Background

Heriot-Watt University was established in 1821 as a school for engineers. Its founders intended the school to educate people for the rapidly changing technologies of the day and its name commemorates two Scottish champions of technology, commerce and education: George Heriot, financier to King James VI, and James Watt, the pioneer of steam power.

The University has achieved a consistent level of innovation offering an extensive range of degrees in science, engineering, technology, business and languages. The high standards of the University are monitored through inspections carried out by the UK government's Quality Assurance Agency.

Just as its founders in 1821 intended, the University continues to thrive as an institution at the cutting edge of the technologies of our time, and continues to build on its reputation of academic rigour and innovative thought.

About Edinburgh Business School
The Graduate School of Business of Heriot-Watt University

Edinburgh Business School's main focus is the provision of applied management programmes to both individual students and major corporations. The School is located in a state-of-the-art teaching and administrative centre on the Heriot-Watt campus, where the needs of on-campus, corporate and international students are met in one location. The Business School is subject to the academic processes of the University, and is run by a Board of Directors drawn from the worlds of academia and business, under the chairmanship of Sir Bob Reid, formerly Chief Executive of Shell plc and British Rail.

A dedicated team of administrative staff, based in the School, provides a high quality service to the many thousands of students around the world and maintains detailed records of students' activity and progress.

Quality and Standards at Heriot-Watt University

Within the education system in the United Kingdom, institutions are only able to award a recognized higher education degree by virtue of a Royal Charter, or more recently by Act of Parliament. Heriot-Watt was granted its Royal Charter in 1966.

The University assures the quality and academic standards of its educational provision in a number of ways. All universities in the UK are subject to regular audit by the Quality Assurance Agency (QAA), a national body responsible for ensuring that higher education institutions meet national quality standards at both institutional and subject level.

Universities are also subject to scrutiny from the relevant funding body, in the case of Heriot-Watt, the Scottish Higher Education Funding Council.

In addition to external agencies, Heriot-Watt University, like all UK Universities, has a number of internal structures and systems designed to ensure that the quality of awards is maintained. The Edinburgh Business School programmes have to pass through a number of authorities within the University including the:

- Postgraduate Studies Committee which reviews programmes every 5 years to ensure that programmes are up to date and offer appropriate academic standard,

- Quality and Standards Forum which ensures that programmes and courses comply with the national frameworks for standards and quality set by QAA,

- Board of Examiners including independent external examiners which ensure that every assessment is at an appropriate standard, that marking processes are fair and consistent and that the assessment procedures are conducted appropriately.