Policy and Procedure Review

How often do University policies and procedures need to be reviewed?

Policy owners are required to undertake a formal review of policies and procedures at least every three years. Amendments may be considered at any time and policy owners may undertake an informal review of a policy or procedure at any time as required.

Please refer to the Corporate Policy Register [XLSX] for further information about policies scheduled for formal review this academic year.

What does the formal review involve?

The purpose of the review is to determine whether:

• The objectives of the policy or procedure are being achieved
• Any amendments to the policy or procedure are required
• The policy or procedure should continue to apply or be disestablished

Reviewers should also consider the policy or procedure in relation to:

• internal factors such as changes to terminology, ICT, organisational structure and University strategy and planning
• external factors such as changes to professional accreditation requirements, regulatory authority developments and changes to government policy
• consistency with other University policies and procedures
• currency of hyperlinks within the policy (NB. Where possible a link to the internal/external search tabs should be given for corporate records.)

What are the possible review outcomes?

Review outcomes will include one or more of the following:

• No amendment (NA)
• Minor amendment* (MA)
• Significant amendment* (SA)
• Disestablishment (D)
• Consequential amendment (i.e. to a University regulation, policy, procedure or guideline) (CA)

* A minor amendment is an amendment that does not otherwise affect document content, such as a change to a title, name, structure, reference or hyperlink. A significant amendment is any amendment that is not minor.

Any amendments to University policy or procedure must be approved by the appropriate approval authority. Appropriate consultation and compliance confirmation must also be taken for any significant amendments.

Additional information

To assist policy owners with the formal review of their policies and procedures, the following resources are provided:

• Policy and Procedure Review (PPR) Form [DOCX]

For more information or assistance, please contact document.management@beds.ac.uk