Wide-ranging and effective contributions by students

University of Canterbury commended on the wide-ranging and effective contributions by students

March 24, 2015

A four-year academic audit report has commended the University of Canterbury on wide-ranging and effective contributions made by students to the university’s planning, reviews, academic activity and services.

The audit, last carried out in 2010, was undertaken by the Academic Quality Agency for New Zealand universities. The report says the audit team was impressed by the resilience shown by staff and students and by their commitment and determination to meet challenges as the university grows and recovers from the earthquakes.

The university was applauded for developing, implementing and evaluating risk management and business continuity procedures under the circumstances. The commitment and fortitude demonstrated by staff and students to pursuing their teaching, learning and research was also noted.

There was praise for the leadership shown by the university in good practices and lessons learned from their experiences.

The report commended the university on its learning and academic skills support services, its accessibility and acceptability to students and on the initiative taken by staff to ensure relevance and effectiveness.

Student well-being services were commended for enhancing safety on campus, and in particular the proactive role played by the university’s Security team in providing a safe campus for all staff, students and visitors.

The introduction of a new student management system received approval and the university was encouraged to consider issues relating to student advice when designing a new system. The university’s activities to enhance student engagement were commended, in particular support for the introduction of a co-curricular transcript.

It was recommended the university review delegation and implementation of core academic processes to identify where central monitoring, including reporting and analysis, is necessary to provide the university with institutional assurance of the quality of processes and their outcomes.

Recommendations included updating of some campus facilities. This is being addressed with the university’s $1.1 billion infrastructure rebuild at the Ilam campus over the next 20 years.

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