Implementing the evaluative approach to quality assurance

The new quality assurance framework with its two main components of self-assessment and external evaluation and review is on track for implementation from September.

Self-assessment encompasses the on-going organisation-wide processes that enable a tertiary education organisation (TEO) to understand how well it is performing and how it uses that information to make worthwhile improvements.

External evaluation and review - replacing quality audit - will result in organisational-level judgements being made about the level of confidence the Quality Assurance Body has in a TEO's educational performance and the effectiveness of its self-assessment, i.e what the TEO knows about its performance and how it uses this information to improve.

NZQA has finalised the policy of how the new system will work. The statements of confidence resulting from external evaluation and review will be: highly confident, confident, not yet confident and not confident.

"We've asked the tertiary sector to comment on various aspects of the new framework - overall they've been very supportive," says NZQA Deputy Chief Executive, Quality Assurance, Tim Fowler. "We've taken onboard many of the comments and considered advice from an Expert Advisory Group and the Tertiary Education Commission to come up with our final recommendations."

"Although some TEOs preferred two or three levels of confidence, there is sound rationale for four levels of statements of confidence. There are two statements to describe TEOs that demonstrate acceptable quality and two to describe those that do not. Not yet confident and Not confident allow a distinction to be made between the TEO which is close to an acceptable status and the TEO where there are major concerns about organisational capability and/or educational quality."

"There was a very positive reaction from the sector to the five proposed core key evaluation questions which provide the basis for external evaluations. A sixth question, relating to the effectiveness of governance and management in supporting educational achievement, has also been added to the external evaluation and review system," Tim says.

TEOs must maintain a minimum level of educational performance and organisational capability - at least at the confident level. Should a TEO fall below that level, responses could range from agreed actions requiring quality improvements, to placing conditions on or withdrawing course approval, accreditation or registration.

NZQA has decided there will be a single report produced and published following external evaluation and review of a TEO.

NZQA is appointing new staff to assist TEOs with self-assessment and is also recruiting and training lead evaluators and evaluators.

Detailed guidance for self-assessment and information concerning external evaluation and review will be available to the sector by the end of June.