Institutional review

The Quality Assurance Agency Scotland (QAA) carries out enhancement-led reviews of all higher education institutions in Scotland. A new enhancement-led external institutional quality review method has been developed for 2024-25.

An Institutional Liaison Meeting (ILM) was undertaken in 2022/23 and a Quality Enhancement and Standards Review (QESR) in 2023/24.

The University’s QESR took place on 31 January 2024. The main purpose of the review was to provide assurance about the University’s management of its responsibilities for academic standards to inform the new enhancement-led institutional full review; provide assurance about the University’s management and enhancement of the quality of learning opportunities for students to inform an enhancement-led full review; report on any features of good practice; and make recommendations for action.

Following the one-day review, the QAA published its report and expressed confidence in the University's progress in continuing to monitor, review and enhance its higher education provision to enable effective arrangements to be in place for managing academic standards and the quality of the student experience.

The University received three commendations and one recommendation. An action plan has been developed to address the recommendation and this will be published on the QAA website on 11 September 2024.

The report and action plan submitted to the QAA can be found at:

Quality enhancement and standards review report (PDF)
QESR action plan (PDF)

The Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) has formally announced a new tertiary external review method – which all universities and colleges will participate in – known as the Tertiary Quality Enhancement Review (TQER). The purpose of TQER is to review, consider and investigate the way in which the institution supports and undertakes quality assurance and enhancement against the Tertiary Quality Enhancement Framework (TQEF), with key areas covering the quality of the student learning experience, the management of academic standards and the mechanisms for enabling student success.

The University will provide two constituent evidence types to support the review team in their findings: an Advance Information Set (AIS) and a Strategic Impact Analysis (SIA).

The University will be visited by an external QAA review team in March and April 2025, where there will be an opportunity for staff and students to meet and engage with the review team and the TQER process. Following this, a final TQER report will be provided to the University, outlining the review judgement and findings, listing any findings of good practice and required recommendations, including a statement in relation to each of the principle areas of the TQEF.

The University is committed to ensuring that staff and students are able to engage, learn and participate in TQER, with a series of key communications underway to report on our journey throughout the review process.

Please take a look at some FAQs about the TQER process.

For more information, please contact Nicola Milton (nam6@st-andrews.ac.uk), Ros Campbell (rc42@st-andrews.ac.uk) or Connel Greenhorn (cjg28@st-andrews.ac.uk).
Previously, the external review process used by QAA Scotland was the Enhancement-led Institution Review (ELIR) which was carried out on a five-yearly cycle. The fourth iteration of the ELIR process (ELIR 4) ran from 2017-22. The University’s ELIR 4 review was held in 2020 and the key documents relating to the review are:
- Reflective Analysis 2020 (PDF)
- Advanced Information Set 2020 (PDF)
- Briefing paper for staff (PDF)
- Outcome report 2020 (PDF)
- Technical report 2020 (PDF)
- Action plan (PDF)
- Follow up report 2020 (PDF)
- Update to ELIR 4 follow-up report 2020 (PDF)
- ELIR 4 update October 2023 (PDF)

Institutional review

Tertiary Quality Enhancement Review (TQER)

ELIR 4