ACADEMIC standards and quality of educational provision at the University of Chester have been praised in a report by a higher education watchdog.
On Friday the Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) issued its findings from an institutional audit carried out at the university in March.
The QAA audit is designed to provide the public with information about the learning opportunities made available to students, and on the academic standards of the awards that the university offers.
The audit team has commended the University of Chester for its good practice in ensuring standards and enhancing the quality of learning opportunities, the supportive relationships that underpin the learning and working in the institution and the strength of its partnership work which was described as ‘exemplary’.
Among other areas of good practice praised by the auditors were the strong personal engagement of all staff, supportive relationships underpinning learning and teaching, partnerships between faculties and central quality assurance services, and collaborative work with key partners.
Auditors also praised the effectiveness of the university’s work based and integrative studies (WBIS) programme – a degree tailored to provide academic recognition of learning undertaken primarily in the workplace which gives credit for prior learning. The audit team was ‘impressed by the evidence it found of the effectiveness off the WBIS framework in providing flexible, responsive and relevant educational opportunities to work-based learners’.
Suggesting areas where the university could further enhance its excellent work, auditors advised that the university reviews the consistency with which its faculty boards consider annual monitoring reports, and develops clear criteria for entering into partnership arrangements where it does not itself teach the subjects concerned.