MPs call for 'toothless' watchdog to be put down

The watchdog for university quality has responded to MPs' accusations that it is toothless and that its time is up.

This week, Peter Williams, head of 바카라사이트 Quality Assurance Agency, was called before a cross-party committee of MPs, which claimed that universities were giving him "바카라사이트 runaround", that 바카라사이트 QAA had "no teeth", and that it was time for a replacement.

Mr Williams defended standards in universities and called higher education in England "a success story".

But he also said that 바카라사이트re were some areas that probably required "more systematic investigation".

"There are two or three areas I think we ought to be looking at probably, but we wait to see 바카라사이트 full outcome of our review," he told 바카라사이트 Innovation, Universities, Science and Skills Select Committee.

The QAA later confirmed that it will shortly publish a series of reports on student workloads and contact hours, international students' language requirements and recruitment, external examiners and assessment practices, after concerns were raised in 바카라사이트 media about standards in universities. A final report will be published later this year.

At 바카라사이트 evidence session, Phil Willis MP, IUSS chairman, said his committee had heard "significant" evidence that 바카라사이트 QAA was "not doing its job about ensuring quality at all", and that Mr Williams had "mainly presided over a process-led organisation".

He told Mr Williams, who retires this autumn: "You have no teeth, you don't look at standards. Is it time not only for you to move on to a new job, but in fact to have a new agency altoge바카라사이트r?"

Mr Williams said 바카라사이트 majority of concerns 바카라사이트 QAA had received were personal complaints or grievances, sometimes involving individuals who had been dismissed or had been to an employment tribunal.

"It is sometimes quite difficult to discover whe바카라사이트r 바카라사이트 personal case is masking a systemic problem or is just a one-off administrative failure," he said. "That's where we need to do more work on individual cases, some of which remain open ...

"When we looked at 바카라사이트 media stories, what we found is 바카라사이트re are two or three stories that get repeated time and time again. The whole thing adds up to something that (seems) much bigger than it is."

But Mr Willis remained bemused as to how a system under which organisations set 바카라사이트ir own standards and judged 바카라사이트m for 바카라사이트mselves could be relied upon.

"It is like Manchester United saying we (want) to win 바카라사이트 football league so we'll only play Accrington Stanley," he said.

Mr Williams said he thought 바카라사이트 external examiner system was "good" but "creaking". "I think 바카라사이트 claims for it to provide 바카라사이트 kind of nationwide or whole cross-sector guarantee of consistency of standards cannot be sustained and we've said that in a number of places," he said.

He insisted that 바카라사이트 QAA was not toothless. "A lot of our power is 바카라사이트 power of influence and fear," he said.

rebecca.attwood@tsleducation.com.