1.4 University Officers with responsibility for Quality Assurance

1.The Vice-Chancellor is the chief academic and administrative officer of the University with responsibility for its overall performance, and is the Chair of Senate.

2. The Pro Vice-Chancellors, Learning & Teaching and Research, are key members of the University Executive Group and report to the Vice-Chancellor on their specific areas of responsibility.

3. Responsibility for the conduct of a Faculty is vested in the Faculty Pro Vice-Chancellor, who is accountable to Council, via the Vice-Chancellor. Faculties facilitate the organisation and academic work of the University.

The Faculty Pro Vice-Chancellors perform a crucial co-ordinating role between the departments operating within their respective spheres of interest. They are also empowered to take executive action on issues of concern, subject to reporting to their faculties, the Academic Affairs Committee, Pro Vice-Chancellors Learning & Teaching and Research, and Vice-Chancellor as appropriate. The Faculty PVCs co-operate closely in their areas of responsibility and organise, via the Academic Registry, to discuss and make recommendations on items common to the faculties. In this they are greatly assisted by key Registry support staff. They also meet regularly to ensure that the faculties deal with student issues in a consistent way. They are supported in their roles by Associate Deans, who have specific responsibilities for Learning & Teaching, Research, and Welsh Language provision.

Each academic department within a faculty has a Head with designated roles and responsibilities, which include oversight of academic programmes and structures. The Faculty Pro Vice-Chancellor and Associate Dean of Faculty are supported by a Faculty Manager and advised by an Executive Committee, which includes staff with responsibility for key areas such as Learning and Teaching and Quality Assurance and Enhancement. All faculties are required to have an Academic Affairs Committee. This is set out in University Ordinances and Regulations.

Heads of Department are charged with the day-to-day management of the teaching and research within their departments within the guidelines established at University level, including the Academic Quality Handbook. Departments have designated Directors of Learning and Teaching and Directors of Research reporting to the Head of Department on these issues. Each department is required to hold departmental meetings involving all academic staff at least once a term to discuss academic issues. The functions of the meeting include:

(i) To serve as a medium of consultation with and provide advice to the Head of Department on the conduct of departmental affairs

(ii) In furtherance of the above to discuss the following:

• the nature and content of courses
• the allocation of teaching and other departmental duties
• the allocation of departmental funds and accommodation
• the use of secretarial, research and technical assistance.
  
  

As part of the above, they receive the reports from Departmental Learning and Teaching Committees, of formal programme monitoring undertaken in the department annually and also formally log in the reports of the departmental Staff-Student Consultative Committees which serve as a useful feedback mechanism between staff and students.

4. The Head of the Graduate School is responsible for the provision of Researcher Development training within the University as a whole, and also has a co-ordinating role in the development of policy on postgraduate matters, the provision of facilities for postgraduates, and for monitoring the recruitment and academic progress of postgraduate students. The Head of the Graduate School also approves nominations for external examiners on research degrees.

5. A number of senior Academic Registry staff are involved in the operation of Quality Assurance procedures reporting to the Academic Registrar. The Academic Registry also provides support at faculty level.