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Course Lifecycle - Course Review Procedure (Expires 31/10/18)

This is not a current document. It has been repealed and is no longer in force.

Section 1 - Background and Purpose

(1) The University will provide consistent principles and procedures to guide the University community in the introduction, review, revision and closure of courses.

(2) These Procedures are intended to streamline and ensure transparency and consistency in the regular review of courses.

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Section 2 - Scope

(3) Refer to the Course Lifecycle Policy (Expires 31/10/18).

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Section 3 - Policy Statement

(4) Refer to the Course Lifecycle Policy (Expires 31/10/18).

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Section 4 - Procedure

Course Reviews at La Trobe University

(5) There are two types of internal course reviews at the University. The annual Strategic Review and the five-yearly Academic Review.

Strategic Reviews of Courses

(6) Courses will be reviewed regarding their strategic value and sustainability at least once a year in a joint meeting of senior members of the College and the Course Portfolio and Scholarships Committee (CPSC) of the Senior Executive Group.

Information for Strategic Reviews of Courses

(7) Information that might be considered in CPSC deliberations includes:

  1. Enrolments and completions
  2. Popularity polls and performance in VTAC preferences
  3. ATAR scores
  4. Distribution of Student Fee Types
  5. Contribution of the course to the College/University strategic direction
  6. Adequacy of relevant resources (staff, budget, space, ICT etc)

Responsibility for Strategic Reviews of Courses

(8) The CPSC will initiate the strategic review of courses and identify the data for consideration in the meetings. 
CPSC will liaise with the relevant College regarding the review process to be undertaken.

Outcome of Strategic Reviews of Courses

(9) The outcome of a strategic course review, as determined by CPSC or review panel may be: 

  1. no change; 
  2. major, minor or substantial revision;
  3. suspension or closure.

(10) In the event of either of the latter two outcomes, changes are to be processed via the Coursework Committee and CPSC under the Course Lifecycle Policy (Expires 31/10/18) and associated Procedures.

Costs of Strategic and Academic Course Reviews

(11) Colleges will assume the costs associated with strategic and/or academic course reviews, including travel and accommodation and preparation of documents. There will be no charges for internally provided services.

Academic Course Reviews

(12) Academic reviews of courses will be on a five yearly cycle or more often if triggered by circumstances including external or professional accreditation or in response to data trends.

(13) Courses that are subject to external or professional accreditation should have the reviews conducted in conjunction with one another whenever possible. The timing of the internal academic course review as well as detail concerning precise content requirements can be negotiated. 

(14) For example, to assist in reducing workload, a College may prefer to submit to the internal course review panel, the external professional accreditation submission together with an addendum containing any agreed additional La Trobe course review requirements. Colleges may choose to review groups/clusters of courses during the same review process.

Out of Cycle Course Reviews

(15) An Academic Course Review may be commenced at any time at the request of the College Pro Vice-Chancellor, or the Vice-Chancellor on the advice of a Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic) or CPSC.

Scheduling of Academic Course Reviews

(16) The College Pro Vice-Chancellor will arrange the development of an initial five year review program to ensure that all courses in the College are reviewed. A copy of the program is to be provided to the Academic Course Review Coordinator, Office of Quality and Standards for inclusion in the program of University reviews.

(17) By October of each year, the College Pro Vice-Chancellor will review the College program for the forthcoming five years and provide confirmation and/or updates to Academic Course Review Coordinator, Office of Quality and Standards.

(18) For any newly approved courses, an academic course review must be conducted within five years of the first enrolment intake.

Inclusion in College Business/ Operational Plans and Calendar

(19) Academic course reviews are to be included in the College Business/Operational Plan. The calendar of academic course reviews for each College will also be published on the College webpage and a consolidated University schedule on the Academic Course Reviews Unite Site. 

Review Criteria for Academic Course Reviews

(20) Academic Reviews will principally be conducted against the elements of course design intended to ensure the alignment of teaching and learning activities, learning resources and support, assessment strategies, and feedback mechanisms in order to support student achievement of University, College and course learning outcomes to clear and appropriate standards.

Performance Indicators for Academic Reviews

(21) The performance indicators for academic reviews may include:

  1. Course enrolments and completions
  2. Retention, progression, success rates
  3. Average grades and spread of grades in key subjects
  4. CEQ and GDS data
  5. Student Feedback on subjects and teaching
  6. Socio-economic composition of enrolments

Outcomes of an Academic Course Review

(22) The recommendation by the review panel may be:

  1. re-accreditation
  2. re-accreditation with conditions
  3. no re-accreditation

Preparation for Academic Course Reviews

(23) It is the responsibility of the College to manage the preparation for any academic course review.

