Executive and Professional Education Committee (EPEC)

Governance of the Executive and Professional Education Committee (EPEC)

Role

The Executive and Professional Education Committee is an informal and unofficial body that upholds a set of high standards and best practice in non-credit bearing – open and custom – executive and professional provisions in Cambridge. Whereby ‘open’ describes a programme open for enrolment to the public, and ‘custom’ identifies a bespoke programme for a specific client.

Benefits

EPEC membership provides access to a group of providers of Executive and Professional Education endorsed by the Cambridge University, and the opportunity to voluntarily commit to their standards and best practice. By becoming a member of EPEC an institution becomes associated with these standards and with the University of Cambridge.

Joining EPEC will allow an institution to legitimately:

Use the University’s crest for its executive and professional education courses.
Be promoted on the EPE website as a University-endorsed provider, and to have access to its enquiries platform.
Increase its profile, reputation and credibility in external markets.
Become part of an open and collaborative network of education leaders across the University who meet regularly to share industry best practice.

Voluntary standards

To sustain their membership, institutions need to maintain the following standards:

Due diligence and risk assessment protocols to ensure that client engagements do not expose the University to risks (financial, legal or reputational).
Appropriate course design and development process that ensure the delivery of high-quality education programmes which are relevant to the audience.
A process/oversight committee enforcing accountability on programme design and delivery constituted by a majority of staff from the collegiate University, or one of its wholly owned subsidiaries.
A range of programme analysis and review mechanisms to evaluate programme outcomes against set objective.

Historic Members

Historic members were approved via a thorough endorsement process when EPEC was the Board of Executive and Professional Education (BEPE). Unless endorsement is actively retrieved, the institutions below are official providers of the University of Cambridge.

Cambridge Judge Business School
Cambridge University Health Partners
Cambridge Online Education
Institute of Continuing Education
Institute for Manufacturing
Møller Institute
Cambridge Institute for Sustainable Leadership
Cambridge Enterprise

The Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Education has also been a historic member of EPEC.

Members

There are currently no other members outside of those listed above.

Terms of Reference

Definition

Membership & Meeting Frequency

Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Education at the University of Cambridge, the Academic Leadership Fellow for Educational Innovation and representatives from:

Cambridge Enterprise
Cambridge Online Education
Cambridge University Medical Education Group
Institute for Manufacturing
Cambridge Institute of Continuing Education
Cambridge Judge Business School
Cambridge Institute for Sustainable Leadership
Møller Institute

EPEC meets quarterly, independently of academic terms, and operates on a rotating chair system with a duration of six months. During their time in office each chair is responsible for providing administrative support to the group.

Terms of reference

To promote Executive and Professional Education as integral to the scholarship and research of the University. To encourage cross-departmental and School provision, designed to the highest standards and in keeping with the University’s commitment to teaching excellence based on a research-led pedagogy.
To develop and sustain mechanisms for maintaining high standards of design and delivery of programme offered by Collegiate University institutions and its wholly owned subsidiaries, with (where applicable) appropriate partners, which results in them being able to use the University name (and related names such as Cambridge Executive Education). Approval will take into account:
- the activity has the support of cognate Faculty Boards (or equivalent body);
- where provision involves the significant use of services of a member of another Collegiate University institution or wholly owned subsidiaries, the consent of the Head of that institution is secured; and
- if offered overseas, the activity falls within the international interests of the University.
To develop and maintain strategic principles to ensure quality control, for example on the basis that:
- there is a significant input (in terms of course design and delivery) by University staff or staff of wholly owned subsidiaries;
- processes should exist to ensure that their quality is commensurate with the course goals;
- the terms and risks of the activities are properly assessed; and
- the cognate Faculty Board will play its part in monitoring the activity.
To develop and maintain common guidelines to avoid inappropriate internal competition where different internal providers are approached by the same potential partner.
To develop and maintain measures to ensure the protection of the University name and brand, including use of trading names and trademarks.
To respond to requests from the General Board’s Education Committee (GBEC) concerning proposals for new accredited programmes where they raise strategic precedents in terms of subject fit or have a significant international dimension.

Joining the Executive and Professional Education Committee (EPEC)

Please note that EPEC is concerned solely with non-credit bearing provisions – open and custom – for executive and professional education rooted in Cambridge.

Whereby ‘open’ describes a programme open for enrolment to the public, and ‘custom’ identifies a bespoke programme for a specific client.

EPEC covers the activity below:

EPEC covers providers rather than programmes.
Provisions designed and delivered by Colleges of the University of Cambridge.
Provisions designed and delivered by Departments of the University of Cambridge and/or Provisions designed and delivered by wholly owned subsidiaries of the University of Cambridge.

EPEC does not cover the activity below:

Provision by a University or College Teaching Officer acting independently of the University of Cambridge.
Provision by a University or College Teaching Officer and Head of University that is not supported by the relevant Department of the University of Cambridge.
Provision by a new provider not rooted in Cambridge.

Becoming a member of EPEC entails voluntarily committing to a set of standards followed by the group. To demonstrate these standards please put together a paper evidencing:

Past record of education delivery or demonstration of expertise.
Status of any partners.
The appropriateness of the subject areas in relation to academic activity in the University, but also in regard to the specialties of existing EPEC members.
Due diligence and risk assessment protocols to ensure that client engagements do not expose the University of Cambridge to risks (financial, legal or reputational).
Appropriate course design and development process that ensure the delivery of high-quality education programmes which are relevant to the audience.
A process/oversight committee enforcing accountability on programme design and delivery constituted by a majority of staff from the collegiate University, or one of its wholly owned subsidiaries.
A range of programme analysis and review mechanisms to evaluate programme outcomes against set objectives.

Please register your interest here.

Please note you can still submit an application if you don’t meet – or cannot demonstrate – all the criteria above, as the committee is flexible in awarding membership.

Once submitted to [email protected] your application will be reviewed at the next EPEC meeting, where you may make a 15-minute presentation if you wish.