Perfect 24 for failed course

Quality chiefs have accepted that there is nothing wrong with a pioneering course at Derby University that they had criticised heavily just 18 months ago.

The university's postgraduate distance-learning pharmacy and pharmacology programme, which uses new technology to deliver learning materials and to assess students, is to be awarded a perfect score of 24 following a re-visit by the Quality Assurance Agency.

The re-grading - from a score in December 1998 of 16, including one bottom grade 1 for quality assurance and enhancement - is likely to raise questions over the QAA's consistency in assessing technology-based approaches to teaching.

A report expected to be published in July will overturn QAA assessors' original judgement that the course, which has been running for nearly four years, should not be approved because there were "major shortcomings" in arrangements for its quality assurance and significant improvements were needed in student progression and achievement.

The news will be a relief to Derby managers, who are preparing for a QAA inquiry into the university's operations in Israel.

Derby is in the process of constructing a Pounds 500,000 teleconferencing suite to deliver interactive lectures live to its students on franchised courses in Tel Aviv.

The move will make it easier for Derby to meet requirements laid down by the Higher Education Council in Israel that at least 30 per cent of lectures on franchised courses must be delivered by the lead institution.

Derby vice-chancellor Roger Waterhouse said the initiative was being funded by a joint business venture in Israel that had been "on the shelf for a while". He declined to name the company or the partners involved.

"The investment made sense and it was possible because of the success of our operations in Israel. It really is state of the art, and it is low risk in terms of pedagogy in that we are migrating from an existing system to one that will be at least as good or better," he said.

Derby is in the process of training its lecturers and staff at its partner institution, Inter College, Israel, in using the teleconferencing facilities, which will allow students in Israel to interact live with teachers in Derby during a lecture.

Liverpool fails TQA, page 6