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Quality management and accreditation system
UNVPortal Quality: collects the evidence the moment it is created
UNVPortal Quality is a browser-based quality management and accreditation system for universities and higher education institutions. Process and committee definitions, meeting, decision and action tracking, evidence management linked to criteria, the PDCA cycle and self-assessment reports run on the same record. The whole institution uses the system: with no academic/administrative divide, every member of staff carries out the task assigned to them and uploads the evidence. When reporting time comes, there is nothing left to collect.
This module was previously referred to as QualityOS.
What is a quality management system?
A quality management system is software that records an institution's processes, committee decisions, improvement actions and their evidence against accreditation criteria. The PDCA cycle (plan, do, check, act) is a four-stage loop that keeps an improvement action from closing until its result has been measured. UNVPortal Quality is a quality management system of this kind, written for the self-assessment and accreditation work of higher education institutions.
Who uses it
The whole institution. There is no divide between academic and administrative staff: everyone carries out the task assigned to them and uploads the evidence of the work they have done.
- Every member of staff: sees the task that falls to them, completes it within the deadline and uploads the evidence. Quality work stops being a pile of documents collected by a few people at the end of term and becomes a trace recorded as the work is done.
- Academic staff: tasks linked to course, programme and student outcomes; syllabi, assessment evidence, improvement notes.
- Administrative staff: process steps, service standards, records and evidence for satisfaction and support processes.
- Unit quality representative: monitors the task status of their unit, sees missing evidence, compiles the unit self-assessment report.
- Committee member: meeting agendas, decision records and the follow-up of actions arising from decisions.
- Quality coordination office: criterion tracking, evidence health, consolidation of unit reports into the institutional report.
- Senior management: open actions, overdue items and changes in indicators across terms.
Staff with no assigned task do not meet an empty screen: they see the open items that fall to their unit and the evidence expected of them.
What it does
Tasks and evidence
Work arising from a criterion falls to the responsible member of staff as a task. On their own screen they see what needs to be done, the deadline and which evidence is expected; when the work is done, the evidence is uploaded there. A task without evidence does not close and shows as missing in the unit report.
Because the whole institution uses the same screen, quality data does not depend on one unit's end-of-term effort: it is recorded as the work is done. Who completed which task and when remains in the audit log.
Process and committee management
The institution's processes are defined with their owner, inputs and outputs. Committees are set up with members, terms of reference and a meeting calendar; which committees a person sits on is visible on a single screen.
Meetings, decisions and actions
The meeting agenda is prepared, the decision is written into the minutes, and the action arising from the decision is opened with its owner and target date. Overdue actions are collected in a separate list. The next meeting's agenda starts with the open actions of the previous one.
Evidence management
Evidence is a record linked to a criterion. A document can be uploaded, or a link given to a record that already exists in the system: a committee decision, an instrument usage report, a programme outcome result. This stops the same document multiplying across folders.
The PDCA cycle
Every action passes through plan, do, check and act. An action whose measurement result has not been entered at the check stage does not close; it shows as open in the term report. Whether the improvement worked is thereby put on record.
Self-assessment reports
The report template is built from criterion headings. The evidence and indicators linked to each heading come from the system; text fields are filled in by the unit. Unit reports are consolidated into the institutional report, and the system lists which unit has left which heading empty.
Why the reporting period is a squeeze
| The usual flow | UNVPortal Quality |
|---|---|
| Decisions sit in meeting minutes, minutes sit in different folders | Decision record linked to a criterion, searched from one place |
| Whether an action was done is learned by word of mouth | Action owner and status on record |
| Evidence documents are collected in report week | Evidence linked to the criterion the moment it is created |
| The same document is kept separately in several units | One record linked from several criteria |
| The result of the improvement is not measured | No action closes without the PDCA check stage |
With the other modules
Quality can be deployed on its own. Deployed together with Labs, instrument usage reports are linked directly as evidence. Deployed together with Exams, programme outcome results come from the system as report indicators instead of being calculated by hand.
Deployment and access
It runs in the browser. Permissions are granted per unit and committee; a unit representative sees only their own unit's records, the quality coordination office sees everything. The institution can choose a cloud deployment or its own server.
Note: this is quality management software. It carries no authority to accredit, audit or certify on behalf of any body; it supports the institution in running and reporting its own processes.
Frequently asked questions
Can we define our own set of criteria?
In UNVPortal Quality, criterion headings and the report template are defined by the institution; the system is not fixed to a ready-made set. Separate templates can be set up for different programme accreditations.
Can we import our existing evidence archive?
An existing evidence archive is bulk-uploaded into UNVPortal Quality. Criterion mapping is agreed together; which folder goes under which heading is defined during deployment.
How many units can be defined?
There is no limit to the number of units in the UNVPortal Quality unit tree. Faculties, departments, institutes, centres and administrative units are defined in the same tree.
Can the report be exported as Word or PDF?
In UNVPortal Quality, the self-assessment report is compiled in the system and exported. The heading structure the institution wants is defined in the template.
What does it cost?
UNVPortal Quality follows an enterprise licence model; the price is quoted based on the number of users and the selected modules. For a quote and a live demo, write to contact@erimworks.com.
Deployment and licensing
It is enough to contact us with your institution's name, the number of units and your reporting calendar; your enquiry is answered with proposed times for a live demo.