Quality assurance

The Consortium is committed to on-going monitoring, feedback and evaluation on all aspects of the project, incl., monitoring of the Personal Career Development Plans of each ESR. The ESR training will focus on effective, constructive evaluation and feedback which are critical personal and work related skills. There will be internal periodical evaluation, monitoring and control (peer review), as well as external monitoring.

External evaluation

External evaluation and quality assurance will be provided by two external quality auditors with following key roles (but not limited to): Andy Lowe, Grounded Theory Institute in California will evaluate and contribute to the enhancement of development and implementation of LNETN training and research programme; John Reilly, Higher Education Consultant, will conduct summative evaluation of the project comparing actual overall impact of the project and initially stipulated project objectives. These quality assurance auditors will monitor progress during the project and as appropriate attend activities.

John E. Reilly

Dr. John Reilly is a Higher Education consultant with wide European and International experience in Higher Education. Currently Dr. Reilly is a member of the UK Bologna Experts team, having full understanding of the Bologna process and the European Commission modernization agenda. Dr. Reilly has considerable experience in the field of governance and management in Higher Education. As Director of Academic Administration at the University of Kent, he was a member of the senior management team with wide responsibilities. His extensive knowledge of the UK, Europe and countries in many other regions – he has worked in East Africa and New Zealand and undertaken study visits in Australia, Hong Kong and more recently in a number of African countries – has given him a multi-cultural, transnational understanding of the issues and challenges arising in the field of University autonomy and governance and management. Dr. Reilly was awarded the MBE for services to Higher Education and the ERASMUS programme in the U.K. New Year Honours 2002. He was appointed as Officier dans l’Ordre des Palmes Académiques by the French Government in December 2004. In July 2007 he was awarded the degree of DCL by the University of Kent. He has  been elected as an Honorary member of the EAIE and the UK association HEURO (Higher Education European Officers). Dr. Reilly studied at the Universities of Edinburgh, Oxford and London (School of Oriental and African Studies.

Andy Lowe

Dr. Andy Lowe is a Fellow of the Grounded Theory Institute in California and Visiting Professor to the executive PhD program at the De La Salle University Manila Philippines in the department of Educational Leadership and Management. Andy's new role here is to introduce a PhD supervisor mentoring system for all members of the faculty working on the executive PhD program. For the past 20 years Andy has had a close working relationship with the co-originator of the Grounded Theory method Dr. Barney Glaser. Prior to his academic career Andy managed profit centres in companies both in the travel and computer software sectors. He currently is based in Bangkok Thailand where he is a non-immigrant resident alien retired. Andy has authored several papers in a range of academic journals and was a co-author of one the leading titles in management research. His most recent publication is a chapter in a book which explains how to do a PhD using the GT research method within a conventional university setting. Andy’s continuing research interests include how corporate entities remodel themselves in the aftermath of corporate consolidation; otherwise known as “default remodeling”. Andy is committed to improving the quality of PhD supervision as well as explaining how to research busy powerful people. He holds an MBA from Aston University in Birmingham UK as well as a PhD from Glasgow University Scotland. In 1996 he was awarded the EU post-doctoral research fellowship where he worked at the Swedish School of Economics.

Internal evaluation

Internal evaluation will focus on two main areas: (1) Personal Career Development Plans, courses, learning, teaching, supervision; (2) research, communication, dissemination. The former will be evaluated by ESRs based on a questionnaire drafted and coordinated with all members of the Consortium and by staff participating in the training and by Project Coordinator who will receive all supervision meeting reports. Individual ESR monitoring will involve formal meetings with the supervisory teams and a report as described above. At the end of each year each candidate will have a formal appraisal, which will be a further preparation for the work place. The research monitoring will draw on the analysis of research progress by beneficiary Doctoral Schools, the results and assessment of the network communication and dissemination structure and the individual supervisor reports. Each member of the Consortium will be involved in these activities. Local Project Leaders will be responsible for internal evaluation and quality assurance and will submit their assessment every six months to the Project Coordinator who will present the results to the Supervisory Board. There will be a formal approval of the research proposal by the end of month six, with a subsequent review every 12 month; with subsequent submission and examination of the final Doctoral thesis by month 42.