2.6 Academic Scrutiny Panel

1. The standing Academic Scrutiny Panel will have membership of 12-16 academic members of staff with each faculty nominating members to normally sit for a period of up to 4 years. These will include the Associate FPVC (ESE) but there will be a quorum of 4-5, to include an Academic Registry and student representative, and not all nominated faculty members would have to attend each time. Normally an Associate FPVC (ESE) will chair the Panel.

2. The standing Panel will normally sit 5-6 times between October and June. Proposals for scheme approval will be considered at these meetings and departments will need to plan accordingly, but additional meetings may be scheduled if necessary.

3. External Assessors are not required to attend meetings but must submit a written report. The panel may ask for further comments where appropriate or the External Assessor may be invited to attend via video conference if issues are identified in their written report that require further detailed discussion.

4. The Secretary to the Panel (usually a member of the Academic Registry QA Team) is responsible for taking minutes, identifying decisions and any recommendations. These minutes will go to the proposing department for any further action and will also be submitted to Q&SC as a record of the decisions taken.

5. The membership of the Academic Scrutiny Panel will be as follows:

a. The Chair, to be drawn from outside the proposing academic department, and usually an Associate FPVC (ESE). The Chair should have suitable independence and critical distance from the proposed scheme, and will be selected by Academic Registry

b. A minimum of one member of academic staff from each Faculty, with suitable independence and critical distance from the proposal

c. A student representative, to be drawn from a pool nominated by the Students’ Union, normally a Student Reviewer

d. A member of staff from the Academic Registry QA Team, who will also draft the panel report.

6. Academic Registry will be mindful of Welsh-medium representation on panels.

7. Academic departments will be invited to nominate a representative to present the proposal at the panel meeting. In the case of cross-academic department schemes, a representative from each academic department involved will be nominated by their respective department.

The role of the Academic Scrutiny Panel

8. The Academic Scrutiny Panel is constituted as a standing panel reporting to the Q&SC. The Panel is responsible for making final decisions on the approval of scheme proposals but may refer decisions back to the PVC (ESE) and Head of Planning or on to Q&SC if there are significant areas of concern or issues of wider consideration for the University. Q&SC will retain oversight for the operation of the Academic Scrutiny Panel and will monitor the effectiveness of the QA processes.

9. The Panel will ensure that there is evidence of sufficient external consultation during the development of the scheme, for example with current external examiners, departmental external advisors, and representatives of professional or accrediting bodies. The Panel will take full account of the views of the external assessor, who will be required to complete a written report (SDF8) prior to the event for consideration by the panel.

10. Meetings of Academic Scrutiny Panel will be ordered as follows:

(i) Welcome by the Chair

(ii) Summary of the proposal by the proposing academic department(s)

(iii) General discussion, which will consider the following questions and take account of the needs of all students:

    • Is there evidence of demand for the scheme and are the entry requirements at an appropriate level?
    • Are the aims and learning outcomes of the scheme appropriate particularly in relation to relevant subject benchmarks, the Framework of Higher Education Qualifications and the Credit and Qualifications Framework for Wales?
    • Is the curriculum content and design appropriate for achieving the intended learning outcomes of the scheme?
    • Is the curriculum organised such that the demands made of the learner in terms of intellectual challenge, skills, knowledge, conceptualisation and learning autonomy increase progressively?
    • Is the assessment regime suitable to measure achievement of the intended outcomes?
    • Are there adequate resources, i.e. staff, library, IT and any specialist requirements, to deliver the scheme effectively?
    • Are there any special features of the scheme that have implications for its viability, management or delivery, or for the regulations of the University?

(iv) Deliberation by the panel, for which the representative of the proposing department(s) will not be present

(v) Decision.

Decisions of Academic Scrutiny Panel

11. The Academic Scrutiny Panel will have the choice of one of the following decisions:

a. Unconditional approval

b. Approval with minor modifications (to be approved by the Chair of the Panel)

c. Conditional approval: this will require the proposing department to submit a response to the Chair of the Panel, which will also be ratified by the external assessor

d. Referral back to the academic department(s). In such cases it is anticipated that considerable revision would be required before re-presenting the proposal

e. Rejection (on QA grounds only).

12. The Academic Scrutiny Panel will define actions as recommendations or conditions:

a. Recommendations: should be areas for consideration by the proposing department, or minor corrections, but will not delay the approval of the proposal.

b. Conditions: which should be stated clearly where approval is subject to specified conditions being met within a given time scale. Approval will not be granted until these conditions have been met.

Outcome of Academic Scrutiny Panel

13. Following the meeting of the panel, minutes of the meeting are produced by the Secretary to the Panel (normally a member of the Academic Registry QA Team) in consultation with the Chair.

14. A committee coversheet should be completed by the proposing Department in response to the minutes, providing details of amendments made to the original proposal as a result of the feedback from the Academic Scrutiny Panel. No further changes should be made to SDF forms unless it is a recommendation of the Panel. The minutes of the Academic Scrutiny Panel will be submitted to Q&SC.

Marketing of scheme

15. An example of the timescale for marketing and approval (two year planning cycle) is published online: https://www.aber.ac.uk/en/academic-registry/handbook/dev-review/. In cases where proposals for new schemes are not in line with a two year cycle, the PVC (ESE) and Head of Planning will determine the feasibility of an earlier introduction.

16. The scheme may be advertised as ‘subject to approval’ in the next formal University prospectus following approval from the Academic Scrutiny Panel. Schemes cannot be advertised on UCAS or online until they have fully completed the approval process, unless the department has made a successful case for advertising the scheme as ‘subject to approval’ in printed and online materials in addition to the formal University prospectus. The Academic Registry QA team will communicate the decision to the proposing department(s) and to relevant service departments.

17. The subject to approval flag will be lifted, and the scheme advertised online and on course search, once it has fully completed the approval process. The Academic Registry QA team will communicate the decision to the proposing department(s) and to relevant service departments.