Quality Assurance

There are three External Examiners who are appointed by the University for a period of (usually) four years.

Each external examiner

• Submits a report to the Vice-Chancellor once a year. This can deal with any aspect of the teaching, but normally concentrates on issues relating to student achievement, examination and assessment procedures, the curriculum and on how standards at Warwick compare with those at other UK universities. The Department's responses are considered by the University's Teaching Quality Office and sent to the external examiners.
• Comments on the proposed questions on the second, third and fourth year physics examination papers. The comments would be considered by the appropriate examination secretary and examiner and the questions amended to take account of the external examiners' comments.
• Attends the final year examiners' meeting, where they advise on decisions.
• Reports verbally at the end of the examiners' meeting on any concerns they may have about the department's teaching.

The current external examiners and their appointment terms are:

• William Chapman, University of Birmingham, Oct 2026-Sept 2030
• Solveig Felton, Queen's University Belfast, Oct 2023 - Sept 2027
• Jessica Turner, University of Durham, Oct 2025 - Sept 2029

The Department's degrees are accredited by the IoP. Whenever accreditation is due for renewal, the Department prepares a submission requesting renewal and, under current procedures, is visited by a panel of the IoP. The panel can make accreditation conditional on changes being made to the teaching.

The University reviews the Department's teaching and assessment regularly. After receiving and analysing the Department's plans, its External Examiners' reports and statistical data, the review panel meets with academic staff and student representatives. It subsequently makes recommendations. The recommendations are considered by the appropriate University committees.

The Department reviews its programmes of study continuously, and at the end of each academic year. We look for any systematic problems or trends which may be apparent from student feedback, examination marks, scaling of examination marks, module registrations, comments from the external examiners and issues which have arisen during the year.

The Department monitors the views of its staff. There is a regular programme of peer review where members of staff attend lectures by colleagues, subsequently discuss the effectiveness of the lecture, and consider possible improvements.

The Department monitors student opinion through

Questionnaires

Students are asked to complete questionnaires for each module. A summary of the responses for each module is kept on file and made available to staff and students. The Head of Department, or another academic appointed by them, discusses any issues arising from the questionnaire responses with the appropriate members of staff.

The Staff Student Liaison Committee (SSLC)

The SSLC meets twice a term to discuss any issue relating to teaching. There are four staff members (the convenor, the Senior Tutor, the Director of Education and the Head of Department) and student representatives from the various degree programmes and all years. We aim to publish a response on the SSLC website to issues raised at each SSLC meeting within ten days of the meeting. These reports are considered at the following meeting of the SSLC and the Physics Education Committee. The SSLC also makes an annual report to the Student Union.

Informal Contacts

Staff often receive comments (usually in tutorials or in the laboratory) on the lecture and laboratory modules taken by students. These are passed to the people concerned where appropriate.