Supporting quality improvement of exercise physiology practicum through benchmarking

Introduction Bench marking between universities supports a continuous cycle of quality improvement (Garlick & Pryor, 2004) and is now an expectation of standard practice under the new course accreditation requirements set by Exercise and Sports Science Australia.Here within, we describe a bench marking protocol which has been designed with reference to ACODE (2014) and Booth et al (2011) and takes into account key principles for success as summarised by Oliver (2010).The Bench marking Partnership. In 2017, academic staff involved with the clinical education programs for accredited exercise physiology degrees at the University of Sydney and the University of Canberra agreed to benchmark practicum programs. The partnership will be guided by a Code of Conduct and will have a signed Memorandum of Understanding in place which includes items such as:Access to and storage of data. How information is to be shared and used. Obligations around confidentiality Intellectual property rules. The Scope of the Bench marking Exercise The scope will relate to the academic quality of the practicum program of clinical exercise physiology degrees. The bench marking exercise will cover: Assessment, Preparing students to succeed during placement, Support for practicum supervisors.