An enhancement ethos both challenges and supports the systematic examination of what we do as a University to enable excellence in serving learners, stakeholders and our wider community in terms of our education, research and other activities. Our approach to quality is founded on openness, systematic self-evaluation, engagement with peer review processes and a commitment to enhancement-based outcomes that are responsive, creative, enabling and student-centred. Through our quality enhancement approach, we seek to: preserve our institutional autonomy through accountability and transparency which will enable the diversity of our activities; recognise and share good practice; increase our reflexive capacity; support institutional learning and development to encourage responsiveness across all our activities.

In our quality enhancement approach, we are committed to:

• Building and embedding a culture of quality which is engaged, reflective and connected
• Working collaboratively to develop effective evaluation approaches that allow critical reflection on achievement of strategic goals and objectives and an appraisal of the known and anticipated needs of stakeholders
• Engaging students as active partners in the quality enhancement process to embed a student-centred approach
• Developing quality processes that promote creativity, excellence and innovation
• Using peer review as an important reference point for confirming and developing the quality of the University’s activities
• Undertaking institutional reflection on the outcomes of quality review processes to contribute to on-going institutional planning, resource allocation and institutional development
• Ensuring that quality processes facilitate the sharing of good practice internally and externally
• Developing our evidenced-based approach to quality enhancement informed by relevant research and good practice nationally and internationally.

Quality assurance and enhancement policy at UCC is informed by international best practice and has regard to the requirements of the Qualifications and Quality Assurance (Education and Training) Act, 2012 and with the Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in the European Higher Education Area (2015).

Approved by Quality Enhancement Committee, 22 January 2018 and

University Management Team (Strategy), 25 January 2018

(now University Leadership Team)