(24) College Pro Vice-Chancellors (in consultation with Heads of Schools) should establish a College Academic Course Review Team, including a Course Review Leader (usually one of the Course Co-ordinators), to prepare the academic review documentation required for each review of a course or group of courses. The significant work involved will need to be considered in workload management. 

(25) Course review submissions should involve the input of academic staff involved in the delivery of the relevant course/s. Where more than one School or College is involved (for example, double degrees, or those courses involving more than one campus) coordinators from all relevant areas are to be consulted in the development of the submission.

(26) The Course Review Leader may seek assistance from the Analysis and Reporting Unit (ARU) of the Planning and Governance Division in interpreting data and from members of the Coursework Committee in preparing documentation. 

Administrative Support to the College Academic Course Review Team

(27) The College Academic Course Review Team should also include an administrative officer (usually one of the administrators supporting the courses for review) to assist with the preparation of the review submission and review interviews.

Submission Endorsement

(28) The Course Review Submission must be approved by the relevant Associate PVC (Coursework) and College Pro Vice-Chancellor before being submitted to the Office of Quality and Standards for distribution to the Course Review Panel.

Submission

(29) The Course Review Leader will provide an electronic copy of the completed submission including all attachments to the Academic Course Review Coordinator via course.reviews@latrobe.edu.au before the due date. 

(30) The College will also provide hard copies of the following:

  1. the completed written submission template
  2. the ARU data pack

(31) All other attachments do not need to be provided in hardcopy.

(32) The College will arrange for these to be produced and will assume the cost.

Panel Composition for Academic Course Reviews

(33) The Academic Course Review Panel will usually be comprised of at least three, and up to five, members, including the Panel Chair. Panel members may be selected from the following categories as appropriate to the course:

  1. An external academic with relevant discipline expertise and appropriate experience 
  2. An internal academic with related discipline expertise and appropriate experience, not directly involved with the courses being reviewed
  3. A related professional or industry group
  4. A member of La Trobe Learning and Teaching

(34) At least one member of the panel must be external to La Trobe University.

(35) Normally at least one panel member will have relevant expertise in curriculum design and learning and teaching approaches.

(36) A Review Executive Officer will provide support to the panel.

(37) The College Pro Vice-Chancellor will consult with the Chair of the Coursework Committee on proposed membership of the Academic Course Review Panel. 

Panel Chair

(38) The Panel Chair (normally academic level C or above) is selected from a pool of academic staff who have received training in the processes involved in course reviews. The pool includes members of the Coursework Committee as well as senior academics nominated by each College. The Panel Chair should be someone with no close relationship to the course being reviewed, and should normally be from the other College.

Category B Internal Panel Member

(39) The Internal Panel member should be an academic of the University with experience in curriculum design and learning and teaching approaches, and where possible, have knowledge from a broadly related discipline. However they should not be teaching into or directly involved with the course/s being reviewed.

Administrative Support to the Review

(40) A Review Executive Officer will be appointed for scheduled academic course reviews. The Review Executive Officer should be someone with no close relationship to the course being reviewed, and should normally be from the other College. Ideally, the Review Executive Officer will be from the same work unit as the Panel Chair they are supporting.

(41) The Academic Course Review Coordinator within the Office of Quality and Standards manages the overall course review process, but does not normally participate in individual reviews.

Terms of Reference for Academic Course Reviews

(42) A model Terms of Reference for an Academic Course Review is available on the Course Lifecycles intranet site. 

(43) If required, the College Pro Vice-Chancellor will consult with the Chair of the Coursework Committee and/or the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic) on any significant adjustments proposed to the terms of reference.

Data for Academic Course Reviews

(44) To assist Colleges with preparation of the academic course review submission, a comprehensive data pack will be provided by the Analysis and Reporting Unit (ARU) of the Planning and Governance Division. This data set covers student demand, student profile, student retention, student satisfaction and student outcomes.

(45) In October each year, the Academic Course Review Coordinator, Office of the Quality and Standards will provide ARU with a list of all scheduled courses nominated for review in the coming year to enable the preparation of the relevant data packs.

(46) If deemed necessary, the Course Review Leader can also source additional data (eg: from external stakeholders) that is not already available through the ARU data pack. Any requests for additional data may be made by the Course Review Leader to the Manager, Analysis and Reporting.

