NUS Scotland has gained an integral role in a new review analysing quality in the tertiary education sector in Scotland.

At its meeting in November, the Scottish Funding Council, which funds further and higher education institutions in Scotland, discussed in depth one of the sixteen points on NUS Scotland’s Education Manifesto for the Scottish Parliamentary Elections – bringing together the quality systems in use in further and higher education.

Currently, the mechanisms used to analyse and assess the quality of the experience that students receive in further and higher education have some key differences. The higher education system focuses on a process of continuous improvement in learning and teaching, constantly striving towards excellence, known as enhancement. The further education sector focuses on ensuring that the quality of the experience for students meets a set of guidelines and analyses the whole of the student experience, including libraries and welfare services.

As the sector progresses into the new century, traditional barriers between further and higher education are being broken down. A merged funding council with responsibility for further and higher education has developed and projects, such as the creation of the University of the Highlands and Islands (UHI) from a network of colleges, are continually blurring the boundaries between further and higher education.

The Funding Council has recognised this and, as a result of its deliberations, has set up a short-term working group to report on ways that the two quality systems can come closer together.

This review will focus on putting students at centre stage and creating a tertiary education sector that revolves around students and their experience in education. As a result, the Chair of the Funding Council has asked me, as NUS Scotland President, to chair this review and take the lead in bringing about a converged quality enhancement system in further and higher education.

This is a fantastic opportunity for students to get involved and actually shape the education sector in Scotland. For years the student movement has been talking about changing aspects of the learning experience, and now we have the opportunity to create that change.

This review is our opportunity to create an education sector in Scotland that is truly student-centred.

Over the course of the review, the committee and its working groups will consider how to take forward the quality agenda in both further and higher education, look at models of excellence and enhancement, compare the Scottish system to those used throughout the world, and investigate ways of making clearer the language used in institutional reports.

The process of this review has just begun and will continue throughout the next year. NUS Scotland will be making sure that the views of students are fed into the review, and will be sending regular updates on the process and the ongoing discussions.

The Blogs on this site represent the individual views of their authors and do not necessarily reflect the policies or practices of the National Union of Students.

All links in blogs will open in a new browser window.

The permanent URL for this specific blog entry is: http://www.officeronline.co.uk/blogs/jamesalexander/273845.aspx