Quality assurance

By Qualifications and Quality Assurance (Education and Training) Act 2012 s 28(2), all universities (and a number of other education providers):

shall establish procedures in writing for quality assurance for the purposes of establishing, ascertaining, maintaining and improving the quality of education, training, research and related services the provider provides.

and by s 28(4), these procedures must include “evaluation … of the education, training, research and related services provided by that provider”, “review … of the quality assurance procedures”, “preparation of a report”, “publication of the report”, and “implementation of the measures (if any)” which the report considers necessary to establish, ascertain, maintain and improve the quality of education, training, research and related services provided.

This replaces Universities Act, 1997, s 35, which was repealed by Qualifications and Quality Assurance (Education and Training) Act 2012 sch 2 pt 1.

Reports are currently available online as follows:

The national picture is kept under review by Quality and Qualifications Ireland (QQI) (into which the Irish Universities Quality Board was recently merged), which also conducts institutional reviews.

Further reading

International Network for Quality Assurance Agencies in Higher Education

Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (UK)

Society for Research into Higher Education

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