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A REVIEW OF COLLABORATION BETWEEN SCHOOLS AND FURTHER EDUCATION COLLEGES IN SCOTLAND: Partner Document to the Interim Report
SECTION 7 QUALITY ASSURANCE
HMIE External Quality Assurance of School/College Collaboration
7.1 HM Inspectors undertake an independent review of the quality of provision in further education colleges on behalf of the Scottish Further Education Funding Council (SFEFC) under the terms of the Memoranda of Understanding between the Council and Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Education (HMIE). HMIE is also responsible for undertaking independent inspections of schools and for reviews of education authorities themselves. By its very nature, further education college provision for school pupils falls within the quality assurance regimes of both sectors. The strength of this, given the common role of HMIE, is that school/college collaboration can be considered from all angles. The risk, however, is that overlapping inspection and review arrangements could overburden schools, education authorities and HMIE. However, from January 2005, college reviews will be carried out by subject review and college review teams working together.
7.2 Review teams include HM Inspectors, associate assessors and a lay member. The Subject Review team assesses the quality of the student experience in a number of subject areas in the college. The College Review team assesses the impact on the student experience of educational leadership and direction, arrangements for access and inclusion, guidance and support, use of resources to support the learner, staff, quality assurance and quality improvement.
7.3 Members of review teams hold discussions with students and college staff. Members of subject review teams observe teaching and judge the quality of students' work. They review information on student performance and assess student achievement. Members of college review teams meet representatives of the Board of Management and hold discussions with local employers, schools and other users of the college. While the emphasis of the reviews is on SFEFC-funded work, HMIE look also at local enterprise company and employer-funded provision. This latter area has assumed greater importance since colleges make use of credit transfer arrangements to obtain exemption from aspects of Scottish Quality Management Systems audits on the basis of good performance at HMIE reviews.
7.4 HMIE as SFEFC's agents for quality assurance in further education evaluates the quality of the learning experience of all learners including school pupils who undertake programmes offered by colleges. However, overall responsibilities for pupils' learning experiences remains with schools, so HMIE will also look at collaborative links in the context of school inspection where these are significant and contributing substantially to the delivery of education. Essentially HM Inspectors apply the tests outlined in the Guidance on Flexibility in the Curriculum (SEED Circular 3/2001) - is the provision provided through the link well planned, monitored and evaluated and is it resulting in real educational benefits for pupils?
7.5 We expect further education colleges' work with school pupils to be covered comprehensively through SFEFC's role in monitoring the effectiveness of further education colleges.
Internal Quality Assurance
7.6 Education authorities and schools have in place arrangements to assure the quality of their programmes for pupils. Further education colleges also have arrangements for the programmes they deliver to their students. Quality assurance arrangements for collaborative programmes delivered to school pupils either jointly by school and college or solely by a college should satisfy the quality assurance requirements of the school, the college and external agencies. Education authorities, schools and further education colleges should agree, as appropriate, the elements of joint quality assurance arrangements. These joint arrangements should involve staff from both school and college and pupils should have an opportunity to evaluate and report on the quality of their learning experience. These arrangements should include procedures to identify staff development needs for both teachers and lecturers. In addition, recent policy statements and documents from the Scottish Executive should be taken into account when developing such aspects of provision as guidance, transitional arrangements and pupil welfare and support.
7.7 Evaluation of quality assurance arrangements will vary according to the type of programme. Pupil evaluations will be of great importance in short one-day taster programmes. On the other hand, a two-year programme of attendance at college should be incorporated systematically into the planning, delivery, review and improvement cycles of school and college.
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