CITY College's commitment to quality education is demonstrated by a number of rigorous procedures set up by the College to monitor the quality of its academic programmes. However, claiming excellence is one side of the coin; proving it is the other and perhaps the most important one. One way to reinforce the claims for exceptional quality is to invite external and independent bodies in order to verify that what is argued by the College is not only true but its education provision is of comparable standards to Higher Education of UK institutions. During the last 3 years, a number of audits took place in the College by panels of independent experts and academics from UK. In the following, we summarise the purpose of the audits by BAC, QAA and BCS and briefly present their outcome.
The British Accreditation Council for Independent Further and Higher Education (BAC), was established in 1984 to provide an inspection and accreditation service for independent and further and higher education. It is a registered charity and its Council is made up of nominees of bodies concerned with the maintenance of standards in education, including CVCP, QAA, CVU, SCOP and the British Council. The accreditation procedure involves inspections which grade an institution in the following areas: (a) Health and Safety, (b) Administration and Staffing, (c) Quality Management, (d) Student Welfare, and (e) Teaching and learning: Delivery and Resources. An audit by the BAC panel took place on the 30th of November 2000 at CITY College. All members of Administration, Academic staff and also student representatives were involved. The official report was published in February 2007 and was exemplary.
The official summary of the Institutional Report produced by the BAC states the following:
“CITY College was first accredited by the British Accreditation Council for Independent Further and Higher Education in February 2001. It was most recently re-inspected in November 2006.
BAC's inspectors reported on an overall excellent standard of provision in the areas assessed during the inspection. They considered that CITY College has displayed strong year-on-year progress. The agreement with the University of Sheffield appears to be mutually beneficial and both parties can justifiably be proud of their association. The College is highly unusual if not unique amongst independent higher education institutions in fostering an impressive research ethos which in turn underpins the quality of the teaching.
There is an authentic university atmosphere to both the buildings and the activities that take place within them and the staff have academic qualifications and experience fully suited to a higher education institution. The College has developed very strong systems to monitor its own standards, complementing those required by the partner university, and to a large extent is well equipped to be a freestanding independent higher education institution.
CITY College was awarded continuing accreditation as an independent higher education institution in February 2007".
For more information on BAC you may visit the official website: http://www.the-bac.org/
The Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA) was established in 1997 and it is an independent body funded by subscriptions from universities and colleges of higher education, and through contracts with the main higher education funding bodies. The QAA's mission is to safeguard the public interest in sound standards of higher education qualifications and to encourage continuous improvement in the management of the quality of higher education. A QAA panel audited the College for its collaboration with the University of Sheffield. This process involved a detailed analysis of the relationship of the two institutions. The audit focused on the "QAA Code of Practice for the assurance of academic quality and standards in Higher Education, Section 2: Collaborative provision". The audit took place in January 2001 at the University of Sheffield and on 10th of May 2001 in Thessaloniki. The audit report is published and it is available by QAA and the Office of Collegiate Studies. For details refer to: http://www.qaa.ac.uk/reviews/reports/overseas/sheffield_greece02.asp .
The University of Sheffield runs a formal revalidation visit to CITY College every three to four years in order to reassure the quality of programmes that the College provides. The most recent revalidation visit took place in Thessaloniki between the 13th and 17th of March 2002. The Panel consisted of a number of academic staff by the University and a number of external assessors from other Universities. The panel has agreed to recommend to the Board of Collegiate Studies that re-validation of the above courses be approved for a further five years. The full report can be found with the Board of Collegiate studies.
The British Computer Society (BCS) visit was carried out on 16th of April 2004. BCS is the industry body for IT professionals, and a Chartered Engineering Institution for Information Technology. The College invited the BCS to accredit the programme BSc (Hons) in Computer Science. The process started in August 2003, by sending initial documentation based on which the BCS decided that it could arrange a visit to the College with no further conditions. The panel (consisted by 2 professors, 1 BCS administrator and 1 IT industrialist) stayed for two days in which they examined the resources, they interviewed staff and students of the Computer Science Department.
The panel decided to recommend to the BCS accreditation committee the BSc Honours programme for Full Exemption (from professional examinations) and Partial BEng accreditation (fulfilled the academic requirements for registration as a Chartered Engineers) for student intake 2004-2008 backdating from intake 2003.
That means the current first year students and the students to be from next year on, can qualify for members of the BCS automatically after they graduate. This is an important distinction for the Dept. of Computer Science of the College, since there are only few departments in the UK which achieved accreditation. It is also an important development for students who can gain additional professional status by become members of the leading professional and learned Society in the field of computers and information technology.
Finally, the British Psychological Society is awarding membership to CITY College BSc Psychology graduates who apply. This is very important since not all UK University graduates of Psychology are eligible for membership to BPS. This membership, which open doors of opportunity for graduates, means that they can now continue on their chosen path to becoming chartered psycholgists and practice in the UK, and eventually anywhere in Europe. The British Psychological Society (BPS) is the representative body for psycholigists and psychology in UK. By its Royal Charter the Society is charged with national responsibility for the development, promotion and application of psychology for the public good (for more info: www.bps.org.uk )
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