Core statutory QA guidelines
University of Limerick
To whom it may concern:
We welcome the publication of draft core guidelines for consultation. Herein we provide some
headline commentary, and note that IUA will also provide (university) sector feedback
independently.

Language could be tightened up somewhat in some instances in order to clarify the exact
status of the guidelines. For example, at one point on page 5 the document indicates that
providers are required to ‘have regard’ to QQIs QA guidelines when establishing their own
QA procedures (implying a degree of flexibility) while further down the page the core
guidelines are described as fundamental, common requirements applicable to all providers
(indicating no flexibility). Ultimately, will an institutional review seek to assess strict
conformance to the guidelines or not.

The vast majority of specific guideline elements presented, when taken individually, are
quite logical. However, when taken as a whole, implementation of these guidelines, and
associated monitoring activities will be extremely resource intensive and will threaten to
overwhelm quality office resources in many institutions – including large, relatively well
resourced institutions. There is a danger that granular implementation of the core (&
related) guidelines will place an unreasonable burden on institutions, to the extent that
quality-related administrative tasks required from front line support and in particular
academic staff could actually impinge negatively upon actual educational delivery. Strict
conformance to all aspects of the proposed guidelines would require some considerable
time to achieve in virtually all institutions.

In a small number of instances, vigilance against mission drift should be considered. For
example QQI wants completion rates made available to it (page35). (a) Is QQI wandering
into assessing/commenting upon performance as opposed to QA procedures and (b) is that
data not available to QQI via the HEA?

Greater clarity upon what is meant by ‘research’ would be welcome – Research leading to
Level 9 or 10 10 awards, or all institutional research activity?