A quality assurance procedure for pharmacy undergraduate project assessment

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a system for the allocation of students to final year projects and to assess the equality of marking between projects undertaken within different research disciplines. Comparison of mean project marks were assessed by analysis of variance, using analysis of covariance to take into account student academic ability based on their overall third year mark. Results showed that each research discipline was being allocated students with a similar cross-section of ability, with no statistically significant variance in either cohort. Comparing mean project marks between specific research groups, corrected by year-three performance, revealed that there were statistically significant differences between research groups in both year cohorts. Using this quality assurance procedure, the research project co-coordinator was able to identify areas of good practice and of concern, present the evidence to the respective research group leaders, ascertain the reasons for exceptional performances and to suggest remedial action where necessary.