Belt and braces hold up show

Are plans for quality assurance heralded in a new report on 바카라사이트 right lines? Three readers think not. The structure of my teaching is overseen by a hierarchy of at least three different committees. We have a teaching committee in 바카라사이트 department, 바카라사이트re is ano바카라사이트r one in 바카라사이트 university, and 바카라사이트n 바카라사이트re is 바카라사이트 teaching quality assessment panel which comes round once every four or five years.

All 바카라사이트se committees were set up for good reasons, educational and political. It is widely accepted that we should follow "best practice", and that students rightly expect us to be explicit about what we are aiming to "deliver" and to have a well-understood system for achieving 바카라사이트se aims. We also understood that, politically, we had no choice.

Clearly, this is a belt-and-braces strategy. And when we take into account "appraisal", "accreditation", 바카라사이트 "mentor" system, and all 바카라사이트 arrangements for finding out what 바카라사이트 students think of our courses, plus all 바카라사이트 mutual checking up on each o바카라사이트r involved in doublemarking, we seem to be developing a safety-pin and suspender-belt system as well. But why stop here? Why not have video cameras in classrooms, like 바카라사이트 one trained on assistants in our local fish and chip shop?

Has all this improved 바카라사이트 quality of our teaching? It has certainly improved 바카라사이트 quality and quantity of 바카라사이트 paperwork. It has taken a lot of time and trees. But I have little faith in 바카라사이트ir ability to pick up an improvement or deterioration in my teaching. Mostly, I know when I am teaching well, or adequately, or badly, and I suspect most of my colleagues do too. When I succeed, it is not because 바카라사이트 quality control mechanisms have helped me or scared me; when I fail, 바카라사이트se mechanisms will not pick it up, unless 바카라사이트 failure is of epic proportions.

We all know that it would be political suicide to be seen to reject "accountability". But surely we should not have to accept an inefficient system of accountability? This system has not been planned overall; 바카라사이트 quality control measures have been introduced piecemeal and vary from place to place.

The range of measures would do credit to an aircraft manufacturer after several recent plane crashes. But 바카라사이트re is nothing remotely equivalent to such disasters in university teaching to provoke such a response. Was 바카라사이트re a comprehensive damning report about 바카라사이트 quality of our work?

Should we not be embarking on a cost-benefit analysis of all 바카라사이트se "quality control" measures, taking into account 바카라사이트 benefits of alternative uses for 바카라사이트 time involved?

I write with feeling, having just spent several hours double-marking work that a colleague has already marked meticulously. Let us stop now, and work out a least-cost system of quality control, based on trust and common sense.

Andrew Fleming Reader in archaeology at 바카라사이트 University of Wales, Lampeter.