Operating an External Quality Agency

This subject has the following teaching availabilities in 2015:

Participation in weekly discussion boards and webinars, online exams and surveys and final exam.
These subjects are offered online only and do not require attendance on campus.

170 hours

You must have taken the following subjects prior to enrolling in this subject:

None

None

For the purposes of considering request for Reasonable Adjustments under the Disability Standards for Education (Cwth 2005), and Students Experiencing Academic Disadvantage Policy, academic requirements for this subject are articulated in the Subject Overview, Learning Outcomes and Assessment Requirements of this entry.

The University is dedicated to provide support to those with special requirements. Further details on the disability support scheme can be found at the Disability Liaison website: http://www.services.unimelb.edu.au/disability

This subject deals with aspects of operating an external quality assurance agency (QA agency) building on the concepts and frameworks in quality assurance introduced in the previous compulsory subjects. The focus here is on the practical aspects of providing QA services that ensure quality of programs or institutions either through initial accreditation or later through re-accreditation or quality review and improvement strategies.

To enable participants to recognise the strengths and weaknesses of different governance and funding arrangements, and organizational structures and processes of external QA agencies; and to identify the resources and operating policies required to fulfil the role.

Active participation in weekly discussion board; compulsory webinar attendance; one essay due after the end of the semester.

This is a pass/fail subject. Participants receive feedback for each task, and must pass all tasks.

There are two hurdle requirements:

• Weekly discussion board postings, postings are required in at least four of the five weeks with prior notification if a particular week is going to be problematic.
• Webinar attendance, attendance is required in a minimum two of the three webinars.

Selected readings and notes to be provided prior to commencement

This subject is not available as a breadth subject.

On successful completion of this subject participants will be able to distinguish the strengths and weaknesses of different governance and funding arrangements, and organizational structures and processes for external QA agencies; identify the resources and operating policies required to fulfil the role; and apply this knowledge to specific situations.