Faculty of Health Sciences Quality Assurance Framework
Quality Cycle
The Quality Cycle (1946) consists of four actions:(ii)
- Planning: Undertaking a formal planning process (which can be at any level, eg University, Faculty, School, Program, Course).
- Acting: Implementing the plan.
- Evaluating: Monitoring and reviewing the implementation of the plan and its outcomes.
- Improving: Providing feedback to key stakeholders of recommendations for change and/or improvement arising from the monitoring and review.
The cycle is illustrated below
QA Cycle Diagram
This cycle can be repeated until a specified outcome is achieved, or it can be ongoing. The importance of the cycle lies in its ability to allow trialling actions and evaluating them, and then learning from this evaluation process, so that actions/courses/programs can be continuously improved.
Engaging with the process
A key aspect of a quality cycle is the active participation of the people involved in implementing the plan in all stages of the cycle, and in feedback and improvement. This participation contributes to greater local ownership of quality assurance processes and activities, and facilitates the integration of quality assurance processes into the everyday activities of staff (iii). To assist staff, a Faculty Quality Assurance Framework for Learning and Teaching has been developed.
This framework specifies the scope of Faculty quality assurance activities, the inter-relation of each of these activities, implementation of the Quality Cycle and principles and processes that support quality assurance activities.
Refer to the Quality Assurance Flowchart for an overview of the Faculty Quality Assurance Framework for Learning and Teaching.
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