Re: standards, perhaps double standards?

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Martin Owen (t.m.owen@bangor.ac.uk)
Mon, 24 May 1999 08:58:36 +0000 

Date: Mon, 24 May 1999 08:58:36 +0000
From: Martin Owen <t.m.owen@bangor.ac.uk>
Subject: Re: standards, perhaps double standards?

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>
>the guidelines posted by Martin (below) are very well done. I briefly
>searched the site and could not find the equivalent for standard
>academic programs- a set of guidelines with the same rigour and
>attention to detail. I may have missed it.
>
Higher education in the UK has had a system of QA, administered by the
Higher Education Funding Councils and carried out by peer review for about
5 or 6 years now. There are paper based guidlines for this process.
Departments are graded according to the standard of tuition they provide
(we have a similar exercise for research as well). A significant part of
the process is ensuring that each and every department has a QA system in
place, and that that is acted upon.

The system is not without its problems, so I would not like to paint too
rosy a picture. There is too much spurious evaluation (eg student
questionaires) that do not tell you much. However the fact tht they are
done is the important issue for the process.

Martin
(PS those of us in education departments also get inspected by the
government inspectors who also inspect schools).

Martin Owen
T.M.Owen@bangor.ac.uk

School of Education Yr Ysgol Addysg
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