Managing quality assurance and enhancement processes in higher education with special reference to initial teacher training provision

My intention in carrying out this project was to examine the relevance of developing refined approaches toward quality assurance in order to accommodate external demand under a common system. Each area of critical analysis established sources of conflict of interest amongst academics in the School and provided an indication of the way in which these might be resolved.
The academic provision in the School is diverse and is subject to external scrutiny through the Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) and Teacher Training Agency (TTA) the latter of whom works alongside the Office for Standards in Teacher Education, OfSTED.
Throughout this time the University has operated an internal quality assurance and enhancement process based on the QAA quality assurance methodology whereas Initial Teacher Training programmes within the School have been subject to the inspection methodology of OfSTED.
Three areas of critical analysis formed the basis of my research methodology conducted through case study and primary document analysis.
The self assessment document is a product of QAA demand and contrasts with OfSTED inspection demand, the subject specification raises questions about knowledge and its control in higher education when compared with the TTA Standards for the Award of Qualified Teacher Status, and the School Annual Monitoring Report represents the internal dichotomy of demand that sometimes exists for members of academic staff who engage in the process of writing such reports.
My main finding suggests that the 'self imposed burden' of quality assurance can be reduced within the University and School in order to facilitate a more coherent and effective QA process.