Subject Review--What are We Trying to Achieve?

Abstract

In the early 1990s, the Higher Education Councils were charged with assessing the quality of provision in higher education. The process of Teaching Quality Assessment was used in Wales and Scotland, followed by Subject Review, organised by the Quality Assurance Agency, in England and Northern Ireland. This provided stakeholders in higher education with access to objective information on quality of provision. Key aspects of quality assurance in education are fitness for purpose and team-working, to provide coherent and appropriate provisions. The system has been criticised on the grounds that it is unnecessary and wasteful of time and resources. However, it has acted as a major awareness-raising exercise in the higher education sector. Ultimately,it is about how well we care for our students. All the Schools of Pharmacy, who have long been subject to professional body accreditation, scored highly at TQAI Subject Review.