University to hold academic audit

The University of Malta is to undertake an internal academic audit which will look at the quality of teaching, research and managerial work across all its faculties, institutes and centres.

The aim is to ensure that its services are of the highest quality and comparable to its counterparts in Europe, members of the academic staff were informed in a document sent to them by Pro-Rector Charles Farrugia. The audit should start in October and be completed by the following February, Prof. Farrugia told The Times.

Running parallel will be an administrative audit, which will cover the areas of finance, office of the Registrar and university facilities.

Together, the audits will take a complete, across-the-board look at the way the university is functioning, said Prof. Farrugia, who is coordinating the initiative.

On the academic front, there will be follow-up audits of specific courses. "Eventually, external academic visitations and audits will become a regular feature of the University's calendar," the document says.

Prof. Farrugia announced the initiative at a recent conference organised by the University Students Council, which is critical of the university's quality assurance efforts. At the same conference, Rector Roger Ellul Micallef mentioned the initiative in the context of the university's goal of internationalisation. He said that for such a strategy to be successful there needed to be a sound accreditation system:

"Universities must build internal structures and procedures to further their capacity for change and innovation, as well as their ability to measure risks and develop strategies accordingly.

"This is what the university has been quietly doing, without ruffling too many feathers, over the past few years. We have recently launched an academic audit exercise that is taking place in parallel with an administrative one."

The academic audit will elicit information from academic and support staff, as well as past and present students of the various faculties, institutes and centres.

The auditors will ask a whole range of questions on both administrative and academic aspects. For example, they will want to know about staff and student numbers, external examiners' reports, attendance records and student feedback sheets.

They will want to find out about the extent to which the aims of courses reflect the professions, whether students are well informed about the knowledge, skills and values they should acquire, and whether staff and external examiners are satisfied with their performance.

There will be questions about the content of curricula in relation to areas such as subject skills, progression to employment, personal development and whether the curriculum is informed by the latest developments in the field.

The auditors will examine how effectively staff draw upon their research and professional activities to reflect on their teaching and whether they encourage effective student participation. They will also look at the burden of the workload on students.

They will look into assessment procedures, the resources available for teaching, learning and research, and the support given to academic staff and students by the university's administration.

The results will be taken up to Senate, the university's decision-making body on academic matters.

Each faculty will then be informed about its strengths and the areas in which it needs to improve, and will be asked to take action on the recommendations.

When asked, Prof. Farrugia said the audits were not intended to be an instrument to obtain more funds, a problem area for the university right now, but to make sure the institution is "giving the best possible service".

"Although the audits could be used as an argument," he added.

The academic auditors will consist of people from both inside and outside the university, "all people of academic repute", he said.

He said meetings had just been held with all deans and heads of institutes and centres to obtain feedback from the academic staff. Among the suggestions they put forward were not to make the audit "inquisitorial", but more like a self-assessment exercise, and to lay more emphasis on research.

"We are taking heed of these suggestions," said Prof. Farrugia.