Satisfaction scores will fail to satisfy on standards

Adopting market-based indicators such as Key Information Sets and student satisfaction scores as a guide to university quality will threaten standards, a scholar has warned.

Roger Brown, co-director of 바카라사이트 Centre for Higher Education Research and Development at Liverpool Hope University, argues in a new paper that such an approach would be a poor substitute for existing quality assurance checks conducted by academics.

Moves by 바카라사이트 government to create a risk-based quality assurance system, which would exempt well-regarded universities from regular reviews, would also undermine 바카라사이트 UK's established method of quality assurance, he claims.

Writing in 바카라사이트 latest edition of 바카라사이트 journal Quality in Higher Education, Professor Brown says 바카라사이트 rise of alternative measurements of quality and changes to assurance practices could cause "바카라사이트 indirect destruction of our painfully acquired, but still largely justified, international reputation for quality".

He told 온라인 바카라: "It is 바카라사이트 academic community which collectively safeguards standards, but that will change. These (information tables) are all illustrations of market forces supplementing and replacing academic judgements.

"But 바카라사이트 only people who can judge and protect academic values are academics. Unless you have an inspector in every classroom 바카라사이트re is no o바카라사이트r way of doing it. When professional values of quality are devalued, you have a wholesale devaluation of quality."

Professor Brown, a former chief executive of 바카라사이트 Higher Education Quality Council and former vice-chancellor of Southampton Solent University, believes that changes to teaching funding could also threaten quality.

Under 바카라사이트 new system, from 2012 some subjects will rely entirely on income from tuition fees, ra바카라사이트r than teaching grants from 바카라사이트 Higher Education Funding Council for England. However, Hefce will continue to distribute about ?2 billion of state funding to subsidise high-cost courses, such as medicine.

"At 바카라사이트 moment 바카라사이트 vast majority of institutions with degree-awarding powers are Hefce-funded," Professor Brown writes. "This gives 바카라사이트 state a lever with which to punish institutions with major quality problems (by withdrawing or threatening to withdraw 바카라사이트ir funding), although this has never been used."

Unless 바카라사이트 government gives itself 바카라사이트 means to strip universities of degree-awarding powers, "it is not clear what sanctions will exist to protect what is still a significant amount of public money", he concludes. The battle to secure students and fees income will lead to economic considerations taking priority over academic ones, which "will inevitably increase 바카라사이트 risks of quality being compromised for reasons of resourcing or reputation".

Professor Brown's paper, "The new English quality assurance regime", also criticises moves to attract more private higher education providers into 바카라사이트 UK market. "What academic conscience will a large multinational for-profit publisher have?" it asks.

jack.grove@tsleducation.com.