purpose and principles

• ACL seeks to ensure that the achievements and experiences of its students meet or exceed national standards.
• The monitoring of the College’s Programmes of Learning using verifiers is therefore viewed as a productive partnership in the process of continuous improvement.
• ACL values the critical appraisal of External Verifiers (EVs) and Accreditations as part of quality improvement in setting an agenda for action planning.
• This policy and its associated procedures applies to all programmes delivered in the College.
• The following procedures are designed to ensure that maximum use is made of the partnership between EVs and the College in improving the student experience.

PREAMBLE

• It is a QCA requirement that there should be a named person in the College for receipt of Awarding Body information. Mr. Vikkas Puri, is the officially nominated Quality Nominee for ACL.  Therefore all External Verifiers should contact the Principal in the first instance.  Where this does not happen and the External Verifier contacts the Reception direct, that person should immediately inform the Curriculum Manager and the External Verifier should be asked to make contact via the Curriculum Manager in the future.
• The Curriculum Manager will draft a letter to all Awarding Bodies to inform them of the preferred procedures in relation to:
• booking the EV visit;
• issuing the EV planner;
• providing feedback; and
• issuing the report.
• It is the responsibility of the Principal to map the generic quality issues arising from the linked assessment, internal verification and external verification processes and to report annually to the Director on such issues.  As such, the Principal must be involved in the External Verification process, must sample evidence and receive evidence from others involved

• The Principal will complete the External Verification Planner by the end of September of the academic year at the latest.  Copies will be sent to:
• the Curriculum Manager and
• In view of the fact that Awarding Bodies should be communicating with the College via the Quality Nominee (viz. the Curriculum Manager), external verification visits should be arranged between the External Verifier and the Curriculum Manager. Where an EV contacts the Curriculum Area directly, a date may be agreed but this must be communicated immediately to the Curriculum Manager and the External Verifier must be encouraged to contact the Curriculum Manager direct in future.
• The date of EV visits must be scheduled so as to give sufficient notice for adequate preparation.  The EV Visit Planner must be requested at the time of booking the date. If it is not normal practice for a particular Awarding Body to issue a Visit Planner, then a plan must be drawn up by the Curriculum Manager.
• Once contact has been made by the EV, the Curriculum Manager will then liaise with a nominated person in each Curriculum Area (normally, but not exclusively, the Programme Area Manager), who will then liaise with the CAM.
• The co-ordination of the EV visit within the curriculum area will be undertaken by the PAM (or nominated other) in conjunction with the course team leader and with assistance from the Campus Quality Manager where necessary.  In particular, it will be important to ensure that actions arising from the previous EV visit have been addressed.
• It is the Curriculum Manager’s responsibility to ensure that either the Curriculum Manager, a Director or the the appointed Quality Improvement Manager is present at the feedback meeting, and, where previous difficulties have arisen, at the initial meeting.  The Curriculum Manager will therefore draw up a schedule and notify the Director or any other nominated member.
• Once dates for the EV visits are confirmed, the Curriculum Manager will inform:
• the Course Team Leader,
• the relevant Campus Quality Manager and
• the Director
• When the Visit Planner has been received from the EV by the Curriculum Manager, the Curriculum Manager will send copies immediately to:
• the Campus Quality Manager and (where relevant).
• Car parking and hospitality will be arranged by the Admin.

• The Principal will act as the initial contact for the EV.
• In addition to the course team leader(s) and the PAM (or nominated other) the initial meeting will be attended by either:
• the Curriculum Manager, or
• Director
• the Campus Quality Manager or
• Where there have been difficulties in the previous visit and/or where sanctions have been invoked, then either:
• Director
• must be present at both the initial meeting and the feedback meeting.
• At the end of the visit, feedback will be given to the Curriculum Area Manager, the course team leader(s) and the PAM (or nominated other), together with one of the following:
• the Curriculum Manager, or
• the Quality Improvement Manager, or
• Other Directors
• who should ensure in particular that the action plan has been completed by the EV and agreed by the team.  Which of these three will attend will be agreed in advance, the responsibility for this being that of the Curriculum Manager.  In the event of serious concerns being raised, the information must be passed to:
• the Director Campus,

• The Principal will discuss the visit with the PAM (or nominated other) within two weeks of the visit taking place.
• All EV Reports must be sent by the Awarding Body to either:
• the Director
  
  within the timescales specified by the Awarding Body.
• Where it is clear from the Report that there are serious issues to be addressed, then the Curriculum Manager must also send a copy of the report to the Directors.
• Where, on a minority of occasions, the EV Report is sent by the Awarding Body direct to the Curriculum Area, the PAM (or nominated other) should send it immediately to the Curriculum Manager for circulation as above, but this time including the Principal.
• On receipt of the Report, the Campus Quality Manager will identify actions required and inform PAMs (or nominated other).
• The action plan relating to any programme identified through the EV visit as having serious weaknesses will be overseen by the Quality Unit in conjunction with the Campus Quality Manager, the Curriculum Area Manager and the Director.