HE Peer Review Process

About the HE Peer Review Process

The University asks its academic and workshop staff to review their teaching practice on an annual basis. This helps to assure itself and its students that the quality of their experience is underpinned by a commitment to enhance the learning and teaching environment in which they study. 

The HE Peer Review Process aligns with established good practice adopted by other Higher Education Institutions, following similar approaches that focus on the observation of one member of staff by another and of professional dialogue around practice. It is intended to be developmental in nature and allow the sharing of good practice across disciplinary boundaries. Staff are expected to discuss outcomes from reviews with their line managers as part of the individual Annual Review Process. The HE Peer Review Process is aligned with the UK Professional Standards Framework. 

Academic Board receives a report on the number of participants who complete the review annually, along with a digest of the range of practice reviewed and (anonymised) typical comments received. 

Peer Review can now be conducted through either an observation of a teaching/workshop session or through a peer dialogue with the reviewer focused on a specific aspect of the reviewee’s educational practice. Each reviewee must include at least one observation and one peer dialogue in each rolling three year period of annual peer reviews - staff will be informed which options are available for the coming year when pairings are issued.

People paired for HE Peer Review do not have to pick the same review method. 

Please see the Guidance for Conducting HE Peer Review of Teaching for full advice on:

  • Choosing the focus for your review;
  • Choosing the type of review (observation or peer dialogue);
  • Conducting the review (guidance for both reviewee and reviewer);
  • Writing up the review with the HE Peer Review form. 

Focus for 2024-25

Given the current institutional focus on NSS Question 4 (“How often is the course intellectually stimulating?”), as part of your review, please consider how the aspects of educational practice being reviewed make a contribution to a students’ experience of their course being intellectually stimulating.

For 2024-25 we also continue with the four institutional priority themes of: employability and employability skills; inclusion; academic and professional writing skills and digital curriculum. For at least part of your Peer Review you should consider how your educational practice, as exemplified by what you have selected for review, connects with AT LEAST ONE OF these themes. The HE Peer Review form has been updated to accommodate this.

This is an opportunity for you to share innovation and effective practice. You are encouraged to revisit resources and presentations from our recent Learning, Teaching and Enhancement conferences to support your discussion and reflection on these themes. Please look out for a call for contributions for the 2025 conference.

Process for 2024-25

  1. Staff will be paired by the Academic Development Manager.
  2. Pairings will be published in October 2024 via email.
  3. The timing of the Peer Review should be determined by the pairs but must be completed to allow for submission of your completed HE Peer Review no later than 2 May 2025
  4. Once you have agreed the dates for your observation/review, please notify academicdevelopment@leeds-art.ac.uk 
  5. The process of the review should follow that outlined in the Guidance for Conducting HE Peer Review of Teaching

Guidance on completing and submitting HE Peer Review Form

Completing the Peer Review form is the joint responsibility of the reviewee and reviewer, but ultimately is owned and submitted by the person being reviewed (reviewee). Completion of the form will be an ongoing process as you proceed through different stages of the review. 

  1. Download a copy of the Peer Review Form (see below)
  2. Rename the file to be distinctive to you (e.g., add your initials/name) and store your file in a location which helps you locate it later on. This may be within your OneDrive space or your Desktop.
  3. Complete the ‘Review Details’ and ‘Part One’ sections of the form in advance of the observation/review.
  4. Share your form with your peer partner(s)
    We recommend using OneDrive to enable you to edit and collaborate with your reviewer on a single document simultaneously, thereby reduce the number of file versions and issues associated with emailing back and forth. You can use email if you prefer. See guidance below. 
  5. Following the feedback/dialogue meeting, the reviewer should complete Part Two of the Peer Review form incorporating comments and feedback from the observation/review and subsequent dialogue. This should be returned to the reviewee within a week of the feedback/dialogue meeting.
  6. Finally, as the person being reviewed, you should reflect on the feedback/dialogue and any post-review discussion and complete Part Three of the form. 
  7. Once the form is completed, email a copy to academicdevelopment@leeds-art.ac.uk We ask that completed forms be returned within two weeks of completing your review, and no later than 2 May 2025.
  8. You should also share a copy for discussion with your line manager as part of your Annual Performance Review.

For support on using OneDrive, please refer to the OneDrive Guidance on Portal. You may also find the video guide from Microsoft helpful for direct sharing from MS Word (you will be prompted to sign in and save to OneDrive if you didn't do this in step 2). Please remember to work on the shared version rather than any desktop file once you start using OneDrive.

Forms

Higher Education Peer Review Process Form.