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What The UWI Quality Policy Means To Me Towards the maturing of The UWI’s Quality Management System
the various components of the System as these relate to academic quality and administrative and service quality. We recognised that while The UWI had a robust, well documented academic quality strategy, there was not an overarching Quality Policy for both the University’s academic and administrative platforms; this deficit clearly needed to be addressed.
The process of thinking through, documenting and commenting on various drafts of the QAU’s proposal for an integrated UWI QMS continued over approximately two years. It culminated with
the establishment of The UWI Task Force on Quality to determine the way forward.
The Task Force on Quality, chaired by Pro-Vice Chancellor, Professor Alan Cobley, presented a report on the findings of a survey on quality at The UWI, which in turn informed the development of The UWI Quality Policy for a holistic approach to institutional quality. The Task Force recommended a Quality Management Team to have oversight of the implementation of the Quality Policy and this has been established.
These are all extremely positive and promising developments for The UWI’s quality culture, the preservation of the institution’s reputation for academic excellence and continuous improvement of service quality. At a personal level, I am content to have been part of this process and am hopeful for the successful implementation of the Quality Policy in the short and long term.
Sandra Ingrid Gift, PhD Senior Programme Officer Quality Assurance Unit
F or me, The University of the West Indies (The UWI) Quality Policy launched by the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Sir Hilary Beckles, in February 2018 represents the successful outcome of the Quality Assurance Unit’s (QAU’s) continuing advocacy on behalf of the maturing of The UWI’s Quality Management System. This outcome symbolises that The UWI has indeed committed itself to taking quality to the next level where every member of staff perceives the critical importance of her or his
role in the institution’s quality culture.
It did not take very long for the staff of the QAU to understand that focussing on academic quality assurance, as critical as this was and continues to be, represented a less than full attention to quality; that to be complete and truly effective, quality assurance within the institution also needed to address issues relating to administrative quality, with a special focus on service quality. At QAU meetings, over the years, we would often comment on this until it was decided that there had been enough talk and that the time for action had come. That realisation meant reflecting on and articulating our knowledge and understanding of not only our University’s quality assurance programme review processes but indeed our University’s Quality Management System (QMS) and the nexus between
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