By Daniel Brennan
NUI Galway has been awarded the CINNTE stamp of approval by Quality and Qualifications Ireland (QQI), the state body in charge of quality assurance of further and higher education in Ireland.
NUI Galway was commended for its openness and transparency during the report process, as well as for promoting equality and diversity through appointment of senior leadership, as well as student work on gender recognition.
The university was also praised for receiving a Bronze Athena SWAN Award for its work in promoting gender equality.
The academic writing, career development, learning, teacher and researcher development centres were also praised within the report.
The review also offered several recommendations for NUI Galway, recommending that the University “continues ongoing monitoring of the resourcing of the Counselling Service”, as well as recommending that the university “develop a system to mainstream support service projects that are successful and demonstrate impact, thus managing increasing student numbers and the complexity of their diverse needs in the areas of international, access, disability and mental health”.
President of NUI Galway, Professor Ciarán Ó hÓgartaigh, said, “NUI Galway welcomes this positive QQI review, its findings and looks forward to addressing the valuable recommendations as we embark on a new strategic era here at the University. The review acknowledged our openness and transparency throughout the self-evaluation process, but also our commitment to driving a ‘culture of quality’ and promoting ‘equality and diversity’ throughout our community for the public good. We take quality very seriously and value the confirmation of our compliance with quality assurance regulatory and statutory requirements. We commit to continuous improvement across the campus to meet the needs of our students, including our support services, our teaching and learning and our research agendas”.
The chair of the review panel, Professor Sibrandes Poppema, stated that “the Review Team was deeply impressed by the inclusive process of developing the Institutional Self-Evaluation Report, where staff and students were visibly involved, as well as by the format of the document, especially the integrated case studies. The open character of the process was reflected in the publication of the ISER on the external website. The institution has a clear direction and has taken commendable steps in developing an accessible policy and procedures repository, professional support services for the students, research quality improvement measures and internationalisation, equality and diversity, as reflected in the Bronze Athena Swan”.
