Essay Example about The Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education

Although the Covid pandemic undoubtedly plunged the country into turmoil, from an Institutional perspective, Educators faced the unprecedented task of adopting their “Education in Emergency” policy (Pokhrel and Chhetri, 2021). This section aims to draw on literature relating to the adoption of this policy whilst still ensuring optimum pedagogical practice. This will be supported by the guidance and findings set out by the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education which is responsible for safeguarding standards and improving the quality of UK higher education.

The Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education known as the QAA (2020) speculates that Higher education providers anticipated the announcement of lockdown on 23 March 2020. With most institutions having emergency planning groups in place by mid-March to assess the risks posed by the pandemic and chart a path forward (p.2). However, with Covid spreading rapidly many faculty members were abruptly forced to stay at home, causing disturbance to planning and assessment formation (QAA, 2021:2). With staff being forced to stay at home, it became obvious that students were subjected to the same difficulty, encouraging institutions to engage with students in the planning and design of an effective online learning approach that allowed for clear and constructive communication for both staff and students (Hou et al, 2021).

With the innate correlation between the unavailability of faculty members and the need for the continuation of effective learning, the QAA encouraged an unimaginable collaboration between higher educational providers (QAA, 2020:2). The collaboration was encouraged to relieve burdens associated with the pressures on higher education institutions and to determine whether to halt student learning assessment, postpone or cancel final exams and how best to recruit local and international students for the next academic year, especially in the UK where national end-of-high-school exams were scratched (Brown and Salmi, 2020).

Although collaborations were encouraged, institutions were still left with the task of applying alternative provisions specific to them. Which included adapting methodologies to assess student learning outcomes (QAA, 2020:3).Issues pertaining to this matter revolved around the submission of essays; group presentations; and task-based work (Hou et al, 2020). As well as ensuring final year students graduated on time with a quality assured degree (Hou et al, 2020).

Applying these specific alternative provisions to be operational with the sector-agreed standards set out in the UK Quality Code for Higher Education largely depended on an institution’s starting position prior to the pandemic (QAA, 2020:4). More developed institutions for example had already been developing online learning programmes, putting them at an advantage due to a better digital literacy understanding. A higher staff-to-student ratio also allowed for a smoother transition to online learning (QAA, 2020:4).

On the contrary, smaller less developed institutions with fewer staff and students were equipped with greater flexibility to handle broad issues, but fewer resources for particularly granular ones (QAA, 2020:4). The vast variation between provider’s resources and the pressing need to tackle these issues (Hou et al, 2020) lead the QAA to further express the importance of institutions working together. The QAA hypothesized that by working together positive pedagogical practice would be shared maintaining the overall flexibility of transition to online learning  (QAA, 2020:4).