Thank you for the hard work you have invested in your Self-Evaluation Documents and for bearing with us through a very busy couple of months getting the 38 individual reviews started:

• 34 Self-Evaluation Documents have been received and processed - including early analysis of trends in the common and bespoke themes.
• 284 panel members have been appointed.
• Nearly 50 hours of panel training has been delivered across different categories of panellist, of which all but 15 of our panellists have attended at least one session.
• Guidance, templates and exemplars for the review process have been finalised and published within the panel review channels in Teams.

We experienced some delays in onboarding our external and student panellists, specifically conducting the necessary Right to Work checks and filling the last few gaps in panel composition. These issues are now resolved: we have a full complement of panellists and a way forward to ensure our external and student panel members are ready to join ITLR.

Looking ahead to the next steps in the process:

• Many of the panels have now met for the first time and have begun reviewing your submitted SED and evidence.
• The panel secretary will be in touch in due course to set up a briefing meeting with your ITLR departmental/cluster leads to share the themes to be explored in more detail during the online and in-person review visits, and to discuss who they would like to meet during those visits.
• The panel secretary will also work with your team to agree a date for the online review visit. This has already begun where panels have a SED, all panellists are appointed and trained, and you have confirmed there are no conflicts of interest with your appointed panel.
• A schedule of discrete meetings between the panel and your senior team, staff, students, and stakeholders will be developed for each review visit. This means that only the panel will need a clear diary for the whole day on review dates.

If your panel have not been in touch then please do release any diary holds that were put in place to accommodate the ITLR context setting meeting. We are still broadly on track with the overall scheduling through Term 2 for lots of the 38 reviews (panel prep in January; online visit in February; in-person visit in March), but there is flexibility in this schedule where the early stages are delayed and to accommodate the availability of the panel and your team. We know that diaries are getting booked up and assure you that every effort will be made to accommodate availability, with flexibility used to meet the requirements of the project alongside your other commitments. This will of course include taking account of the impact of industrial action where needed.

With the SED submission window fast approaching (5th-12th December), we're now getting in touch with each department and cluster to check you are on track and to let you know how to submit your SED.

A new folder has been added to your Pre-Review channel on your department or cluster teams site, called 'SED submission'. When you are ready, please upload your completed document to this 'SED submission' folder and post a message in the Pre-Review channel chat to alert the team.

A new private channel has been created to enable your ITLR panel to communicate with each other and share documents. They can access your Pre-Review channel to enable them to access ITLR guidance, your Terms of Reference, Evidence and SED.

If you need any support or have any questions, please get in touch with the ITLR project team. We look forward to receiving your SED!

This sessions walked academics through the authoring process, starting with an overview of the aims of the SED and then reviewing the template in a step-wise manner. For each individual section, explanations were given regarding the evaluation area aspect and how it will be used during the review, with final guidelines being provided on how to complete the section. The aim of the workshop was to ensure all departments were supported and were given the opportunity to ask questions about the SED, as well as any questions they might have about the ITLR review process.

Thank you to everyone who joined us for our 'Introduction to ITLR Common Themes' event last Friday. A big thank you also to everyone who worked tirelessly behind the scenes with the creation and running of the event.

This event was designed to provide an opportunity for key members of the six ITLR Professional Service Clusters to come together to explore the ITLR and its opportunities as part of the updated ITLR approach to professional service review. The event facilitated and supported a collaborative, cross team approach to the completion of the ITLR Professional Services Clusters’ SED. Through evaluating how the professional services collectively contribute to and enable high quality education, student experiences and support, this event presented an opportunity for attendees to reflect upon the influence and achievements of the professional service areas/departments since the last ITLR in 2017.

Come to one of our drop-in sessions across campus to find out more about the ITLR and how you can get involved. Staff will be on hand to answer your questions and give an insight to the roles available to both staff and students.

Monday 17th October 10:30am-1:30pm - Library Events Space

Tuesday 25th October 2pm-3:45pm - NAIC Cafe

Thank you to everyone who joined us for our 'Introduction to ITLR Common Themes' event last Friday. A big thank you also to everyone who worked tirelessly behind the scenes with the creation and running of the event.

The event provided attendants with the opportunity to discover more detail about the purpose of the Common Themes within the ITLR review process, as well as introducing our Common Theme Co-Chairs who will be supporting you in responding to the section on the Common Themes within the ITLR Self Evaluation Document.

We look forward to welcoming everyone to the next upcoming ITLR events and workshops!

Consultation on our plans for the next Institutional Teaching and Learning Review (ITLR) is well underway following the publication of our draft blueprint last month. Thank you to everyone who attended one of our Town Hall events over the last week, which have been invaluable in refining the final design of ITLR before it is approved by the University’s Education Committee in June. We have started to see several common themes emerge, which you can read about here.