Institutional Audit 2008
Introduction
From 2002, under the system of national quality assurance for higher education funded by HEFCE, a single mechanism of "institutional audit" replaced the old dual system of "Subject Review" (at the level of the discipline), and "Institutional Review" (at the level of the whole institution). The agency that arranges and manages institutional audit is the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA). Bath Spa University had an institutional audit in 2003, and the system in operation at that time involved both institutional- and discipline-level inquiries. In BSU's case the discipline-level inquiries focussed on English Studies, Health, History, and Music. The report of the audit may be found on the QAA website, with other QAA reports on the way in which the quality and standards of awards at the university are set and maintained.
A new method of institutional audit was instituted in 2007. This method did not include discipline-level inquiries by subject specialists. The university's audit under this method involved visits to the university in January and March of 2008. In order to help QAA with its enquiries, the university prepared a 'Briefing Paper', which provided the auditors' starting point. The audit is now complete and the report has been published. The Report and its Annex are available from the QAA website. The findings of the report are extremely positive: at the time of publication, some 18 reports had been published under the new method, and Bath Spa is one of only two universities with no recommendations in either the "essential" or "advisable" categories.
(last updated by David Timms 18/08/08)