The Academic Senate has approved the suite of policies that inform Macquarie University’s approach to quality assurance, enhancement, and improvement (QAE&I) as it applies to the curriculum lifecycle.
As a public university with self-accrediting authority over our coursework suite, a crucial dimension of our activities relates to the assurance of the quality of our courses through robust processes of accreditation, monitoring and reaccreditation.
This work was the culmination of many months of collegial effort including engagement by almost 400 academic and professional staff from across the University. The policy suite, as approved by Academic Senate, can be found in Policy Central, and a full list with links is outlined below.
The University has produced a short animation to summarise and explain the new approach outlined in the new policies.
This project is being led by the chair of ASQC, Associate Professor Taryn Jones and the Pro Vice-Chancellor (Programs and Pathways), Professor Sean Brawley.
Professor Brawley has been communicating in a continuing Teche series with an overview on the current program of renewal of our course and unit quality assurance processes. Staff who might have missed these articles, are encouraged to review the series for more context and detail on the process so far:
Part 1 – Introduction to the new MQ Curriculum Lifecycle Framework
Part 2 – Building our Quality System
Part 3 – Introduction to the policy suite driving the innovation
Part 4 – Next steps post Policy Suite approval and the ‘journey’ of reaccreditation
Part 5 – to be published on the Teche blog in early October – will provide more detail on the Unit Monitoring and Grade Ratification process, which will be the first major operationalisation of our new approach.
Changes to the Macquarie Curriculum Management System (MQCMS) are also currently underway and will provide an integrated quality system for our curriculum QAE&I. A range of supporting materials to assist colleagues who engage with the quality system are now being finalised and will be made available shortly.
After consultation with faculties, the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic) has informed Academic Senate of the first courses which will commence the reaccreditation process in 2022. To assist course authorities who will be engaged in this work over the next 12 months, a community of practice approach has been adopted with the first meeting slated for this month.
For any questions related to the project, please contact maria.kettle@mq.edu.au.
Full list of new policies
The new policy suite to support our Curriculum Lifecycle Framework is now live on Policy Central:
Course of Study Accreditation Policy
Course of Study Monitoring Policy
Unit of Study Monitoring and Grade Ratification Policy
Course of Study Revision Policy
Unit of Study Periodic Review Policy
Course of Study Reaccreditation Policy
Course of Study Discontinuation Policy