Irish Universities Quality Board Sectoral Project on Teaching and Learning. Interim Report – January 2006

Background to the IUQB project: As part of the IUQB Sectoral QA/QI Programme, a proposal was submitted to the HEA in 2003 for funding under the Targeted Initiatives / Strategic Initiatives Fund to support a sectoral initiative on QI in Teaching and Learning. The proposal, which was approved by the HEA and for which funding was provided, reads as follows: “In the context of quality improvement recommendations in Peer Review Group Reports, and taking account of international practice, this measure is a process to examine developments in universities aimed at improving teaching and learning and to explore possibilities for inter-university co-operation in developing best practice. In formulating this major objective of this year’s initiative, which is to mainstream best practice in the area of “Training and Certification of University Teaching”, the IUQB is particularly mindful of the following provision in the Programme for Government which states: “We support efforts to protect and improve the quality of academic teaching and learning at undergraduate level. We will establish a small expert review group to examine the role of funding in supporting excellence in undergraduate programmes and to consider procedures whereby outstanding performance by departments, faculties and institutions can be rewarded”. There is a strong interest in such an initiative throughout the university sector which would complement the work of the proposed expert review group. It is appropriate that the IUQB should help to drive and co-ordinate this development, given that one of its agreed stated aims is ‘to increase the level of inter-university co-operation in developing quality assurance processes’.