Assuring quality and standards in higher education

Anyone reading the Irish newspapers over the weekend will have seen immediately that the ‘grade inflation’ story, first covered in the Irish Times a week ago, continues to rumble on. And as it does so, the substance of the coverage has begun to shift from looking at the basic numbers to considering the implications and possible actions to be taken. One area of interest in all this has emerged, that of quality assurance. In Saturday’s Irish Times, in an extended piece by Education Editor Sean Flynn, there is the following comment:

‘There are close parallels here with the banking crisis. Essentially, the universities and the ITs regulate themselves. Five university presidents or their nominees sit on the IUQB board; four senior IT figures sit on the Hetac board. One IUQB member tells The Irish Times: “The whole thing is a cosy cartel. Each of us has our own agenda and we can pursue it without difficulty. Occasional concerns have been raised about grade inflation but there has been no serious debate, let alone any decent research work.”’

I would really like to know which IUQB board member delivered themselves of this comment, since it does not correspond at all with what has been going on at board meetings. The description of what goes on at the IUQB is totally inaccurate, and frankly rubbish. Nobody that I have encountered there comes in with an agenda; in fact if they did it might be a better experience, as there might then be a more proactive approach to the quality agenda. However, there is no cartel approach, and the external members ensure that this is so. Furthermore, at least in my presence, no board member has ever suggested that there should be debate or research on grade inflation.

The article continues by pointing out that the government intends to control quality and standards in a new unified agency. This is a reference to the merger between the Higher Education and Training Awards Council (HETAC), the Further Education and Training Awards Council (FETAC) and the National Qualifications Authority of Ireland (NQAI), and the acquisition by the merged body of the quality assurance functions of the Irish Universities Quality Board (IUQB).

Controlling quality assurance, in the sense of exercising a coordinating role of the kind currently undertaken by the IUQB to ensure that there is a consistency of approach, is something the new agency can and no doubt will do. Quality in this context is usually taken to mean a consistency and transparency in the educational process. Standards, on the other hand, are quite a different matter. Essentially standards are the product of the curriculum, which in turn determines the content of each course and the learning outcomes expected from it. In the university sector we do not have a national curriculum, and if it were even to be contemplated it would at a stroke end the idea of institutional autonomy, and even more significantly, of academic freedom. Nor is it clear to me that a process of bureaucratisation of higher education learning content and outcomes would raise Ireland’s reputation.

However, we may now need to respond to the ‘grade inflation’ story in a more proactive manner. Whatever I may believe myself – and I am of the view that the accusation of grade inflation identifies quite the wrong problem – it is clear that this view is not shared by many now commenting in public. The university sector may need to address the matter differently, and may need to consider independent reviews to show clearly what the true position is, and how any issues that may exist can be addressed. Waiting for the Minister to establish a national higher education curriculum is not the best possible tactic, I suspect. We need to undertake some speedy and serious confidence building.

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Tags: grade inflation, Irish Universities Quality Board, quality assurance

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