Quality Assurance

Quality Assurance in Ontario

Every publicly assisted Ontarian university is responsible for ensuring the quality of its programs of study, along with the modes of delivering programs and those academic and student services that affect the quality of the respective programs under review.

Under the Quality Assurance Framework, institutions are required to design and implement their own Institutional Quality Assurance Process (IQAP) that is consistent not just with their own mission statements and their university Degree Level Expectations (DLE), but also with the protocols of the Framework. IQAPs are at the core of the quality assurance process.

Quality Assurance at Lakehead

The Policy for the Review and Approval of Academic Programs (the Policy) governs the review and approval of proposed new programs and the review of existing programs at Lakehead University. The Policy applies to the approval of new academic undergraduate and graduate programs, major modifications to existing undergraduate and graduate programs, and the cyclical review of existing undergraduate and graduate programs. Cyclical reviews of undergraduate and graduate programs are commissioned through the Office of the Provost and Vice-President (Academic) in accordance with the cyclical program review schedule.

The Policy aligns the University's quality assurance processes detailed in the Lakehead University Institutional Quality Assurance Process (IQAP) and the provincially mandated Quality Assurance Framework (April 2010).

Degree Level Expectations

The Ontario Council of Academic Vice-Presidents (OCAV) issued guidelines on Undergraduate and Graduate Degree Level Expectations that were subsequently approved by the Council of Ontario Universities (December 2005). Degree level expectations (DLEs) define expectations appropriate for a given degree in terms of both discipline specific and generic knowledge and skills. Each Ontarian university is required to show that students at their university are meeting these threshold expectations through the achievement of their program's learner outcomes.

Lakehead University's DLEs are articulated around six broad categories for both undergraduate and graduate programs.

Senate Academic-Quality Assurance Committee

Senate has delegated responsibility to the Senate Academic-Quality Assurance Committee to verify that faculties have taken the appropriate steps to ensure that programs are robust, viable and deliverable, are in the interest of the University, and meet the provincial requirements outlined in the Quality Assurance Framework.

Need More Information?

Do you have an upcoming program review? For guidance as well as supporting documents use the following resources:

For further information or questions regarding quality assurance at Lakehead University contact: