'Farce' warning on degree levels
October 1, 2009
The lack of certainty over the value of university degrees is "descending into farce," says the chair of a committee of MPs investigating degree standards.
Phil Willis challenged the university standards watchdog, Peter Williams, about fears of inflated degree grades.
"You're saying an institution can award as many firsts as it wants as long as it satisfies its own criteria of what a first means," said Mr Willis.
Mr Williams defended the need for universities' autonomy over degrees.
But Mr Williams, head of the Quality Assurance Agency, faced further scrutiny over how it was acceptable that universities could be assessed without objective comparisons with other institutions.
What value was there for employers, students or taxpayers in such an ambiguous system, MPs wanted to know.
'Outrage'
"There is no common definition of what a first is," Mr Williams told the House of Commons select committee on innovation, universities, science and skills.
The committee of MPs challenged the uncertainty about degree standards
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"There is no evidence of consistency between subjects or departments or between institutions," said the watchdog.
Evan Harris said there would be "outrage" if it were similarly discovered that A-levels from different awarding bodies were not of equal rigour or value.
The Oxford West MP challenged the idea that university autonomy was a valid reason for not having any comparability between universities' standards, when these were publicly-funded bodies.
Mr Williams repeated his criticism of the degree classification system which he says is no longer "fit for purpose" - and cautioned that degrees were not national courses or exams and that standards were individual to each institution.
As such it was possible for universities to decide how many degrees were awarded at upper levels - as long as they matched the rules set by the university themselves.
The questioning followed the recent leak of an e-mail in which academics were reminded by a manager of the importance of increasing the number of first class degrees.
Committee chairman Mr Willis pressed the head of the Quality Assurance Agency on its credibility in maintaining public confidence in university standards - asking him whether it was a "toothless" organisation.
No complaints
Mr Williams, rejecting such a claim, set out an action plan which would include a more high-profile approach to encouraging academics and students to raise any "causes for concern".
So far, Mr Williams told MPs, not a single cause for concern had ever been raised by either students, academics, employers or universities. The only case raised had been from a funding council and related to a higher education course at a further education college.
The committee of MPs also sought to establish how many universities or departments were currently assessed to be below standard - and were told that at present there was not a single institution in such a category.
Mr Williams emphasised that the agency was not a research organisation that could carry out comparative tests on standards - or any kind of Ofsted-type watchdog that could effectively force a school to close.
With the advantages of the diversity and independence of universities, came an autonomy over setting degree grades.
In terms of providing an outside verification of standards, Mr Williams pointed to the external examiner system. But this was dismissed by MP Rob Wilson, who said "a lot of people think it's a case of getting in their mates to shore up what's going on".
'Unsustainable'
Evan Harris highlighted the risk to standards when some universities were now financially dependent on funds from overseas students.
Mr Williams rejected the suggestion that rules could be bent to give degrees to such overseas students - but cautioned that the "unsustainable" scale of recruitment ran the risk of creating "overseas universities within the UK".
Speaking after the hearing, Mr Willis said that he thought that the system for assuring university standards was likely to need "major surgery" and he looked forward to seeing how the QAA might develop its plans.
Diana Warwick, chief executive of Universities UK, said universities also recognised that the degree classification system has reached the end of its "display-by" date.
The university group says that 20 higher education institutions will be trialling a different way of classifying achievement, to be known as Higher Education Achievement Report, from the autumn.
The hearing by the select committee followed a series of whistleblower stories and large numbers of responses from academics expressing deep concerns about the way that degrees are assessed and awarded.
This has included claims about overseas students who can barely speak English being awarded postgraduate degrees, questions about the credibility of the external examiner system and the inflation of grades to improve the image of institutions.