As part of the University’s Quality Assurance and Validation processes, reading lists for new modules are subject to external auditing.
This is in-line with the Office for Students’ requirement that course content should be ‘representative of current thinking and practices’ within a particular field (for elaboration of this point, please see page 93 of the OFS’ Regulatory Framework: Securing student success: Regulatory framework for higher education in England (officeforstudents.org.uk)).
As we transition to the new reading list system, we have sought to streamline the validation (and re-validation) process for all concerned parties.
Reading lists intended for validation should be created in the same way as all other lists on the new system: via the ‘Create list’ option, highlighted in the image below.
It is important that validation lists are given clear names, indicative of their use within the validation process. For example, this could be the module name and code (where available already) followed by ‘VALIDATION LIST’.
It is also important to publish the list so that external advisors/examiners can view it. You can do this by clicking ‘My List is Ready’ as visible in the image below.
This can be done before any resources are added to the list, and ensures that the external auditors will have access to it without needing to log-in.
The final key action is to ensure that the list is tied to the ‘VALIDATION’ course on the reading list system. To do this, you will need to click ‘Link to course’, and then enter the word ‘VALIDATION’ into the search bar.
This ensures that the list is held separately to all other ‘active’ lists and will be treated accordingly by the library staff.
For any queries regarding the validation process, how to create a list, or any of the steps outlined above, please contact your subject specialist librarian.
Likewise, your subject librarian can provide guidance on how to handle validation lists once the process is complete.
