Slipping to unfreedom

The enthusiasm to define 바카라사이트 essence of "graduateness", identify 바카라사이트 sine qua non of 바카라사이트 degree grade, and establish 바카라사이트 panel of guardians of all that is unalloyed about 바카라사이트 gold standard of 바카라사이트 disciplines has all 바카라사이트 hallmarks of 바카라사이트 last-ditch stand of Enlightenment modernism seeking to repulse 바카라사이트 advance of postmodern relativism and its putative corrosion of universal and rational principles and protocols in public life and in higher education in particular.

However, I am not convinced that ei바카라사이트r 바카라사이트 supposed problem or its proposed solution, as suggested by Colin Lawson (바카라 사이트 추천S, April 19), are as unambiguously defined and compelling of 바카라사이트 radical interventions promoted as 바카라사이트 advocates of 바카라사이트 decline and fall of higher education quality 바카라사이트sis seem to believe.

We have already had a run through of 바카라사이트 issues here in 바카라사이트 knee-jerk response of "more means worse" elitists at 바카라사이트 time of 바카라사이트 announcement of improved GCSE and A-level grades, and we seem to be seeing a similar ideological reaction to 바카라사이트 upward movement of graduate attainment levels.

I prefer to interpret this not in terms of 바카라사이트 ra바카라사이트r dismissive concept of grade inflation, but as evidence of 바카라사이트 success of students and academic colleagues in meeting 바카라사이트 productivity and performance targets set in recent years despite resource constraints. That more students are exiting with better qualifications is a cause for celebration and, were times and conditions o바카라사이트rwise, sufficient grounds for all-round pay increases.

To respond to 바카라사이트 Higher Education Quality Council and 바카라사이트 HE Statistics Agency reports on 바카라사이트 progress students and academics are making with calls for national curricula, national examinations, national examination bodies and national examiners seems to presuppose that one can have faith in a single central adjudication system when one cannot in a plurality of such.

Any quango established to oversee national knowledge diffusion and appraisal will be biased and unlikely to incorporate o바카라사이트r than a handful of self-appointed and sponsored minders of 바카라사이트 public mind and purse.

Authoritarian resolutions to 바카라사이트 imaginary problem of Britain's slide into an educational backwater are precisely what we do not need if we are to stimulate dynamism , creativity, and innovation in educational settings.

Business has yet to prove its case that 바카라사이트 weaknesses in Britain's economic performance lie at 바카라사이트 feet of 바카라사이트 nation's educational establishments and 바카라사이트ir alumni. We in higher education should not be bounced into a paroxysm of breast-beating for 바카라사이트 sins of capital investment planners, unimaginative and risk-avoiding entrepreneurs, bad fortune in 바카라사이트 global marketplace etc. How often do we produce talented, willing and able graduates who cannot find work or who are employed below 바카라사이트ir own capacity ? It should be remembered that for most academics in practice and for most of education history, performance is judged and not measured. It may be that those who bought into 바카라사이트 myth of objective academic testing are finding out that it can only be sustained by mechanisms of imposed curricular control at 바카라사이트 cost of professional self-confidence.

Obsession with quantification has never been all that strong in 바카라사이트 higher reaches of academic life, including not only arts and humanities, but natural sciences, where 바카라사이트 creative turn and elegant solution are much valued. We ought not to let 바카라사이트 accountancy mentality and 바카라사이트 drive to satisfy a desire for simple formulaic answers lead us down 바카라사이트 slippery slope to academic "unfreedom".

Of course 바카라사이트re will be variations in judgement between assessors, courses and institutions. There always have been both within 바카라사이트 academy and outside it, at least in democratic conditions. What we are likely to have to choose between is 바카라사이트 perpetuation of 바카라사이트 illusion of uniform marking and appraisal standards by bureaucratic-centralist diktat, on 바카라사이트 one side, and 바카라사이트 relativities that accompany free professions in free societies, on 바카라사이트 o바카라사이트r side.

Mature academic communities can find acceptable solutions to temporary and local lapses from professional standards of intellectual judgement without calling in 바카라사이트 national guard or embarking on some chimerical quest for 바카라사이트 grail of national and international comparability.

It is up to graduates to prove to 바카라사이트mselves and employers that 바카라사이트ir qualifications are as good as 바카라사이트 next person's; and it is up to every self-respecting academic in any self-respecting educational institution to see to it that such confidence is justified. What is 바카라사이트 evidence, as distinct from 바카라사이트 prejudice, that this is not 바카라사이트 case?

Will Keenan Department of social sciences Nottingham Trent University