Quality Audit in 2006
16 April 2005
The University has just been formally notified that it will be
subject in 2006 to an Australian Universities Quality Agency (AUQA)
audit.
Every university in the country is scrutinised by AUQA, and at a
time when 'quality' and 'accountability' are becoming increasingly
important for students, governments and communities, it will be an
invaluable audit process for USC, as it will provide feedback on
our structures, processes and development.
The AUQA audit covers all areas of a university's operations,
including governance and management, quality assurance mechanisms,
teaching and learning, research and research training, engagement
activities, internationalisation, resource utilisation and the
range of support services such as human resources, finance, capital
development, media and Foundation.
After a comprehensive review involving visits, interviews and
scrutiny of a University portfolio, the expert panel gauges the
University's progress against its own stated Strategic Plan, its
mission and its goals.
The panel assesses the information and processes that the
University uses to accomplish its goals. In other words, what are
we trying to do? It then looks at how we do it, enquires how we
know we are succeeding or not, and finally what improvements we
envisage.
On the basis of how we are evaluated as responding to those four
themes, the AUQA panel makes 'commendations', 'affirmations' and
'recommendations'. Commendations are for good practice,
affirmations are to confirm improvements identified by the
University, and recommendations tend to focus on improvements that
can be considered.
There is no question that such a thorough process of review of
university operations by an independent expert panel can be
extremely helpful for the University in a number of ways.
Internally, such an audit demands that we never lapse into
complacency and continually interrogate ourselves on whether we are
operating in the most effective ways for the advancement of the
University. It means that staff have to fully understand our
strategic directions and commit to them, and prove their
performance against targets and objectives within those plans. That
performance-driven environment will become even more obvious in the
years ahead.
Externally, an audit can provide information to reassure
students, our regional community and our international partners
that we are satisfying the high standards expected of every
Australian university.
Across the next year a great deal of time and effort will be
directed to ensuring that practical efficiencies and quality
pervade our operations, and reflecting those in the written
documentation that we have to prepare for the AUQA expert
panel.
In our early years we underwent a number of reviews and passed
all of them with flying colours, despite the enormous resource
shortages at that time. Since then, the University has become
stronger and has much wider national and international recognition.
Hence I am hopeful that we can shine in the 2006 review, but it's
going to take a great deal of work and significant levels of
support, performance enhancements, and recognition of how
inter-dependent all staff are on each other. We will need to
accentuate and prove our many strengths, as we have done to
date.
Professor Paul Thomas is Vice-Chancellor of University of
the Sunshine Coast