Review team expresses confidence in Scotland's Rural College's quality arrangements

A review by the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA) has expressed confidence in Scotland's Rural College's progress in continuing to monitor, review and enhance its higher education provision to enable effective arrangements to be in place for managing academic standards and the quality of the student experience.

The review was carried out by a team of three independent reviewers who were appointed by QAA. The review visit took place on 24 April 2024.

The team identified the following area of good practice:

• The review team considered the annual monitoring process undertaken at programme and departmental level to be highly effective, robust, well-documented and consistently implemented across Scotland's Rural College. The impact of the recently expanded annual dialogue meetings on quality enhancement and the student experience were evident through the identification of good practice, actions arising and areas for development.

QAA also made the following recommendations:

• Scotland's Rural College should consistently implement the framework supporting professional development for all those engaged in teaching and ensure that support is in place and training is completed prior to teaching for postgraduate research students who teach on a voluntary or employed basis.  

• Scotland's Rural College should address issues concerning access to, and communication about, the support and opportunities available to distance-learning and postgraduate research students to help ensure the parity and consistency of the student experience.

Professor Wayne Powell, the Principal of Scotland's Rural College, said:

'On behalf of the students and staff of SRUC, I am delighted that the Quality Enhancement and Standards Review has confirmed confidence in the continued effectiveness of our approaches to maintain academic quality and standards and enhance the student learning experience. 

'The fact that the review team commended our approach to annual monitoring and the role of annual dialogue meetings in quality enhancement, demonstrates the effectiveness of this process, which involves all academic teams across SRUC and evolves annually to enhance the effectiveness of the approach.

'I would like to thank the QAA review team for their considered approach to engaging with the SRUC and the students and staff who contributed to the review.'

You can read the full Quality and Enhancement Standards Review report for Scotland's Rural College on the QAA website.