About continuous quality improvement
Continuous quality improvement at Deakin
Deakin University is committed to continuous quality improvement (CQI); it is embraced as part of the University's everyday work and is embedded in its annual planning cycle and in the policies and practices in place to ensure and improve the quality of its academic and other activities.
Deakin uses a cycle of continuous improvement that involves:
- developing a plan that sets out the goals that we are seeking to achieve
- determining and implementing a set of strategies to achieve those goals
- measuring and evaluating outcomes
- reviewing, revising or replanning to ensure that our goals are realised
CQI requires reliable measures of performance and the systematic collection of data and evaluation of outcomes against those measures. Benchmarking is also an important part of CQI at Deakin and is used in reviewing the University's performance and reflecting on the effectiveness of its processes.
Performance review, evaluation and planning process
Deakin's annual planning cycle embeds continuous improvement at every level of the University's operations. An integral part of that cycle is the performance review, evaluation and planning (PREP) process. PREP is essentially an organisational version of the individual performance, planning and review procedure. The University, Faculties, Institutes and other areas all produce PREP reports.
View further information about the PREP process and PREP reports.
Reviews
Deakin has a well-established commitment to regular review as a means of critically assessing its performance and exploring opportunities for improvement. Policies and procedures are in place requiring:
- annual course reviews and major course reviews at least every five years
- external reviews of Faculties and other identified areas normally on a five-yearly cycle
View information about Faculty, Institute and other area reviews
Reviews may also be conducted of:
- Schools, at the request of the Vice-Chancellor
- disciplines, normally at the request of the Dean or Head of School, or in response to a recommendation from a Faculty, School or annual course review
Benchmarking at Deakin
Benchmarking is an important part of continuous quality improvement at Deakin and is used to review the University's performance, reflect on the effectiveness of its processses and identify areas for improvement.
View information about Deakin's approach to benchmarking and benchmarking guidelines
TEQSA
The Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency (TEQSA) is responsible for regulating higher education in Australia in accordance with the TEQSA Act 2011.
TEQSA registers and evaluates the performance of higher education providers. Deakin University has been registered by TEQSA as an Australian University on the National Register of Higher Education Providers until 30 June 2018. To maintain registration, Deakin and its courses must comply with the Higher Education Threshold Standards (consisting of the Provider Standards and the Qualification Standards). TEQSA monitors the ongoing compliance of institutions with reference to data. It can review any aspect of a provider’s operations to assess whether the standards are being met.
TEQSA can also undertake quality assessments. These can either be an assessment of the quality of an individual provider or a review of an issue across a number of providers (a thematic review).
