As universities are held more accountable for the quality of their provision, how can research inform our thinking about how we measure quality in higher education?
The economic and employment-related benefits to individuals from attending higher education are well documented. The learning and skill development benefits have been less straightforward to capture. Much of the learning from higher education is discipline-specific of course, and universities tend to focus on measuring this in their assessment systems. There is more debate as to the precise nature of any discipline-transcending learning and the nature of the “graduate” skills that are being developed. This talk will present findings from recent research projects that have attempted fo measure the learning and other outcomes from higher education, and will consider their limitations and policy implications.
Prof. Anna Vignoles, University of Cambridge
Professor Anna Vignoles FBA is Professor of Education (1938) at the University of Cambridge. She is also a Fellow of the British Academy and member of the ESRC Council. She has published widely on widening participation in higher education, social mobility, the impact of school resources on pupil achievement and on the socio-economic gap in pupil achievement. Her research interests include issues pertaining to equity in education, school choice, school efficiency and finance and the economic value of schooling. Anna has advised numerous government departments, including the Department for Education, the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills and HM Treasury. She provided advice to the Browne Review of Higher Education Funding, the House of Commons Education and Skills Committee investigation of higher education funding, the House of Lords Economic Affairs Select Committee, as part of their inquiry into education and training opportunities for young people, and Lord Leitch's Review of Skills. Anna is an Associate Editor for The Cambridge Journal of Education and Education Economics.
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