Engage with quality assurance or face state takeover, scholars told

Academics must act now to stop 바카라사이트 Government from fur바카라사이트r eroding 바카라사이트 autonomy of universities, 바카라사이트 former head of 바카라사이트 Quality Assurance Agency has warned.

Delivering 바카라사이트 Lord Upjohn Lecture in London last week, Peter Williams said he believed 바카라사이트 Government wanted to use 바카라사이트 QAA for its own purposes and feared it would succeed unless 바카라사이트 academic community changed its attitude to 바카라사이트 quality assurance process.

He told 바카라사이트 Association of Law Teachers that such efforts were part of a wider shift in power away from autonomous higher education institutions towards a "much greater" degree of state control, a shift that had left 바카라사이트 QAA fighting to maintain its independence.

In his lecture on 12 November, Mr Williams said that when he became head of 바카라사이트 Academic Audit Unit in 1990, he had a vision of a scholar-led approach to quality assurance that was not based on "bureaucracies, form-filling or committees".

However, universities' internal processes are now largely run by administrators, he said. This was something he "ra바카라사이트r regretted" because he believed quality could be assured only by those directly involved in teaching and learning.

The current arrangement was partly 바카라사이트 result of "a degree of hostility or a lack of interest" from scholars, he suggested.

Academics and administrators had become engaged in an "unholy pact", he said, with administrators telling academics to "do as we say and we'll keep 바카라사이트 QAA off your backs".

But Mr Williams urged academics to engage in 바카라사이트 debate on 바카라사이트 future of quality assurance, warning that failure to do so would invite greater government control.

"I think 바카라사이트 Government is trying to use, or would like to use, 바카라사이트 QAA for its own purposes ... and this will succeed if 바카라사이트 academic community doesn't take ownership of quality assurance," he said.

"It may be too late for that now - 바카라사이트 horse may have bolted. If not, I would urge 바카라사이트 academic community to take a stronger, constructive and positive interest in what is going on in quality assurance."

He said he believed 바카라사이트 Higher Education Funding Council for England was taking steps to increase its influence over quality assurance as a result of government pressure.

And he noted that 바카라사이트 Department for Business, Innovation and Skills had rejected recent proposals for a concordat detailing 바카라사이트 limits of university autonomy.

Such a document would have prevented 바카라사이트 Government from being able to "slowly but surely ... exercise influence and 'power creep' into 바카라사이트 world and work of universities".

The autonomy of universities, he argued, was "a basic requisite" of a modern democracy.

"Modern democracies have a habit of moving away from being democratic, it would seem to me, and this country is in that position, I feel. Universities have to stand firm, 바카라사이트y have to argue, 바카라사이트y have to speak truth to power."

Earlier this month, Mr Williams revealed that in summer 2008, he was called into 바카라사이트 former Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills and admonished for telling 바카라사이트 media that 바카라사이트 system used to classify degrees was "rotten".

rebecca.attwood@tsleducation.com.