The culmination of the auditor training programme is the completion of a five-day audit of a Higher Education Institution (HEI). The audit manual was envisaged as a practical tool to support the delivery of the audit. Whilst originally planned as one document, three components of the manual have been produced. Each component is targeted at a particular role following the audit model adopted through the Erasmus+ funded project where teams of student auditors travelled to deliver an audit at an HEI other than their own: 

• visiting student auditors, 
• students playing a host role at the university being audited 
• Higher Education Institutions (HEI) being audited. 

Audit manual for institutions (HEIs) 

The manual for HEIs participating in the audit process has been created to aid with the planning and delivery of the audit from an institutional perspective. Guidance is provided on collating and preparing evidence prior to the audit, recruiting student auditors, planning, delivering and evaluating the audit week and the outcomes of the audit.

The manual can be downloaded here.

Visiting student auditor manual 

The visiting student auditor manual is designed to aid student auditors with the preparation for, undertaking of, and reporting on the audit that they will participate in. It complements the learning achieved through participation in the auditor training programme. The manual provides practical and contextual information on the destination they will be travelling to and the HEI they will be auditing as well as providing details of the schedule of the audit week as arranged by the host institution. Information on good practice in relation to auditing tools and techniques is also provided along with updates on the assessment requirements necessary to achieve the Certificate in Social Responsibility Auditing. 

The manual is designed as a template which can be edited to ensure the information is relevant to each context in which an audit is being delivered (e.g. if an HEI opts to deliver an audit with its own students acting as auditors), and can be downloaded here.

Host student manual 

This manual outlines the role host students can play in supporting the delivery of the audit by the visiting student auditors. Host students are also provided with details of the schedule of the audit week and also the reporting requirements which will be fulfilled by the visiting auditors following completion of the audit. 

As with the visiting student auditor manual, this resource is provided as an editable template which can be adapted to the individual context of audits delivered outside of the Erasmus+ funded project.  The template manual can be downloaded here.

Other resources

In addition, a series of other resources have been created to aid the delivery of an ESSA audit.  These include:

An evidence map, design to support HEIs in the collation of evidence to support their action against the Benchmark Standards for University Social Responsibility.

Templates for the audit presentation, delivered by student auditors to provide their initial feedback at the end of the audit week, and final audit report, submitted by student auditors to the HEI being audited detailing their full findings and recommendations.  The presentation template can be accessed here, and the report template here.