I have recently been made aware of the "Information on quality and
standards in higher education" report (known as the Cooke report)
published by HEFCE and available at:
http://www.hefce.ac.uk/pubs/hefce/2002/02_15.htm
The Executive summary states that the purpose is:
As part of the revised method for quality assurance in higher education
in England, a Task Group was set up to identify the categories of data,
information and judgements about quality and standards of teaching and
learning that should be available within higher education institutions
(HEIs), and those which should be published. The Task Group, chaired by
Professor Sir Ron Cooke, Vice-Chancellor of the University of York,
published a document in November 2001, 'Information on quality and
standards of teaching and learning: proposals for consultation' (HEFCE
01/66), setting out interim proposals and inviting responses. This
report gives the Task Group's final recommendations in the light of the
consultation responses and wider discussions.
The Task Group's recommendations cover:
The main headings for collecting information about quality and standards
of learning and teaching.
The quantitative data to be assembled and published by HEIs.
The qualitative information which should be published, including
summaries of external examiner reports, outcomes of student satisfaction
surveys, summaries of learning and teaching strategies, and outcomes of
major programme reviews.
In summary institutions (in England) will be expected to publish:
a. Information on the institutional context:
i. The HEI's mission statement.
ii. Relevant sections of the HEI's corporate plan.
iii. Statement of the HEI's quality assurance policies and processes.
iv. The HEI's learning and teaching strategy and periodic reviews of
progress.
b. Information on student admission, progression and completion:
i. Student qualifications on entry.
ii. The range of student entrants classified by age, gender,
ethnicity, socio-economic background, disability and geographical origin
as returned to the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA).
iii. Student progression and retention data for each year of each
course/programme, differentiating between failure and withdrawal.
iv. Data on student completion.
v. Data on qualifications awarded to students.
Etc. (see report for complete list).
I thought I ought to mention this as an early Christmas present for
institutional Web managers.
I guess reactions will include:
o No problem, we've got all of this structure information in our XML
repository, which is integrated with various backend databases. A quick
XSLT transformation will generate this in no time.
o This provides extra ammunition to encourage us to go down the XML
route.
o OMIGOD - first I had to deal with SENDA, now this. The University
won't give me any extra resources. This is the final straw - I'm
leaving.
o I'm in a Scottish HEI so it doesn't affect me (how do you do a smug
smiley face)
I think some members of this list know more about this report than I do.
Perhaps somebody who has been dealing with this in their institution
could give their views.
Thanks
Brian
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Brian Kelly
UK Web Focus
UKOLN
University of Bath
BATH
BA2 7AY
Email: [log in to unmask]
Web: http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/
Phone: 01225 38 3943
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