Educational and Student Policy

Annual learning & teaching quality update

In 2008-9 annual quality statements were replaced by a short proforma of questions about quality enhancement, which asks faculties and departments to summarise their reflections on the previous year and plans for the forthcoming year.

On this page:

Overview of the annual quality update process

At the end of Easter Term each faculty and department* is sent the quality update form with a request that they complete and return it to the Education Section during Michaelmas Term (this year's deadline is 28 November 2011). It is expected that the completed forms will be approved by Teaching Committees (or equivalent).

Educational and Student Policy reviews the quality updates and produces a report for the General Board's Education Committee by the start of Lent Term.

The form is available to download in word format:

The form is designed to be completed and returned electronically, but Educational and Student Policy would be happy to provide it in alternate formats as necessary. If you have any comments or questions about the process, please contact Dr Katherine Wallington at Katherine.Wallington@admin.cam.ac.uk.

* Faculties and departments will not be asked to complete a quality update the summer before they undergo a Learning and Teaching Review as their submission to the Review Committee will encompass what would have been included in the quality update. However, a mini-update is required the summer after a Review by which time most institutions will have received the Review Committee's Report. The 'mini-update' is generally very brief and institutions do not need to repeat information from the submission or the Committee's report - instead links to these documents can be provided where relevant and expanded with details of any changes or plans which are not covered in the review documentation.

Aims of the annual quality update

The aims of the annual quality update are to:

  • enable the Education Committee to maintain central oversight of current topics of interest and how they are being addressed, and to identify matters which would benefit from a University-wide response
  • identify particularly effective or innovative practices which could usefully be disseminated to other University institutions
  • simplify preparations for General Board Learning & Teaching Reviews by asking departments for a single document to describe and evaluate their provision (rather than requiring them to produce both a descriptive quality statement and an evaluative submission document)
  • bring the annual monitoring process forward so that the Education Committee can review the annual report in early Lent Term, and address issues in time for the next academic year.

Relationship with the departmental submission

The departmental submission continues to follow the terms of reference of General Board Learning & Teaching Reviews but now includes descriptive, as well as evaluative, material. There is no separate quality statement. For further information please see the General Board Reviews section of the guide.

The departmental submission is drafted in advance of the review and remains a "static" reference document until the next review. In the intervening years faculties and departments will be asked to complete the annual learning & teaching quality update to enable the General Board's Education Committee to monitor matters across the University, as well as changes within individual institutions.