Last week saw the most successful NUS/QAA Quality Matters conference yet. With delegates from around the country and a packed agenda, it couldn't fail to disappoint.
Vice President Higher Education, Usman Ali opened the conference jointly with Chief Executive of the QAA Anthony McLaren. Both spoke about where they thought they quality agenda would be going over the next few years, highlighting the importance of engaging all types of students. Tieing into this, Usman and Anthony announce three exciting new projects being run jointly by NUS and QAA. You can read more about them here.
Following this, Rob Behrens, Chief executive of the OIA also spoke about his thoughts on the future of quality. In particular, Rob announced moves by the OIA to ensure that local unions are informed of decisions about their institution at the time they happen - a move welcomed by NUS.
The opening plenary was followed by a series of highly rated workshops. Presentations can be found through the links below.
To close, there was an expert plenary panel discussing where "more choice will increase quality". Rob Behrens (OIA); Robin Middlehurst (Kingston Univeristy); Ruth Farwell (Buckinghamshire New University); Carl Lygo (BPP) and Usman Ali (NUS) were all excellent. The debate aired a range of different opinions and covered a wide ground - feedback from delegates showed it was the highlight of the day, stimulating a whole range of ideas and opinions to take back to unions.
Finally, a big thank you and goodbye went to Derfel Owen, who is leaving the role of QAA Student Engagement Manager for pastures new. All from NUS and QAA would like to thank Derfel for all his excelllent and hard work over the past few years and the best of luck for the future.
If you are interested in, or have any questions about students and quality, please get in touch with Vice President Higher Education, Usman Ali