On Friday 17 April, FARMER held a meeting in Manchester Central Library. As well as taking the opportunity to admire the new Archives+, we met with the Archives and Records Association Accreditation Panel (chair: Margaret Turner), to discuss the new accreditation criteria which the panel will use in the next round of programme accreditations. ARA accreditation offers an assurance of quality for both students and employers and is greatly valued by FARMER institutions.
The meeting was a positive one at which we discussed the relationship between the new criteria and the new QAA SBS (see previous posting), the possibility of having a single set of criteria for archives and records management and records management-only programmes, the role of research within the profession, and future liaison between the two bodies.
After lunch, FARMER met separately to discuss other matters, including our 2016 conference – details to be posted shortly.