Review team expresses confidence in the University of Stirling’s quality arrangements

A review by the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA) has expressed confidence in the University of Stirling’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 22 November 2023.

The team identified the following areas of good practice:

• The University, in partnership with the Students' Union, has developed a 'Be Connected' scheme which provides a range of learning, wellbeing, and arts and culture events, activities and resources available through the university app, which supports community and belonging on and off campus for students and staff.
• There is ongoing collaborative activity to ensure that data supports curriculum management and reporting and to enhance the utility of, and access to, data and information.
• The University has taken positive steps to enhance the postgraduate research student environment, developing arrangements and activities to support research supervisor training and staff development - for which uptake has been good from a range of staff across different career stages, and for which feedback has been positive.

QAA also made the following recommendations:

• The University should ensure consistency in its approach to hybrid learning in accordance with university policies and reduce reliance on individual staff approaches.
• The University should develop an approach to ensure the consistent dissemination of information from Staff Student Feedback Committees to enable effective closing of the student feedback loop. 
• The University should improve the management of collaborative provision to ensure that reporting at senior institutional level is formalised and strengthened so that the University can more effectively consider issues and necessary actions at institutional level.

Professor Sir Gerry McCormac, Principal and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Stirling, said: 'I am delighted that the Quality Enhancement and Standards review has confirmed confidence in the continued effectiveness of the University of Stirling’s approaches to maintaining academic quality and standards and enhancing the student learning experience.

 'I am also particularly pleased that the review panel recognised the range of work we undertake within our approach to continuously developing the student experience at Stirling, and particularly acknowledged our Be Connected student life programme, our use of data, and our approach to enhancing the postgraduate research student environment. 

'We are grateful to the staff and students who contributed to the review and to review panel members for their valuable insights.'

You can read the full Quality Enhancement and Standards Review report for the University of Stirling on the QAA website.