Unit for Quality, Risk and Knowledge Management

The Unit for Quality, Risk, and Knowledge Management (QRK) has evolved from its inception in 2001 as a Department of Academic Development to its current role in fulfilling a coordinating function for the various academic departments within the faculty. QRK, therefore, has a holistic overview of the faculty's academic project, as manifested within 16 academic departments and one academic unit. It strives to minimise variances across departments and seeks standardised solutions to address duplication across departments while upholding the higher value of departmental autonomy.

Historically, a major focus of the unit is to monitor and provide the necessary support to develop new and revised programmes and qualifications. As of 2020, only academic qualifications that are aligned with the specifications of the Higher Education Qualifications Framework (2013) will be offered.  The specifications of these new qualifications have implications for the design and delivery of their underlying programmes, especially regarding articulation possibilities.  The unit, therefore, provided oversight across all departments within the faculty and introduced interventions to minimise articulation barriers (which prevent students from moving from one programme to another) in response to national requirements.

The QRK Unit is now responsible for reporting on RISK at a strategic level within the faculty - risk management – and works closely with the institutional Risk Manager to fulfil this role. In support of the Institutional ONE-NESS principle, the FBMS QRK Unit aligns its interventions to the strategies as annotated in the Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) Framework and Methodology, namely to enforce accountability, link risk management in business processes, communicate risk and risk treatment widely and manage organisational and individual performance for ERM. Taking cognisance of the Combined Assurance Reporting requirements, the Combined Assurance Approach within the FBMS has taken a multi-faceted, multi-dimensional, but integrated approach.