Core Principle
Principles are very similar to values. In the field of higher education, these become critically important, as teaching is one of the noblest professions and has to be dealt with morally, and with honesty. Keeping this essential value in mind, Westford Education Group has developed 5 Core Principles, to help us create an environment which is extremely conducive to learning and development of its staff and students alike. It also helps us to focus our attention on the requirement of an autonomous environment within which our core academic functions can be operationalized. It aids us to create a robust organisational structure which will help the Group Institutes to flourish with utmost transparency and honesty.
These 5 Principles will help us to build up a strong strategy for the good of humanity, where high quality learning and skills development can take place, which will help us to contribute our bit to the development of society, as well as give an opportunity to a vast section of civilization who faces challenges to acquire higher education at an affordable cost. These principles seeking to create a good, strong framework and guiding us on the path we must tread, are given below.
5 Core Principles :
Provide a high ethical standard of learning environment. UniAthena will provide continuous professional development to all its staff- members and its students. It will develop its own indigenous Learning Management System (LMS) which will impart academic and administrative support to all faculty members, administrators and students. The mode of delivery will be online for all UniAthena programmes. UniAthena will deliver all its classes in a very user-friendly environment. Good learning resources will be provided, as well as support services relating to academic and students' welfare will be given to all students. UniAthena will encourage professional development of its staff and students. The staff members will be recruited keeping in mind the qualifications and the experience required to conduct and support all UniAthena's programmes.
There will be total commitment to continuity of teaching, learning and assessment of all programmes. All faculty members will ensure correct follow up of all protocols with respect to learning outcomes fulfilment, assessment quality and ensuring very good experience to all students. Programme curriculum design, delivery of classes, assignments design, assessment feedback will be delivered effectively and efficiently by the respective teaching staff members. There will be regular opportunities given to staff and students to contribute to the academic and other UniAthena policies, to get holistic feedback towards the contribution of continual improvement.
UniAthena has an independent and autonomous academic authority. The governance structure of UniAthena has an independent and autonomous ‘academic decision making’ entity, which is separate from the business structure, and will work with utmost integrity to preserve all the academic quality standards, without any interference from business units. The academic functions of the Institute will be under the Academic Head of UniAthena. The Academic Head will report to the Academic Council for all academic-related matters, without any reference to the other business unit structure personnel. All academic development, quality assurance and decision-making will be done independent of any commercial development activities. The investors, shareholders or trustees will not exercise direct authority in any academic decision-making activities.
UniAthena has a robust academic and administrative structure. UniAthena's organizational structure assigns clear executive, administrative, quality, academic, welfare, finance and HR responsibilities to individuals and groups. The governance structure ensures that the academic and executive control are dealt separately to safeguard institutional sustainability with effective systems for risk management and control. There will be a total commitment to share good practices in teaching, learning and assessment. There will be quality and institutional policies in place to deliver all programmes as per the regulatory framework laid down by the partner institution. Every programme will have a Course Leader, Personal Tutor and a Course Administrator to give full support to the students during the delivery of a programme. The changes, as well as smooth conduct of all programmes will be done through the aegis of committee structures constituted to deliver, assess and implement changes, with adequate representation of staff and students in different committees.
Quality assurance is a continuous improvement process. The academic quality assurance process will be laid down and followed rigorously right from designing the programme content, assignment, assessment practices, resubmission policies, the internal verification process, till the students receive the feedback and final grades. Smooth monitoring process of all academic activities will be ensured by automating the whole work flow through UniAthena CRM (Customer Relationship Management) and LMS e-platforms. The responsibility and accountability of implementing all quality procedures will be one of the top priorities of UniAthena concerned personnel. Regular monitoring, evaluation, reporting of programme performance and action taken will always be ensured. Quality Assurance reviews will be spearheaded by Quality Auditor, who will also report directly to the CEO and Board of Directors. Every programme will be evaluated in its formative, as well as the summative stage. Feedback will be taken from faculty members, course administrators, course leaders, personal tutors, besides students, external examiners and all concerned stakeholders. It will be seen to that quality assurance and control are followed as a continuous improvement process. All UniAthena processes and procedures will take into account the UK Quality Code Expectations, Core Practices, Guiding Principles, and comply with these fully.
Relationship with external educational community will be maintained, and UniAthena will follow all UK national and international standards for the modules it offers, current practices observed in UK higher educational institutes, including maintaining the standard international and national benchmarks. Westford will establish an enduring, robust and meaningful relationship with all educational global community within its sphere of influence. The core focus will be on educational institutes and partners in the middle-east, UK, and the US, with an objective to expand globally into other regions. All UniAthena programmes conducted under the aegis of its partner educational institutions will strictly follow the quality standards laid down by the UK higher education pedagogy guidelines. The professional and research activities of staff members should sustain the academic development of the institution. There will also be a constant endeavor of UniAthena to be associated with competent national and international professional bodies to maintain relations with the wider academic community.
