Graduate School Review

All higher education institutions in the UK are individually responsible for the quality of their educational provision.  However, to help ensure that quality is maintained and enhanced throughout the sector the Scottish Funding Council, through the sector’s Quality Assurance Agency (QAA), has developed and recommended a Quality Enhancement Framework (QEF) for use by all institutions.  This includes:

• institutional responsibility for quality, incorporated institution-led/self-evaluation and review;
• external review (by QAA in the Scottish University sector – Enhancement-led institution review (ELIR);
• student engagement in quality arrangements;
• information for stakeholders and the public on quality; and
• the promotion of enhancement, for example through thematic approaches in university strategies.  

All elements of the QEF are interdependent as one process closely relates to and is referred to by other processes within the Framework.   

The Graduate School Review is similar to the Periodic Subject Review but for PGR / Graduate School matters and forms a key part of the University’s quality assurance activities.  These Reviews take place in a 5 year cycle and form part of the Quality Assurance Agency’s (QAA) Quality Enhancement Framework (QEF).

 The purpose and benefit of an internal graduate school review is threefold:

• to provide an opportunity for the University to evaluate its provision, the processes it uses to support its students and the resources available to ensure that provision is of a consistently high quality across the institution;
• to build the case for investment and institutional change to support postgraduate research; and
• to enable the University to provide evidence of the high quality of its postgraduate research provision when required.

The operation of a system of institutional self-evaluation and review demonstrates the University’s commitment to quality to students, external reviewers and other relevant stakeholders. 

The Graduate School Review process provides a formal opportunity for a Graduate School to reflect on and critically evaluate its PGR provision and processes relating to its management and to benefit from a constructive dialogue with senior academics from outwith the College.  It is intended to be a positive and constructive activity, supporting Graduate Schools in the enhancement of their provision; it is not punitive or intended to be confrontational.