The School of Life Sciences (SLS) has established policies and procedures that seek to provide the highest quality of education. The School Quality Assurance policy reflects that of the University.

The School Quality Officer coordinates best practice for the whole of the School of Life Sciences and is responsible for managing the quality assurance procedures. The Quality Officer is assisted by an Administrator and secretarial support. The School Quality Officer attends meetings of the University’s Quality Forum. The School Quality Officer also reports to the School of Life Sciences Education Committee and co-operates with the other Quality Officers for the College.

These procedures have been reviewed and updated in consideration of the 2005 Review of Departmental Programmes of Teaching Learning and Assessment, and further revised in line with the University’s document on the Role of the Departmental Quality Assurance and Enhancement Officer (2008-9).

Course Information Documents are produced for Level-1 and Level-2 courses and for Level-3 and Level-4 programmes; these documents are updated annually. The layout, format and content of these documents follow a uniform pattern across all School undergraduate courses.

A supplementary document, “Regulations & advice for Level 3 and Level 4 students in the School of Life Sciences”, is also produced.

Course Information Documents are also produced for Postgraduate Taught programmes.

All undergraduate assessments are judged in line with the University’s Code of Assessment. For full details, see current Assessment Regulations and Guidelines.

Appointment of External Examiners

See Procedure for nominating External Examiners for undergraduate and taught postgraduate courses.

Provision of Information to External Examiners

External Examiners are sent appropriate course information, annual monitoring reports, draft examination papers, details of the Code of Assessment (including primary and secondary verbal descriptors) and, where appropriate, solutions to questions. Draft examination papers should be sent to the External Examiners in good time, to allow them to suggest and discuss amendments.

External Examiners Reports

See External Examiner Report procedure for undergraduate courses.

The University has instituted a system for monitoring courses annually. This requires each undergraduate and taught postgraduate course or programme to complete a proforma at the end of the academic session, the Annual Monitoring Report (AMR).

The School Office circulates the AMR proforma to undergraduate Course Coordinators while the College Graduate School circulates the proforma to postgraduate Coordinators. Completed AMRs for Level-3 Honours programmes should incorporate the relevant Designated Degree programmes; Combined Honours programmes should be considered with the Single Honours programme.

The completed AMRs should be considered by:

• For Level-1: the Level-1 Coordinating Committee
• For Level-2: the relevant Level-2 Course Committee
• For Level-3 and Level-4: the relevant Honours Course Committee or Degree Group Committee
• For Taught Postgraduate Courses: the Higher Degrees Committee

The Course Coordinator should return the completed AMR and should keep a copy of the completed report for their own files.

The School Quality Officer will prepare a report on these AMRs which will be considered by the School of Life Sciences Education Committee, the Science Taught Programmes Committee/the Faculties of Science Higher Degrees Committee and the University’s Quality Forum. This latter Committee will prepare a commentary for the Academic Standards Committee.

The School Office sends copies of the undergraduate reports to relevant External Examiners.

In September, the School Office emails all undergraduate Course Coordinators and Option Organisers to remind them of the procedures for proposing new courses and programmes or changes to existing courses and programmes.

All course proposals (changes, new courses and withdrawals) must be submitted through the Programme Information Project (PIP) System. Proposals will then be considered by the SLS Education Committee (or SLS Higher Degrees Committee) and the College Board of Studies.

Student Questionnaires

All courses should issue at least one comprehensive questionnaire. However, questionnaires should not be too daunting for the students. A smaller questionnaire each term is better than a huge questionnaire once a year. End-of-year questionnaires can be used to cover more general aspects of the course. If a single questionnaire is used, it should be issued near the end of the course. If possible, time should be set aside during a teaching or assessment period to fill in the questionnaire. The students should not take the questionnaire away to fill in.

An analysis of the returns should be provided to all teaching staff on the course and sent to the School Office as soon as it is available. The School Office will draw any significant issues to the attention of the Head of School. The analysis should also be considered at a meeting of the Course Committee. Any changes felt necessary as a result are implemented as soon as possible. The analyses should also be discussed in Annual Monitoring Reports.

Staff-Student Liaison Committees

See current Undergraduate School of Life Sciences: Committee Structure document.