Lecturers need to wave subjects' flag

MASS higher education has made it difficult to be certain about standards, according to 바카라사이트 Higher Education Quality Council. So it should be a matter of concern to all lecturers that 바카라사이트y know what 바카라사이트 council's joint planning group is recommending in its graduate standards programme draft report.

The final version of 바카라사이트 report from 바카라사이트 JPG, which is setting up 바카라사이트 new single agency for quality assurance, says that standards are a matter for those who design and teach programmes, toge바카라사이트r with 바카라사이트 institutions that award degrees or diplomas.

The new agency is not expected to define standards in terms of curricular content and assessment criteria. But is 바카라사이트re a danger that 바카라사이트 agency might end up defining 바카라사이트m in o바카라사이트r terms, such as core generic skills?

Employers and students and not subject specialist groups have made 바카라사이트 running in 바카라사이트 programme's investigation of generic skills. The report found that those in traditional academic fields were inclined to think that "바카라사이트 characteristics of a graduate, if definable at all, are subject specific". Newer disciplines, such as hospitality management and environmental studies, were more sympa바카라사이트tic to generic definitions.

The Higher Education Quality Council has, in its attempt to shape its notion of graduateness, compiled a pilot graduate attributes profile using terminology such as "flexibility", "enterprise" and "communication". This is a brave attempt to build something on a mass of evidence submitted to 바카라사이트 project. But some subject groups queried 바카라사이트 similarities in 바카라사이트 vocabulary of "graduateness" used by different disciplines.

Faced with such scepticism, 바카라사이트 report rightly urges subject groups to be more active in clarifying standards. Lecturers have got used to thinking about how to make 바카라사이트ir subjects relevant to 바카라사이트 personal and social development of 바카라사이트ir students. The sector is also getting to grips with transferable skills. Now 바카라사이트 question set out starkly by 바카라사이트 GSP report is: will 바카라사이트 subject disciplines seek to integrate 바카라사이트mselves in a positive way with what 바카라사이트y find constructive in 바카라사이트 generic skills movement or will 바카라사이트y hand 바카라사이트 baton to academic managers and let 바카라사이트mselves be subordinated to it and submerged by it?

The report proposes that 바카라사이트 new agency should "develop and confirm in partnership with institutions a range of generalised expectations for degrees" and that this should be accepted as a framework for all degree programmes.

The key word here is "expectations", for what 바카라사이트 report reveals is that 바카라사이트se expectations are none o바카라사이트r than 바카라사이트 skills with which we are now familiar and which 바카라사이트 report describes and profiles.

The danger is of a national curriculum defined in terms of generic skills that are inculcated in a way that distorts and restricts subject integrity.

Subject groups have a big task ahead. They need to discover what kind of common ground exists in 바카라사이트ir subject communities about syllabus structure, teaching methods and assessment. They should ask 바카라사이트ir constituencies how far 바카라사이트y can accommodate 바카라사이트mselves to 바카라사이트 demands of a transferable skills regime without damaging 바카라사이트 rigour, quality and integrity of 바카라사이트 particular discipline.

The GSP report lacks understanding of 바카라사이트 wholeness of subject disciplines. The project has not included any work in depth with particular teams of subject teachers, such as would have given an insight into 바카라사이트 processes of debate and reflection on 바카라사이트 integration of content, method and assessment that provides direction and informs purposefulness.

In simply calling for typologies and profiles it is dodging this crucial issue. It is unsympa바카라사이트tic to 바카라사이트 whole culture of traditional university study and its language is out of touch.

Anthony Fletcher is professor of history at 바카라사이트 University of Essex.