Quality Assurance principles
Freshart College is committed to meeting the requirements and the scope of the European Standards and Guidelines on Quality Assurance (ESG), focusing on both the institutional quality assurance and program quality management.
The ESG Standards and Guidelines encapsulate the quality assurance principles to which Freshart College adheres to. The following quality assurance principles form our Quality Assurance Framework:
- Quality assurance is understood to be the responsibility of the whole College, including faculty, staff and management.
- Freshart College students are involved in quality assurance procedures.
- Where examples of good practice are identified, they are acknowledged, shared and implemented in a collegial manner.
- External Advisor/Examiner Reports are implemented where appropriate.
- Review processes are driven at academic programme level and with regards to the College learning environment, with subsequent quality enhancement plans
- Student feedback questionnaires are issued centrally using a standardized format.
The Quality Assurance Principles and Framework are part of a structured system for the enhancement of learning and teaching at Freshart College. Quality Assurance procedures support and encourage innovation in teaching and learning by providing a structure to enable reflection and action on the development of procedures to the benefit of the College community.
Programs are described according to the European Credit Transfer System (ECTS). Course descriptions contain the learning outcomes, competence goals, content and study materials, study volume, teaching hours and teaching methods, and methods for assessment. The course is set according to the European Qualification Framework (EQF) guidelines and national requirements.
Policy data, guidelines and decisions regarding quality management are communicated throughout the organization. Staff and student representatives are involved in outlining the quality management policy.
Points of Reference
The benchmarks governing the institution’s quality assurance policy are:
- Unified approach: Establishing procedures that define the College’s quality assurance requirements with a view to establishing a unified framework to ensure the consistency of academic standards and the high quality of learning experience.
- External: Quality assurance processes are enhanced through the involvement of other stakeholders taking into account external reference points, domestic and international practice, as well as feedback from interested external social groups (eg employers, market players, etc.).
- Quality culture: The existence of a management framework to support and enhance quality, the establishment of a quality culture, as well as the strengthening of an environment of continuous assessment, review and improvement by setting goals for continuous improvement.
- Overall approach: Quality management in the institution is a global approach that includes all the activities of the institution.
- Collectivity: Quality assurance is a collective task for all members of the academic community of the institution: students, academic, administrative and research staff and graduates are responsible for the implementation of the procedures that concern them and must monitor and ensure their systematic and effective implementation. The Internal Quality Assurance Committee will be informed by the results of the implementation of these procedures in order to allow the institution to identify immediate problems or areas that need to be improved and undertake improving actions as well as identifying and disseminating good practices.
- Strengthening quality: Quality enhancing requires the systematic collection and utilization of qualitative and quantitative data as well as feedback, ongoing contact with students, comparative quality standardization and the use of good practices.
- Liability: Quality assurance responsibilities should be clear so that the roles and responsibilities of committees and individuals in relation to quality management in the institution are clear.
