Ninth Level Ireland

“Mary Mitchell O Connor, TD, Minister for Higher Education, today launched two reports by the national regulator for quality in Further and Higher Education: Quality within higher education which is a summary report of the quality assurance and quality enhancement activities in publicly funded higher education institutions pertaining to the previous academic year; and Professional Body Accreditation in Higher Education Institutions in Ireland which was commissioned by QQI to establish a clearer picture of the professional accreditation landscape in Ireland …” (more)

[Department of Education and Skills, 13 December]

“Sir, – I want to thank Dr Greg Foley (Letters, August 7th) for his list of review processes at DCU. It should be required reading for anyone considering adding to the list …” (more)

[James Quinn, Irish Times, 14 August]

“Students’ unions in the UK claimed success in recent days after they were able to exclude 12 universities from a national student survey in an attempt to damage the government’s Teaching Excellence Framework. The radical action, they say, was successful. Now, if the Irish government does indeed introduce a similar framework, Irish students’ unions will need to decide what their stance will be on a policy that has divided UK higher education …” (more)

[Dominic McGrath, University Times, 12 AUgust]

“College lecturers have criticised plans which they say could result in rankings on teaching quality which place a major emphasis on student satisfaction. The Irish Times reported recently that a review into the quality of higher education is to be carried out by the Government following concerns over the impact of falling investment and rising student numbers …” (more)

[Carl O’Brien, Irish Times, 9 August]

“Sir, – With the news that the Minister for Education is considering the introduction of a UK-style Teaching Excellence Framework (Home News, July 25th) it is worth considering some of the quality processes that currently exist in the third-level sector, specifically my university, DCU …” (more)

[Greg Foley, Irish Times, 7 August]

“With the news that the minister is considering the introduction of a UK-style TEF (Teaching Excellence Framework) it is worth considering some of the quality process that currently exist in the third level sector, specifically my university, DCU …” (more)

[educationandstuff, 31 July]

“The Irish government, via Minister Bruton, is to ‘clamp down’ on essay mills. That trying, in effect, to outlaw d’internet is doomed to failure is indicative of how little sensible focus is exerted on real challenges facing the higher education sector. Here are ten things that are more deserving than essay mills of ministerial press releases, actions, legislation, appearances on morning radio …” (more)

[Brian M Lucey, 15 May]

“Higher education quality assurance staff have been told that it is ‘about time’ that they did more to demonstrate the value of their activities. Jeroen Huisman, professor of higher education at Ghent University, told the European Quality Assurance Forum that ‘surprisingly little work’ had been conducted on the impact of its members’ efforts …” (more)

[Chris Havergal, Times Higher Education, 24 November]

“Jo Johnson, the new Minister for Higher Education, surprised nobody last week by asserting his determination to deliver the Conservative Party’s manifesto commitment to ‘introduce a framework to recognise universities offering the highest teaching quality’. This will now be known as the Teaching Excellence Framework …” (more)

[Derfel’s Blog, 5 July]

“So there’s some excitement being generated this month with respect to the OECD’s Assessment of Higher Education Learning Outcomes (AHELO). Roughly speaking, AHELO is the higher education equivalent of the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) …” (more)

[Alex Usher, HESA, 21 May]

“Sir, – In relation to Ms Hooper’s letter (December 5th), in which she asserts that what universities need is more rigorous, external examination, I wish to point out the following: As head of a department that will be examined on two occasions by an external professional body in 2015 …” (more)

[Patrick Ryan, Irish Times, 8 December]

“Administrators in universities used to be people who would support academics in their role. Now it feels increasingly as if the administrative machine follows Parkinson’s law, not only creating more work for themselves (under the guise of quality monitoring) but also more work for people who entered academia …” (more)

[Guardian Professional, 15 August]

“It is not often that an opportunity arises to see whether external quality assurance in higher education actually works. Last summer the newly formed Irish organisation, Quality and Qualifications Ireland, or QQI, asked me to chair a group to examine the higher education institutional review schemes that had been used by its three predecessor, and now defunct, bodies …” (more)

[Peter Williams, University World News, 4 July]

“Quality and Qualifications Ireland (QQI) today announced the outcome of an independent review of the processes by which external, institutional, quality-assurance reviews have been conducted of Irish higher education institutions, including reviews of the universities, institutes of technology, the DIT, the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland and independent higher education institutions …” (more)

[The Report itself is here.]
[QQI Press Release, 29 May]

“The recent University Alliance report on quality in higher education brings into sharp focus one of the major issues facing contemporary UK higher education: how we ensure that the sector maintains its reputation for quality in a period of dramatic change …” (more)

[James Williams, The Conversation, 28 May]

“QQI is pleased to announce the appointment of the Review Team to conduct the Review of Reviews – a review of legacy agency models for reviewing the effectiveness of quality assurance procedures for higher education institutions …” (more)

[Quality and Qualifications Ireland, 29 August]

“It has taken me two and a half months to get around to writing this and posting it, apologies for that. This is the final post in a series of four about the nature and value of quality assurance (QA) for higher education (HE). The aim is to prompt some debate and thinking about QA and its role in education …” (more)

[Hugh Sullivan’s Blog, 12 June]

“This is the 3rd and penultimate in a series of posts about the nature and value of quality assurance for higher education. The aim is to provoke a bit of thought and debate, mostly for myself and hopefully in the sector …” (more)

[Hugh Sullivan’s Blog, 19 March]

“The European University Association (EUA) has published a new report examining internal and external quality assurance of doctoral education in Europe …” (more)

[Hedda, 11 March]

“This is the second in a series of posts about QA for higher education. I hope that this gives the final pieces of context for debate and triggers a bit of thought about the need for discussions about quality …” (more)

[Hugh Sullivan’s Blog, 8 March]