How the Accreditation Assessment Process is changing in line with our Corporate Plan and the Engagement Model

Background

The CIOB accredits Bachelor and Master’s degrees across the UK and internationally, in a range of Built Environment subjects, including Construction Management, Building Surveying, Quantity Surveying and Architectural Technology. We currently accredit 49 Institutions in the UK comprising 203 programmes of which 128 are undergraduate programmes and 75 are Master’s. Overseas we accredit 44 Institutions, 73 undergraduate programmes and 21 Master’s programmes.

The Accreditation Process comprises two parts – Part A and Part B. Part A assesses the Institution, specifically the governance, strategic direction and quality assurance procedures. Part B focuses on the programme content and assesses how the programme modules map to the relevant CIOB Educational Framework. Accreditation runs on a five-year cycle with annual monitoring between re-accreditation events. A review of the process has recently taken place to identify areas for improvement.

Review Findings

We have found that once Institutions become accredited their level of engagement is very inconsistent. Some are keen to develop a very strong and meaningful relationship with their local CIOB Regional Hub, whereas others seem to find it difficult to communicate or engage. We recognise the value in developing strong partnerships with our accredited Institutions and through improving communication and enhancing our offering we believe these relationships will become stronger and of more value for all stakeholders. We know that where Institutions engage with us positively, this is driven by the Institution’s CIOB members and where the staff are often part of CIOB committees. Where engagement is high, student membership is also high.

We believe the accreditation process is key to our engagement with learners, students and the academic community and the Accreditation Panel have made several changes to the process to facilitate closer partnerships with learning providers.

Engagement Model offerings

Working closely with Laura Stirling, the Accreditation Officer and Hassana Ahmed and her role within the Wolverhampton Pilot project, myself and the Accreditation Panel have introduced some new initiatives to our process to bring this in line with CIOB’s Corporate Plan and Engagement Model.

 
1. In January 2019, the board approved a paper submitted by the Accreditation Panel to reduce membership fees for Academic members by 50%. More affordable fees have enabled the panel to require that a proportion of staff members are either MCIOB or FCIOB or working towards it. This is not a numerical quota but rather dependent on the Institution’s size, number of accredited awards and their specialisms.

2. The Accreditation Panel has also amended the process to place more importance on Institutions employing teaching staff who have relevant industrial experience. This is in part to respond to the current prioritisation by Institutions, of appointing research-focused staff. This is about improving the learner experience by giving them applied learning real-life examples and necessary skills.

3. The Education Team have also created and launched their Education Bulletin, which is CIOB’s first tailored education newsletter for Academic staff. This will be a seasonal publication focusing on education developments driven by the CIOB along with related industry news.

4. One of the Corporate Plan’s themes is Moral Compass and a key objective under this theme is improving students’ ability to identify and call-out poor practice. Another change to the accreditation process focuses on how Institutions develop their students’ confidence and skills to enable members and students to challenge poor behaviours and unprofessionalism.

5. The Student Festival is to be held for the first time in April and aims to engage and inspire our student community.