Read guidance on the Annual Course Review for the current academic year.
About the Annual Course Review
The Annual Course Review (ACR) is a key part of the University’s quality assurance and enhancement framework. It provides an opportunity for review, reflection and evaluation of the delivery of a course or group of aggregated courses and the performance of students and allows the University to fulfil its responsibilities for maintaining the quality and standards of its awards.
The ACR is underpinned by the use of qualitative and quantitative data and evidence. It is critical to identifying issues, risks and actions for improvement and enhancement.
The ACR comprises five stages:
- stage 1: course leaders write their individual course reports using the ACR template academic year 2025-26 [DOCX 28KB] which are then reviewed by the Board of Studies. Actions from the reports should be used to update the Student Experience and Outcome Plans (SEOPS)
- stage 2: the course reports will be reviewed and endorsed by an appropriate faculty-level body, such as existing School Education Committees (SECs) or department meetings. The specific process will be determined by each faculty and confirmed to EE by the Associate Dean for Education. All reports will ultimately feed into the FEC for final approval.
- stage 3: the ACR and Faculty SEOPs will be the basis for an annual cross faculty event for sharing good practice and looking at how best to address issues. These may also lead to updates to the Academic Framework and/or Faculty approaches to the framework.
- stage 4: following approval of the course reports the ACR Faculty Summary Report Template [DOCX 21.15KB] will be prepared and subsequently reviewed and approved by the Faculty Education Committee (FEC). Additionally this report should be considered by the Faculty Executive Board to inform portfolio planning (autumn APR and ABP). The preparation of the Faculty summary report is expected to be led by the Faculty Portfolio Lead and the Student Experience Lead. This responsibility will be overseen by the Associate Dean for Education, who has the authority to reallocate it as necessary.
- stage 5: lastly, the University Education Committee (UEC) will receive an university overview report based on the faculty-level reports.
We have replaced the individual course ACR action plan with the 'living' subject level Student Experience and Outcomes plan for the Board of Studies to consider. Any arising actions for a course will feed into these subject plans.
Timescales
- Faculties to determine timescales for SEC consideration of ACR reports
- completed Faculty Level Summary report to be submitted to Educational Enhancement by Wednesday 15 April 2026 (email to s.connelly@sussex.ac.uk)
- University Education Committee considers ACR overview report Wednesday 27 May 2026.
Full details of how to submit reports will be provided to Associate Deans by email.
More information
Further guidance on how to complete the ACR can be found in the ACR Review handbook [PDF 429KB].
Data for the ACR Process
Standardised data sets will be provided in the School Education Planning Box folder in January 2026.