Annual Reporting of Academic Programmes

Aims 

Undergraduate (Ug) and postgraduate (Pg) programmes are required to submit an Annual Programme QA Report (“QA Report”) to the Quality Assurance Committee (QAC) or the Research Postgraduate Studies Committee (RPSC) and Research Committee (RC)  via the respective Faculty/School Boards. The aims of the QA Reports are:

1. to provide an annual assessment of the quality and overall viability of the programme under review, including the demand for the programme and for individual concentrations or specializations, and also student intake quality, progress and outcomes;
2. to provide a framework for reporting on the achievement of programme intended learning outcomes (PILOs)
3. to encourage the development, implementation, and monitoring of specific improvement actions in response to the above two points.

Reporting Process

Programme Level 

As an annual process, Programme Directors will prepare the QA Reports online via the Key Performance Indicator Management System (KPIMS)  based on the Key Performance Indicator (KPI) data provided and with reference to the QA Report Rubrics (Rubrics for Ug and TPg) for the endorsement of the respective Faculty Board. 

The QA Report includes (templates for Ug and TPg) the following sections:

1. a summary of improvement actions made in response to last year’s report;
2. an evaluation of the programme’s performance against a set of KPI data;
3. a report on the achievement of PILOs;
4. a plan for improvements with measurable objectives and targets in light of the findings of the earlier sections (this is then followed up in next year’s report);
5. comments and recommendations from the Faculty/School Board; and
6. response of the programme to the comments and recommendations from the Faculty Board.

Faculty Level

The Faculty Boards will discuss the individual QA Reports received and consider the Comprehensive Report on Ug and TPg programmes (Comprehensive Report Template) prepared by the Dean for scrutiny of the QAC.

University Level

The QAC will then review and discuss the Comprehensive Reports received from Faculties/Schools, and make comments and recommendations for programme enhancement.  The QAC will prepare and submit to the Senate its Summary Report on the Annual Programme QA Reports and provide inputs for on-going improvement and monitoring purposes.

All SDPUs are required to submit their Annual Reports (Template) to the Quality Assurance Sub-committee on Sub-degree Programmes (QF Level 4) (QASC (QF Level 4))  and QASC (QF Levels 1-3) in September/October each year to report on the major decisions and quality assurance issues of their Sub-degree (SD) programmes in the past academic year, their strategic plans for programme development and achievements of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).

Upon deliberation of the Annual Reports, the two QASCs will prepare their respective Summary Reports on SD Programmes for submission to the Quality Assurance Committee (QAC) and Senate.

Departments/Programme Teams are required to update their programme information (and the associated Course Outlines via the online system) on an annual basis. The programme updates should be submitted to Academic Registry (AR) (for Undergraduate & Sub-degree programmes) and Graduate School (GS) (for Taught Postgraduate Programmes) via the Faculty Dean's Office.  Please refer to the table below for details.

The annual updating of programme information is recognized as part of the Quality Assurance (QA) process for the University to monitor programme implementation and management at Faculty and Department/Programme levels. The programme updates collected would serve as central records of the academic programmes offered by the University, which would also be used for answering external enquiries about our academic programmes and the related QA arrangements.

On the course level, Departments/Programmes should update the corresponding course outlines via the Course Outline Management System (COMs) (Chrome browser only) and ensure that all course information contained therein is current and up-to-date.  The set of course outlines are extracted in July each year for students’ reference (in BUniPort under U-Wide Policies & Info > General Information > Programmes & Courses Information > Course Information) on course selection and registration.

The planned intake numbers of SF programmes are reported to the Quality Assurance Committee (QAC) for information and advice on an annual basis.   The admission exercise will commence upon the confirmation of the QAC to the planned intake numbers.  For cases of increased intake quotas, justifications/rationale have to be provided for QAC’s consideration and advice.  While the QAC may consider small adjustments to admission quotas to ascertain academic quality, the approval to substantial increase of intake numbers shall rest with the ADC which will deliberate such proposals from a strategic and resource perspective.