The origins, operation and impacts of quality assurance in UK higher education, 1985-2004

LB2300 Higher Education

Kuenssberg, Sally ; MacKenzie, Jane

University:University of Glasgow

Department:School of Education

关键词: higher education, quality assurance, policy analysis.;   

Others  :  http://theses.gla.ac.uk/7155/1/2015kuenssbergphd.pdf

来源: University of Glasgow

【 摘 要 】

The thesis explores the origins of government concerns about the quality of UK highereducation during the 1980s and traces legislative processes leading to the reform acts of1988 and 1992. It demonstrates close links between higher education reforms andConservative policies in the rest of the public sector and shows how quality assurance wasused as an instrument of regulation to increase government control over the universitiesduring the next decade. These developments coincided with the rise of a higher education‘market’ in which quality assessment scores were translated into league tables to attractstudents as ‘customers’. The narrative then shows how the issue of student feesincreasingly came to dominate the Labour government’s thinking from 1997 onwards andbecame a major theme in debates leading to the higher education act of 2004.The chronological narrative based on historical accounts and contemporary documentsidentifies four successive phases of quality assurance between 1992 and 2004. This iscombined with a qualitative study which uses a constructivist approach to build up apicture of the unsettled period that followed the introduction of quality assurance systemsinto universities. A wide range of views from contemporary literature were supplementedby a series of ten semi-structured interviews with individuals who played significant rolesin these events and reported their experiences in their own words.The narrative traces the growth of a quality ‘industry’ in higher education and a longrunning‘quality debate’ among those affected by its impacts. Difficulties of defining‘quality’ and the political desire for quantitative measurement led to the adoption ofunsuitable methodology, emphasising accountability at the expense of improvement. Thisturbulent period was characterised by a recurring pattern of rising protests from academicswhich culminated in political intervention and subsequently further change. The thesisanalyses the effects of quality assurance on university staff and students and on thedeveloping discourse between higher education and the state. Summarising its impacts in abalance sheet of pros and cons leads to the conclusion that though concerns about qualitywere justified and some form of regulation was necessary in the expanded and diversesector, the results of audit and assessment revealed little cause for concern about thequality of UK higher education. Furthermore, though quality assurance produced somebenefits in the organisation of courses, staff development and information for prospectivestudents, there was little evidence of benefits to teaching itself. Thus, quality assurancefailed to deliver the government’s own aim of value for money, and the effort and time3required by the universities could have been put to better use; less insistence on regulationcould have given academics more freedom to pursue improvements in teaching. A briefepilogue reflects on the status of quality assurance in 2015 and warns that separate plansfor reform announced by HEFCE and the current government risk repeating old mistakes.