Student Representation needed on the Curriculum Partnerships Annual Review Group

The Open University currently has around 35 Curriculum Partnerships.

Curriculum Partnerships are led and managed by staff within the Faculties of the OU. The Faculty is asked to complete an annual report on each of its taught Curriculum Partnerships.

In scope are any arrangements where a third party provides student experience, student support, programme design, delivery or assessment which leads to an award of formal OU modules or OU qualifications or an OU academic credit.

The Curriculum Partnerships Committee has a duty to monitor established partnerships and ensure that the 'arrangements for' and 'delivery of' modules and qualifications through curriculum partnerships satisfy the University's own quality assurance requirements and those of appropriate external regulators.

Through this review, Faculties/Units responsible for these arrangements are asked to provide relevant information about each partnership, or partnership programme, and the quality of its provision. It must demonstrate how effectively the Faculty/Unit manages the partnership and any associated risks and opportunities. This is an important part of the University's quality assurance requirements. It is the responsibility of the lead Faculty or lead Unit to assure the quality of provision for students studying through a curriculum partnership, and to ensure that all the guidelines in the Quality Code are met.

We are looking for a student rep who has studied a module/programme/course that is part of a Curriculum Partnership to sit on this scrutiny group.

The student rep will act as an observer with speaking rights but would not need to conduct any review work and wouldn’t have voting rights. Ideally, they should be students from/on a curriculum partnership so that they could represent those types of students.

The student rep would need to attend one 3-hour meeting held annually which for 2022 is being held online on 16 or 17 February (TBC). This is the meeting where the group discuss all the partnerships that have been reviewed and agree on outcomes/actions/themes etc. And would be invited to attend a separate meeting discussing themes around partnerships and improvements/enhancement and feedback for the process for 1-2 hours on 23 or 24 or 25 February TBC (held online)

The rep could have access to the review reports and paperwork if they wished to view this information ahead of the meeting but is not a necessity.

What is in it for you?

This is an opportunity to find out more about the types of Curriculum Partnerships that the University works within. You will also get to experience and understand what is involved in an annual review and scrutiny process. This will also provide you with an opportunity to bring your experience and insight of a Curriculum Partnership to the University and members of the Curriculum Partnerships Committee to potentially inform improvements for future partnerships.

Application process

Please advise us of the below information by emailing ouvp-curriclum-partnerships@open.ac.uk by Wednesday 15 December 2021

Name

Email address

Curriculum Partnership you have studied within

What interests you about the role?

What the members of the scrutiny group do for the review?

The Scrutiny Group is appointed by the Curriculum Partnerships Committee. Their role is to review each submitted form to ensure the correct standards are maintained and to evaluate each partnership. This is achieved as follows:

Each completed form is reviewed by two members of the Scrutiny Group.

Each partnership is evaluated using an evaluation form.

Each member reviews around 4-5 partnerships providing written comments on a provided template evaluation form. No more than 2 hours should be set aside to review each report and compile written comments. The group then meet to discuss all partnerships evaluated, recommendations and actions, and assess/identify the following:

Whether quality and standards are being managed in all aspects of the provision

How faculties are identifying, managing, and mitigating risks associated with partnerships, the student experience, and reputation of the University

That the faculty can identify student progression, completion and satisfaction data for students studying at the partner organisation, to inform its management decisions

Points of good practice for commendation

Any areas of concern

Any actions for the partnership

Lessons for the University

A report from the meeting, written by OUVP, consisting of the Scrutiny Group's discussions and recommendations, is sent to Curriculum Partnerships Committee for approval as part of the Partnerships Annual Review.

Dates

Group receive annual review forms and conduct review – Friday 14 January - Friday 4 February 2022

Group return completed evaluation forms – Friday 4 February 2022

Group attend the meeting held on 16 or 17 February 2022 TBC for 3 hours (held online)

Group attend process improvement/enhancement and feedback meeting - 1-2 hours on 23 or 24 or 25 February TBC (held online)