Interview presentation: Outline the current policy issues regarding UK higher education and the potential impact these may have on the role of QAA, July 2015

1. Outline the current policy issues
regarding UK higher education
and the potential impact these
may have on the role of QAA
Marieke Guy
@mariekeguy
QAA Interview
Tuesday 28th July 2015

2. Value for money for students
investing in their education,
and for taxpayers
underwriting the system

3. Value for money:
• HE is now in a transformed financial situation
due to fees
• Students demanding increased value for money
• Students want more information on fee spending
• Closer assessment of employment and earnings
returns to education
• Measurement of ‘learning gain’ & ‘job ready’
• Requirement for better/more KIS data
• Reflection on graduate earnings premium

4. Teaching at the heart of the
system

5. Teaching:
• Required rebalancing of teaching and research
• Teaching Excellence Framework proposed
• Will provide students with the information they
need to judge teaching quality
• Will include data from institutional inspections
• Will involve output-focused criteria and metrics
• Will look at degree classification (TEF green
paper) and Grade point average (GPA)
• Relevancy of course and improved course design

6. Increasing student numbers
and widening participation

7. Student numbers:
• Removal of student number controls for
undergraduates
• Commitment to widening participation and social
mobility
• Office for Fair Access (OFFA) report - 183
universities and colleges had submitted access
agreements
• Scrapping of maintenance grants for students – now
repayable loans for those from families with low
incomes
• International student numbers as part of wider
issue of immigration in public discourse

8. Expansion of the Higher
Education sector

9. Expansion and Competition:
• Increase of alternate providers who are regulated
separately
• Want high quality market entry whilst ensure
regulatory regime that guards against poor quality
provision
• Still need to be tested against baseline
requirements
• Idea of accreditation ‘kite marks’ for providers who
wish to operate internationally
• Globalisation of UK HE – partnerships with countries
with different accreditation systems - Transnational
Education (TNE)

10. Increase in Internet-based
provision

11. Internet based-provision:
• Recognising potential of online, distance and
blended-learning
• MOOCs, Open Education, open assessment
• Rise in more mature, part-time and long-
distance learners
• Employers require new skills and different
qualifications
• Possibly more employer co-financed, co-
designed and co-delivered masters and doctoral
programmes

12. Future of the
QAA ??
Risk-based approach to
QA that would take the
maturity and track
record of providers
into account.
Common yet flexible
framework -
bureaucratic burdens
kept to a minimum,
institutional autonomy
respected.
International reputation, respect within sector

13. Implications for QAA:
• Value for money: Find pressure points to raise standards, talk to
students even more, clearer idea of ‘learning gain', encouraging
HE bodies use of student outcomes data, international lessons,
improved transparency
• Teaching: Teaching Excellence Framework - lessons from REF
(un-gamable, cheap), closer eye on content of courses, look at
honours system, external examiner system, grades, innovation?
• Student numbers: Monitoring of increase of numbers, output
driven approach
• Expansion: Gateway work with new providers, accreditation
‘kite marks’ for providers who wish to operate internationally,
educational oversight work, continue educational oversight work
• Internet-based provision: Adapting assessment, consideration
of MOOCs, updating of Quality Code and Subject Benchmark
Statements

14. Taking it forward: Data in QA:
Keep in mind
the
importance of
‘measuring
what matters’
There is a growing
emphasis on
responsible metrics
(rather than just
peer assessment)
(metric tide)
QA system
needs to make
use of existing
data and
information
Data-informed
decision-making
to sit alongside
transparency
The
‘one
size fits
all’ of
QA no
longer
works
Data
visualisation and
data story telling
approaches
HEIDI, HESA
(Unistats), UCAS,
OECD, ONS etc.

15. CC-BY-NC https://www.flickr.com/photos/46124960@N00/2672573608/
“a quality assessment system should be
proportionate and risk-based and should, where
possible, minimise the burden and cost on
providers by making use of existing data and
information. “ HEFCE report

16. Thanks!!
Any questions?
Marieke Guy
@mariekeguy
QAA Interview
Tuesday 28th July 2015