The Office of Quality Assurance (QA) provides guidance and support to faculties carrying out programme reviews. QA is also responsible for the systematic maintenance of the Institutional Quality Assurance Process (IQAP) Manual and for seeking approval from the Ontario Universities Council on Quality Assurance (OUCQA or Quality Council) for any revisions to it.
QA's Role in Cyclic Programme Reviews
- Production, revision, and distribution of all templates and forms in the RMC IQAP manual.
- QA produces any templates and forms needed in support of IQAP-related processes.
- Preparation of certain reports for the Self-Studies of programmes under review.
- Working with the Office of the Registrar and College information Systems, QA prepares standardized statistical reports for Self-Study Reports in the course of Programme Reviews. QA is also the point of contact between programmes and various stats-collecting bodies; all requests for statistical reports for Programme Reviews should be made to QA rather than contacting the Office of the Registrar or other bodies directly.
- Administration of online feedback surveys for students and faculty (used in the Self-Study Report).
- QA has developed several distinct feedback surveys to be administered online to the students and faculty of programmes under review. The results of the surveys are processed by QA and returned to Programme Heads to be used as part of the Self-Study Report in the Cyclical Programme review process.
- Advice and support in the interpretation and application of IQAP-related policy.
- As the body that maintains the IQAP manual, QA is extremely familiar with the IQAP and hence well-placed to advise and aid members of programmes under review in negotiating the policy. To request assistance with, or clarification of, IQAP processes, write to qa-aq@rmcc-cmrc.ca.
- Archiving of all documents prepared in the course of IQAP-related processes.
- The Quality Council audits universities on a cyclical basis to ensure that they are following their own IQAPs. QA's archives of all IQAP-related documents are checked by the Quality Council at this time.
- Publication of Executive Summaries of Final Assessment Reports
- QA updates and manages the portion of the RMC website where the results of IQAP-related reviews are reported.
- Preparation of the Annual Report to the Quality Council under direction from the VP Academic.
- Each January, QA prepares a report on the various review processes carried out at RMC over the past year. The report appends the executive summaries of the Final Assessment Reports of programs which underwent a Cyclical Programme Review and it also appends the Implementation and Progress Reports of programmes implementing changes as a result of the recommendations of a programme review.
- Maintenance of RMC the IQAP manual.
- QA is the official custodian of the most current version of the manual and can provide it to anyone at the university who requests it. If revisions to the IQAP Manual are required, QA, working closely with the VP Academic, will make the revisions as directed and will clear any revisions made with the Quality Council.