5. Quality assurance and monitoring

Description

In order to promote quality assurance issues and to justify the given financial
support, which should be a stimulus to kick-start the process of institutional
reflection and action on good teaching and learning, from the very beginning of
the project, the internal work quality standards and procedures will be agreed
upon by the Consortium partners. At the kick-off meeting at UNI, a Quality
Assurance and Monitoring Board (QAMB), consisting of 11 members, one from

Strengthening Teaching Competences in Higher Education in Natural and Mathematical Sciences / TeComp

 each PC and EU partner institution, will be established to monitor project

performance. The leading partner for this work package will be UNIKO, who will
be responsible for the qualitative reviews of each WP, that will be conducted at
each milestone during life of the project (twice yearly) based on of 6 internal QA
reports (one report for each PC HEI) submitted to the QAMB and UNIKO. These
reports will indicate problems generated during the project life and give
suggestions for their overcoming. They will be the basis for the evaluation reports
prepared by QAMB, and all the partners will be informed on the issues related to
project quality. In the mid of the second year of the project duration UNI will
organize inter-project coaching with the project in the similar field, for mutual
exchange of accumulated expertise and questionnaires, and a peer review.
However, the assessment of higher education strategies is sharpened through the
interplay of internal and external quality assurance, and so QAMB will arrange
independent monitoring evaluations by an external expert (mid-term and end).
The evaluations will be made to guarantee that the project is accomplished
according to plan and to improve the quality of the project realization. In this
process external evaluation and self-assessment are seen in a key role. If the
quality is different from expected or the outcomes are not achieved on time, there
are adjustment mechanisms, consultation meetings, strengthening of work teams,
or re-arranging and re-defining the planned activities.

Related assumptions and risks

Enough capacity for quality control and monitoring

Authentic, trustworthy and timely feedback reports about the project realization for the purposes of quality control and monitoring

Project partners motivated and available for complete and honest reporting related to QAMB

Weaknesses in project reporting related to quality control and monitoring

Misunderstanding of project partners