges and universities working together to develop ideas and initiatives designed to enhance the experience and study outcomes for diverse learners across Scotland.

Dr Heather Fotheringham, Quality Enhancement Manager at QAA Scotland, said: "It was great to see so much energy and enthusiasm and to hear so many exciting ideas and plans at our event in Inverness. The venues for these Discovery Days have been spread across Scotland to encourage the broadest possible participation of students and colleagues from further and higher education – so we're looking forward to meeting more wonderful new people and hearing even more brilliant new ideas as we continue to engage with students and colleagues across Scotland."

Victoria Underwood, Director of Operations at CDN, said: "Today’s Discovery Day in Inverness was a fantastic opportunity to bring together students and staff from colleges and universities across Scotland to collaborate on enhancing the learning experience for all. This event exemplifies the STEP initiative’s commitment to fostering innovative ideas and forming partnerships that will drive meaningful change. At CDN, we are proud to support these efforts, and it’s inspiring to witness such energy and creativity as we shape the future of tertiary education together."

Future events this year will take place in Glasgow and Dundee.

Over the course of four Discovery Days this year, participants will develop proposals for the projects within this topic that will be implemented through the following three years of this cycle of STEP.

STEP is one of the delivery mechanisms of the SFC's Tertiary Quality Enhancement Framework (TQEF). TQEF is designed to develop a coherent and streamlined tertiary education system that supports colleges and universities in delivering the best learning experience for students.

As part of the TQEF, QAA Scotland is also responsible for the delivery of Scotland's Tertiary Quality Enhancement Review (TQER) method, also commissioned by the SFC. This replaces the separate review methods used in Scotland’s colleges and universities ('Quality Enhancement and Standards Review' for universities and 'How Good Is Our College' for colleges) with a single approach to review the management of academic quality, standards and the student experience across all FE and HE education institutions in Scotland. QAA Scotland is the Scottish division of The Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education.

CDN, as Scotland's national enhancement and improvement agency for the college sector, plays a crucial role in supporting colleges to fully participate in the TQEF. Working in partnership with QAA Scotland, CDN supports the delivery of the sector-owned STEP initiative, ensuring that colleges and universities have the structures and processes needed to focus on impactful projects and activities. Alongside QAA and with support from Education Scotland's HM Inspectors, CDN develops leadership, governance, and staff development resources to enhance sector capacity and ensure the successful implementation of quality assurance processes aligned with SFC guidance. Together, these efforts contribute to a stronger, more collaborative tertiary education landscape in Scotland.