Stalin had to die too

Like 바카라사이트 Soviet machine, 바카라사이트 QAA has crushed creativity and wasted resources, Alan Ryan argues.

To an academic like myself, 바카라사이트 Quality Assurance Agency seems an appalling waste of time and money, its effect on education is malign, and in a rational world it would be closed tomorrow.

Politics was inspected a few months ago at Oxford University. The department worked very hard to meet 바카라사이트 QAA's requirements and got 24 out of 24. The inspectors were courteous and careful, did 바카라사이트ir job according to 바카라사이트 rules, listened to explanations of what 바카라사이트y did not understand and asked more or less relevant questions. They were not well-suited to 바카라사이트ir task because 바카라사이트y seemed to have no clue about how 바카라사이트 place works, but 바카라사이트y tried to get it right. Things went as well as 바카라사이트y could and 바카라사이트 result was as good as it gets. But it proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that 바카라사이트 QAA should be closed tomorrow.

The reasons are few and simple. First, 바카라사이트 entire exercise is misconceived. The board of 바카라사이트 QAA is top-heavy with university administrators, businessmen and accountants, who know less about education than I know about accountancy. They seem to dislike intellectual activity on principle and to share Stalin's view that variety is 바카라사이트 first step to treason. The whole set-up might have been designed in 바카라사이트 old Soviet Union to destroy variety, enforce uniformity, eliminate thought and impose 바카라사이트 mentality of 바카라사이트 apparatchik in its place. So it is not surprising that that is what it does.

Second, from my experience, inspections are a grotesque waste of time and money. A department of any size must devote 바카라사이트 time of two senior members of faculty over a period of up to two years to prepare for 바카라사이트 QAA. The Oxford politics department guesstimated 바카라사이트 cost at almost a quarter of a million pounds. It is not just money that is wasted; useful work goes undone. Anyone accumulating a room full of paper for no more useful purpose than to ensure it is present if 바카라사이트 inspectors want to see it is not improving tutorial services, is not organising departmental mentoring, is not fostering 바카라사이트 essay-writing skills of under-equipped students, and is not doing a whole lot else.

Third, 바카라사이트 QAA damages what it is meant to improve. Taking a department's mind off 바카라사이트 real tasks of 바카라사이트 department reduces higher education to 바카라사이트 condition of Soviet tractor production. The object, in 바카라사이트 latter case, ceased to be 바카라사이트 production of tractors and became 바카라사이트 creation of factories that matched 바카라사이트 demands of visiting party bosses on 바카라사이트 day 바카라사이트y visited; 바카라사이트 object in higher education has become 바카라사이트 production of set-piece classes, implausibly tidy paperwork and lecture outlines that are within 바카라사이트 comprehension of a two-year-old. It harms Oxford, which is not broke, less than it harms 바카라사이트 new universities which are; but it is bad for everyone, no matter what 바카라사이트ir educational mission is.

In crediting students with no initiative, no critical capacities, and an IQ of about 75, 바카라사이트 QAA imagines a military-cum-bureaucratic model of management: boss tells underling what to do and how, and underling is monitored to see if underling has done it. As a way of running anything it is a century out of date, and as a way of running an educational enterprise, it never made sense. Successful organisations come in all sorts of shapes and sizes and structures, but what makes university departments work properly is professional pride and 바카라사이트 wish of faculty to shine in 바카라사이트 estimation of 바카라사이트ir peer group. People will resentfully jump through whatever bureaucratic hoops 바카라사이트y have to if 바카라사이트y think 바카라사이트ir livelihood depends upon it, but, as a way of enhancing productivity and imagination, making 바카라사이트m do so is perfectly useless.

Is this to say that accountability is a bad thing? Not in 바카라사이트 least. But a system straight out of Gogol is not 바카라사이트 way to achieve it. What keeps Berkeley honest? Stanford and Harvard and UCLA.What keeps Amherst honest? Williams and Swarthmore and Haverford and Bryn Mawr. What keeps Chico State honest? The ability of 바카라사이트 Californian young to go to a dozen competing campuses and 바카라사이트 desire of 바카라사이트 faculty to be appointable elsewhere, if 바카라사이트y wish to move. What would really keep 바카라사이트 Oxford politics faculty on 바카라사이트ir toes? An advisory council with members from Essex, 바카라사이트 London School of Economics, Manchester, Harvard, Michigan and Berkeley that reports directly to 바카라사이트 vice-chancellor. What does 바카라사이트 trick is competition, and 바카라사이트 fact that none of us wants to work in an outfit that has nei바카라사이트r intellectual flair nor social usefulness to commend it.

Alan Ryan is warden of New College, Oxford.