Preliminary Panel Meeting

(47) The Academic Course Review Panel will meet to consider the academic course review submission and relevant data set. At that meeting it will also consider any other information required and also who should be interviewed and questions/issues to be raised during interviews. The external member(s) of the panel may participate in this meeting by phone.

Panel Interviews

(48) The Panel will convene to interview people considered relevant to its investigations. These may include:

  1. The Course Review Leader and any other Course Co-ordinators
  2. Current students 
  3. Graduates
  4. External stakeholders (accreditation/registration bodies, employers) 
  5. Staff teaching in the course(s), including those from multiple locations and/or schools where the course is offered; and
  6. The relevant Head/s of School
  7. Members of the Course Advisory Board, if applicable 
  8. Relevant LTU divisions: LTI, future students/selection staff

(49) The interviews may take the form of group or individual appointments. The interviews will be conducted over no more than three days.

Final Panel Meeting

(50) The final afternoon of the interview schedule will be set aside for the Panel to discuss their findings and assist in developing an initial draft of the Panel Report.

Panel’s Report on Academic Course Reviews

(51) The Chair of the Academic Course Review Panel, with the assistance of the Review Executive Officer, will prepare the report using the report template, in consultation with the other Panel members. The findings may include Commendations and Recommendations with a brief rationale for these commendations or recommendations. 

(52) It will also contain the Panel’s conclusion on whether the course should be reaccredited without changes, reaccredited with conditions or not reaccredited.

Draft Report

(53) The report as drafted will be provided to the Course Review Leader to allow them the opportunity to request amendments to any factual errors, after which the report will be finalised. 

Finalising the Report

(54) Once the Academic Course Review report is finalised, it is signed-off by the Panel Chair and presented to the Associate PVC (Coursework) and the College Pro Vice-Chancellor. The Academic Course Review Coordinator within the Office of Quality and Standards will facilitate this exchange.

Reaccreditation Period

(55) In accordance with policy, re-accreditation will generally be valid for a five-year period. The Panel may, at its discretion, recommend a shorter accreditation period with a supporting justification.

(56) Where the panel recommends a shorter accreditation period subject to action plan outcomes, then the Panel Chair will review the submission documentation prepared by the Course Review Leader as required in the section “Final Outcomes of the Review” below, and provide advice to the Coursework Committee on whether or not a five year re-accreditation is appropriate at that time.

Non-Reaccreditation

(57) In the event of the Panel deciding not to recommend reaccreditation of the course, the College should submit course closure documentation to the Coursework Committee.

Appeals Against Panel Decision

(58) Appeals against non-reaccreditation or a shortened accreditation period may be made to the Education Committee, supported by appropriate evidence. The bases for appeal are detailed in the Course Lifecycles – Course Review Guidelines. 

College Action Plan

(59) In consultation with members of the College/s and School/s, the Course Review Leader will prepare a response to recommendations contained in the report, using the Action Plan template.

Review Report Consideration and Approval

(60) The College Pro Vice-Chancellor will submit the final academic course review report, and the Action Plan, to College Academic Committee and subsequently to the Coursework Committee and Academic Board for consideration, endorsement and final approval. A copy is also to be provided to the Office of Quality and Standards.

Publication of Review Outcomes

(61) The Academic Course Reviews Coordinator will publish the completed report and action plan on the Academic Course Reviews Unite Site. The Academic Course Reviews Coordinator will publish the 12 month update to the Action Plan once it becomes available.

Final Outcomes of the Review

(62) Within 12 months of the approval of the report by Academic Board, the College Course Review Leader will update the Action Plan template detailing outcomes for submission to College Academic Committee and subsequently to the Coursework Committee and Academic Board for consideration, endorsement and final approval. A copy is also to be provided to the Office of Quality and Standards.

Report Storage and Distribution

(63) The Academic Course Review Coordinator, Office of Quality and Standards is responsible for lodging all relevant review documentation in the University’s Records and Archives Services and posting the summary report of completed course reviews on the Academic Course Review Unite Site.

Useful Resources and Templates

(64) All Academic Course Review information regarding guidelines, processes and templates are available on Academic Course Review website.

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Section 5 - Definitions

(65) For the purpose of this Procedure:

  1. Strategic Course Reviews: Consider the strategic fit, financial sustainability, and demand for courses
  2. Academic Course Reviews: Consider the strategic fit and academic merit of courses, alignment to principles of good course design and indicators of student success and satisfaction. 
  3. Academic Merit: Effectiveness in promoting high quality, meaningful, and long-lasting learning.