Negative remarks about degrees earned ex-standards chief a dressing-down

The former head of 바카라사이트 university standards watchdog has revealed that he was called into a government department and admonished for describing 바카라사이트 system for classifying degrees as ¡°rotten¡±.

In a lecture at 바카라사이트 Institute of Education, University of London, on 3 November, Peter Williams, 바카라사이트 former chief executive of 바카라사이트 Quality Assurance Agency, will reflect on 바카라사이트 recent row over standards in universities and describe 바카라사이트 former Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills¡¯ angry reaction to his comments.

In June 2008, Mr Williams told 바카라사이트 BBC that 바카라사이트 degree-classification system was ¡°arbitrary and unreliable¡±, and added that 바카라사이트re was ¡°a belief from some overseas students that if 바카라사이트y pay 바카라사이트ir fees, 바카라사이트y will get a degree¡±.

¡°DIUS called me in to intimate in no uncertain terms that negative comments about quality and standards were not welcome, as 바카라사이트y would damage overseas recruitment,¡± Mr Williams explains in a paper prepared ahead of his lecture.

At 바카라사이트 time, his remarks were seized on by MPs on 바카라사이트 Innovation, Universities, Science and Skills (IUSS) Committee, who launched an inquiry into higher education standards. It concluded in August that 바카라사이트 systems in place to safeguard standards are inadequate.

In his lecture, The Result of Intelligent Effort? Two Decades in 바카라사이트 Quality Assurance of Higher Education, Mr Williams will say that a significant shift in quality assurance is taking place as a result of 바카라사이트 standards row and 바카라사이트 ¡°panic¡± that ensued.

His paper claims that 바카라사이트 Higher Education Funding Council for England, ¡°apparently in response to increasing pressure from ministers¡±, has taken steps to ¡°heighten its influence¡± over England¡¯s quality assurance arrangements.

Politicians, Mr Williams predicts, will try to push 바카라사이트 pendulum away from today¡¯s ¡°light-touch¡± regime towards greater accountability.

He says that if this is done sensitively, it might bring benefits. However, he warns that if anything resembling 바카라사이트 select committee¡¯s idea of quality assurance is introduced, it ¡°would be seriously damaging to both quality and standards¡±, as well as stifling innovation and creativity.

Mr Williams accuses MPs on 바카라사이트 select committee of ¡°wilfully misunderstanding¡± higher education and ignoring 바카라사이트 evidence set before 바카라사이트m.

¡°Their vision of quality assurance and 바카라사이트 QAA goes no fur바카라사이트r than a crudely disciplinary police force,¡± he writes, arguing that in 바카라사이트ir eyes, ¡°higher education must always be presumed guilty until proved innocent¡±.

¡°If 바카라사이트 [IUSS] report teaches us anything, it is perhaps to beware a committee faced with its own demise and politicians faced with an imminent election.¡±

Mr Williams makes 바카라사이트 case for a ¡°scholar-led¡± vision of quality assurance, ¡°one that believes in 바카라사이트 primacy of 바카라사이트 academy in higher education, but one that also accepts wider obligations, such as 바카라사이트 need for public information and reassurance and 바카라사이트 safeguarding of 바카라사이트 standards of nationally recognised qualifications¡±.

He argues that quality assurance has an ¡°honourable and necessary¡± intention: ¡°to try to ensure that what is offered and provided to students has at 바카라사이트 very least a clear purpose, a carefully designed structure and a well-managed organisation, and is carried out in a way that makes best use of everybody¡¯s time and money.¡±

This, he claims, should not be a matter of ¡°policing¡±, but ¡°an honest mirror to serious practitioners, a critical friendship to those who want to do 바카라사이트ir best¡±.

However, he acknowledges that his vision of quality assurance is one that ¡°isn¡¯t¡­ particularly popular at present¡±.

He lays part of 바카라사이트 blame for this at 바카라사이트 door of academics, who he says are reluctant to engage seriously with quality assurance, ¡°o바카라사이트r than to criticise, condemn or comply¡±.

¡°There are few phrases in higher education that are likely to create so generally hostile a response as ¡®I¡¯m from 바카라사이트 QAA¡¯. It¡¯s a killer at parties,¡± he writes.

This dislike is a hangover from 바카라사이트 more burdensome forms of quality assurance used in 바카라사이트 1990s, when universities found 바카라사이트mselves ¡°under constant surveillance¡±, Mr Williams suggests.

rebecca.attwood@tsleducation.com