Lorna Dawson is the Interim Head of Teaching, Learning and Student Experience for the School of Natural Sciences. Here she provides an update on the developments in assessment and progression following the review in the summer of 2023.
I think many colleagues will be familiar with the challenges we encountered regarding Assessment and Progression (A&P), particularly during the 2022/23 academic year. It was one of the most difficult periods that I’ve experienced during my time at the University so I think that now is a good time to reflect on the 2023/24 academic year and look at what we have achieved.
But first, I wanted to go back to 2022/23 and explain why it was such a tough time. This was the first year that we really understood the full impact of SEP. We discovered that there were at least ten different ways of handling each administrative process relating to assessment, which raised significant concerns around quality assurance (QA) and quality control (QC). Ideally, this should have been something we were proactively addressing, but due to the pressures at the time, it often felt like an afterthought.
Understandably we saw a surge in student complaints, academic and professional services (PS) colleagues were burnt out, colleagues were working long hours, we had a backlog of appeals and we had damaged the trust between academic and PS colleagues by replacing established relationships with a more centralised approach through the implementation of SEP. And if that wasn’t enough, we also had to contend with the marking and assessment boycott and the cyber-attack.
Our ultimate priority was to improve the wellbeing of our A&P teams. We also needed to reestablish the relationships between academic and PS colleagues and rebuild that trust. We had to improve our QA and QC processes, focus on training and where possible, standardise processes. Improving communication between our PS function teams was also really important. We did not spend enough time working on how information would flow between these teams following the SEP implementation and we suffered because of this.
The External Examiner for the Faculty Examination Board praised PS and Academic colleagues in the Schools for the rigor, clarity and standardisation of our Assessment & Progression processes. He also noted the degree awards had been delivered to very demanding timescales and that it was it was reassuring to see teaching, learning and student support taken so seriously in a world-leading research institution.
So what happened next? A review group was commissioned to produce a report which contained 65 recommendations. One of the main areas we needed to address was the standardisation of our processes. This was not an easy task but we got there in the end and now have standardised marksheets and exam grades. We’ve mapped the assessment cycle at each point and train all staff in the same way so that we can cover sickness and holidays. We also mapped Full-Time Equivalent (FTE) throughout the year to identify key periods of peak activity so that we resource this.
We’ve improved communication and visibility between our A&P teams and the academic community; we’ve made sure that academic staff are fully aware of who their A&P colleagues are and we’re seeing those relationships develop and really work effectively. We’ve established clear escalation routes and reporting lines for every part of the process and as I mentioned earlier, we’ve enhanced training and resources for both Professional Services and academic staff, helping them better navigate standardised marksheets, exam grades, and downloading coursework from Blackboard.
Where are we now? There’s still work to do but we’ve come a long way. We have improved the accuracy of our results issued and the morale and wellbeing of colleagues is much better. They’re having to work less overtime, they feel more supported, they’re finding the new resources extremely useful and they’re just generally really happy with the direction that we’re going in. Standardisation is well underway, there’s still a bit of a way to go but we’ve made a lot of progress in this area. Now that we’re not constantly dealing with crisis management we’ve got the headspace to focus on further improvements.
What’s next? We’re going to continue to work through the A&P review recommendations now that we’ve addressed the priority areas. We are encouraging our teams and academic staff to constantly challenge the status quo – if they don’t agree with something or it doesn’t sit right we want them to call it out. There is always room for improvement. An example of this is the marksheets which have undertaken several iterations based on feedback from colleagues. Moving forward, we also have new technology to contend with.
There is a University wide A&P deep-dive taking place as teams from the other Faculties have reported 2023/24 as one of their most difficult years. We will be feeding into that given the amount of work that has already taken place in FSE and the progress that has been made.
The External Examiner for the University Examination Board praised the Assessment & Progression Review, describing it as an extremely thorough, open and honest reflection.
