Published: 12:00 AM on December 02, 2014
On Tuesday, November 11, 2014 and Wednesday, November 12, 2014, SBCS hosted members of the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA), delegates from SBCS’ UK partner institutions and a representative of the Accreditation Council of Trinidad & Tobago, for an institutional review.
QAA’s primary role is to safeguard and help to improve the academic standards and quality of UK higher education. This includes reviewing the provision of programmes outside the UK that lead to UK awards, also known as transnational education, or TNE. There are a variety of TNE dimensions and these include partnership arrangements, education provided at local centres and arrangements for distance learning. The review conducted at SBCS focused on the teaching support provided through distance and blended learning. The review team had the pleasure of interviewing the Senior Management team as well as Academic and Administrative staff.
The review team was led by QAA’s Rozina Hashmi and Professor Derrik Ferney and also included:
• Professor Jeremy Bradshaw (Assistant Principal, University of Edinburgh)
• Professor Mark Hunt (Deputy Vice Chancellor, University for the Creative Arts)
• Professor Gai Murphy (Pro Vice Chancellor, University of Central Lancashire).
UK affiliate representatives in attendance were:
• Dr. Roger Dickinson, representing the University of Leicester
• Dr. Mary Kiernan, representing the University of Greenwich
• Olivier Chapman & Michael Davis, representing the University of London International Programmes
• Yvonne Dixon-Todd, representing the University of Sunderland
Ms. Sharon Delochan from The Accreditation Council of Trinidad and Tobago acted in the capacity of observer on day two of the visit.
The intense two day review was productive and mutually rewarding to all parties involved and SBCS will continue to work towards our primary objective; “to transform our students into innovative, ethical and creative lifelong learners, by enhancing our relationship with all stakeholders.”