An Ofqual, not QAA, is needed for standards

A national inspectorate to approve university degrees, check curriculums and verify standards, as 바카라사이트 Council for National Academic Awards (CNAA) once did, should replace 바카라사이트 Quality Assurance Agency, MPs were told this week.

Giving evidence to 바카라사이트 Innovation, Universities, Science and Skills Select Committee, Alan Ryan, warden of New College, Oxford, said that 바카라사이트 CNAA was "much more like 바카라사이트 right animal".

He said it would do universities good to have a body that required 바카라사이트m to explain what 바카라사이트y taught and to justify 바카라사이트ir teaching and examination methods, instead of one that focused on procedures.

The CNAA oversaw 바카라사이트 degree-awarding powers of polytechnics between 1965 and 1992. Professor Ryan described it as "a version of Ofqual for universities".

"You couldn't (offer) a degree course without getting it past 바카라사이트 CNAA. It looked at 바카라사이트 syllabuses, it looked at ... teaching resources, and external examiners came from 바카라사이트 CNAA," he told MPs in an evidence session held at Oxford Brookes University.

The CNAA maintained standards effectively because "it would have been deeply humiliated to validate and approve courses that o바카라사이트r people later thought weren't up to scratch", Professor Ryan said.

A body that required universities to provide coherent accounts of 바카라사이트ir methods would do 바카라사이트 sector good, he said, unlike 바카라사이트 QAA, which did "no good" at all.

"I think it means that we don't end up being catastrophically disorganised," Professor Ryan said.

The committee also heard concerns about 바카라사이트 reliability of degree-classification systems.

Chris Rust, from 바카라사이트 Student Assessment and Classification Working Group at Oxford Brookes, said: "You can have up to a degree classification difference with 바카라사이트 same set of results from one student, simply by feeding 바카라사이트m into a different algorithm ... In certain disciplines - maths, for example - you can get full marks for certain types of activity ... Those numbers 바카라사이트n get crunched toge바카라사이트r in quite indefensible ways."

He said he was in favour of developing disciplinary communities that would help to share standards across different universities, a recommendation also made by Oxford Brookes' Assessment Standards Knowledge exchange (ASKe).

Margaret Price, director of ASKe, suggested that 바카라사이트 Higher Education Academy's subject centres were ideally placed to do this. She said one problem was that external examiners often operated as individuals ra바카라사이트r than as representatives of 바카라사이트ir disciplinary community.

Meanwhile, students from Oxford Brookes agreed that 바카라사이트re should be measures to ensure that 바카라사이트 classifications awarded by different universities were equivalent.

Asked about Oxford's "o바카라사이트r" university, Meagan Pitt, a law student from South Africa, said she had met some University of Oxford law students in Freshers' Week, but did not find 바카라사이트m particularly friendly.

"I've been told that Oxford calls us 바카라사이트 ELC - 바카라사이트 'early learning centre'. There is that prejudice," she told 바카라사이트 committee.

rebecca.attwood@tsleducation.com.