Monitoring and Review
College Procedures
For information, please click the following links for access to the College Quality Assurance Procedures and Procedures for the Review of New and Existing Undergraduate Courses.
Student Input
One of the main ways how student input is captured is through the Student On-Line Evaluation (SOLE). This is a College-wide, web-based, survey system which invites undergraduates to respond to a number of questions about the modules and clinical attachments they have attended. The survey also offers students the opportunity to submit free-form textual comments. Individual student responses are anonymous. Feedback collected from SOLE is fed back to the individual teachers and relevant course organisers or clinical leads. Lecturers are invited to discuss their SOLE reports with the Head of QAE. In addition to SOLE, students have representation on all Undergraduate Medicine Committees (with the exception of the Student Progress Group) and a student chairs each of the Staff-Student Liaison Groups.
External Input
Comments from Visiting Examiners’ reports and published guidelines from the General Medical Council and Department of Health are considered via the relevant Education Sub-Committee.
Governance and Education Monitoring Visits
Governance and Education Monitoring Visits are organised to build continuing relationships with the Trusts.
These visits close the loop on the quality assurance mechanisms operating within Imperial College with regards to clinical medical education. Chaired by the Head of UG Medicine, the purpose is to ensure that issues and concerns raised with regards to clinical education are addressed, actions implemented and resources agreed. It also presents a forum in which to share good practice on both local and national levels. It enables those involved in clinical education to reflect on the current delivery of the teaching in the Trust in terms of structure, organisation, support, and access to learning and other resources. This is achieved through the following agenda items:
- Review of data relating to the clinical education at the Trust (Clinical placements provided, SOLE results, Clinical Teaching Governance Exercise)
- Discussion of Learning Resources and Health and Safety Provision within the Trust (e.g. Library, Computers, AVIT, Accident Reporting)
- Review of SIFT spending
- Discussion of proposed changes in the NHS or Imperial College and their effect on teaching provision
These annual visits also incorporate informal meetings with the Trust firm leaders in order to develop networks and communication between the Faculty and its clinical teachers. The findings and recommendations of these visits are reported to the Education Committee.
Periodic reviews
Undergraduate Medicine reviews annually its quality assurance procedures through submission of an Annual Monitoring Report to Medical Studies Committee.
The Education Sub-Committee (Year 4 BSc) has introduced a system of course review for all BSc courses in which all courses are reviewed once every two years.
Procedures to systematically review the other parts of the course and the course overall are currently under further development.
