Developing Engaging Quality Assurance Processes

A Practice-Based Case Study Relating to Academic Partnerships

What should be taken into account when developing university quality assurance policies to ensure maximum engagement leading to successful implementation? How can the resistance for developing yet another QA policy be minimised through engaging the relevant academic staff and professional services at the policy development stage? This paper is based on a review of the development processes of three quality assurance policies relating to academic partnerships at a mid-sized,modern university in London, and how the relevant academic or administrative members of staff at the university were engaged in the development process. The aim of the paper is to develop a model whereby the policies are ranked based on the complexity of stakeholder engagement, i.e. the level of resistance the development of the policies met among the teams responsible for implementing them. The paper also introduces lessons learned and best practice to address the different levels of complexity to ensure the policies would be implemented successfully.