Internal Procedures
No matter if you call it a Institutional Improvement Plan, Institutional Assessment and Improvement Plan or even just Plan, this document MUST be a living document. You should have a committee (elected officials) within your company that have the ability to review and understand the standards for which your school must comply with to ensure you are meeting internal and external standards. This 'Plan' needs to be reviewed on a consistent basis for implementation and execution of specific benchmarks. If your plan is one or two pages long (and I have seen plans of this magnitude) my guess is that you have done the bare minimum and are not using it as a development and compliance tool.
I haven't worked in university accreditation, but in the accreditation programs I've worked with, part of the standard is that there is management review of the audit and improvement plan. Institutions that do not have continual review of improvement plan would be cited in future audits.
I agree that this must be a living breathing document requiring input from all levels. We also update our IAIP on an annual basis when we are putting together our budget for the next year; this gives us the opportunity to be fiscally responsible and present our plan to the Executive Board along with our budget.
All institutions no matter what how they are qualify or what plans they use should have plans and documents specifying their plan of action. Although the implementation it is most important in my opinion, it only gets done by having the correct plan set up.
So true, Elisa. It all starts with the plan which is the critical first step toward implementation.
Internal Audit Action Plans should include specific actions that will take place to make sure the finding does not happen again. it should include who is responsible, and a time frame to correct the errors.
My school is in its infancy as it has only been in operation for 5 years. I am writing my IAIP for the first time. I started by asking my administrative staff to write a "how to improve" their department. As we lay out our goals and assess our performance- I think this document is essential and I can't believe it has taken me 5 years to create it. Who said, "If you don't plan you plan to fail"?
Kathleen - You are probably not alone on how long it took to complete your IAIP. And, now that it's "done", don't let it sit on the shelf collecting dust as the reality in our dynamic environments is that these are living documents, evolving as our plans change to respond to trends, regulations, and other issues in the world of the education industry!
Congratulations Katleen for getting your IAIP done. I also heard a saying, "Plan your action and act on your plan." You did plan for the actions you wanted to take with important input from your team. And as Traci stated, don't let it sit on the shelf, act on the plan. Good luck.
This is the core of the organization, if the college states they have standards, processes and procedure, we should follow them--PERIOD!!
The problem is that we have so much turn over in this industry that we need to be very careful who we chose to be part of this audit group. I think this is a job in itself and whoever work on this actions plans shoud have enough time to follow up on them.
Marlene - I agree that consistency is beneficial for follow up and that turnover adds to the challenges. While it does not overcome this obstacle, documentation is key during audits and you will see later in the course materials that having documentation that "stands on its own" is critical to a good audit process. Even without turnover, employees may forget what them meant by something unless it is clearly documented.
Too often, Improvement Plans are looked at right before an audit or reaccreditation and then put into a drawer and forgotten. It definitely should be treated as a "living" document and looked at on a regular basis. All policies and procedures should be reviewed for compliance and best practices.
I agree. The standards processes and procedures were stated to help the company to eliminate errors. We just need to follow them and always be proactive and trying to improve them.
I agree, the Improvement Plans should definitely should be treated as a "living" document and all policies and procedures should be reviewed for compliance.
Agreed, and well stated Lisa. Of course it is always easy and convenient to do what you want, but why reinvent the wheel. These seemingly mundane procedures are there to protect the school and therefore our jobs.
i do agree this must be a living document, in my opinion schools should form committees charged with updating or setting the proper deadlines to update the IIP IA or IEP on a bi-annual basis, this way it's not out of site out of mind and the school is not waiting last minute to look at these plans.
You are very accurate to say ..†No matter if you call it an Institutional Improvement Plan, Institutional Assessment and Improvement Plan or even just Plan, this document MUST be a living documentâ€. I agree with these documents, the Plan have to be the real live for all the institution. It’s important to know the value of the institutional planning, to reach academic or school standards.
Our institutional improvement or effectiveness plan committee is staffed by the campus leadership team and other members based upon job title, such as the librarian and the IT specialist. However, I find that most of our staff members have no real clue what this institutional improvement plan is intended to do. How does your campus get the word out?
Theodora,
Great question - I'll be interested in following this discussion thread. I have seen some campuses make sure all participate in establishing and implementing the plan, going beyond getting the word out and even going so far as to have some of the plan elements tied to every employee's performance reviews or key result areas. Continuous monitoring and accountability for ensuring the plan is deployed keeps focus and awareness high. Sadly, I have also seen some campuses where many employees are unaware of how their specific role contributes to the effectiveness plan or even what is contained in the plan. I think it really ties to the school's culture and how the leadership team chooses to include employees.
Traci Lee
