Ensuring teaching excellence
The School is committed to excellence in teaching its students and has careful procedures in place for quality assurance and enhancement.
The School's quality assurance and enhancement procedures ensure a rigorous annual process of self-review and reflection, informed by student feedback and the scrutiny provided by external examiners. We are always actively exploring new and innovative ways of enhancing the teaching and learning experiences of our staff and students.
The School is required to report annually to the College on the outcomes of its continuous process of internal teaching review, which is guided by the University's Quality Assurance Committee. Programme directors for taught Graduate courses, and the Directors of Teaching for the History, Classics and Archaeology Subject Areas, write annual Programme Reports for all Undergraduate programmes, to summarise the success, and to highlight areas for improvement and enhancement, based on student feedback and the reflection of teaching staff. These Programme Reports, the National Student Survey, and other student surveys, all feed into the writing of the annual School Quality Assurance Report. This process supports and stimulates the continuous enhancement of teaching provision.
Central to the School's commitment to teaching excellence is regular monitoring of all undergraduate and graduate courses. We collect feedback and data about all of our courses, both at an individual course level, across our degree programmes, and through university-level feedback exercises such as the National Student Survey. Course organisers and the director of quality scrutinise this data after each semester and over the course of a whole academic year in order to improve the scope and effectiveness of the teaching in the School.
The School relies upon the advice and insights of several external examiners, whose annual reports include ideas for the improvement and enhancement of courses and programmes. Although they scrutinise our assessment practices, and can be invited to help in solving problem cases, our external examiners do not themselves mark our students’ work except in exceptional circumstances.
Students have the opportunity to recognise excellent teaching in the School, by nominating staff members for a teaching award in the annual student association awards. A large number of the School’s staff have been consistently nominated for awards each year, and often make the final shortlist of prize-winners. You can see details of award winners from the School in the PDF document below.
Further information about the School’s Quality Assurance and Enhancement processes and activities can obtained by contacting the the Director of Quality. You can also find further information on the University's Quality Framework webpages.
Dr Emile Chabal
Quality Assurance and Enhancement Director
- School of History, Classics and Archaeology
- University of Edinburgh
Contact details
- Work: +44 (0)131 650 4302
- Email: emile.chabal@ed.ac.uk
- Web: Dr Chabal's staff profile