Response to the QAA consultation paper on the quality assurance and standards framework for UK higher education Available to Purchase

Following the fundamental review by the Committee of Inquiry into Higher Education, under the Chairmanship of Sir Ron, (now Lord) Dearing, in July, 1997 (and Scottish equivalent under Sir Ron Garrick); the Quality Assurance Agency for higher education (QAA), is currently consulting on the detailed elaboration of those Committees’ main recommendations. The QAA proposals are designed to provide public assurance on both the quality and standards in higher education and comprise an inter‐related set of components under the following headings: the development of a complete and overarching framework of qualifications for the UK; the development of a national template for individual programme specifications; the development of benchmarking information and threshold standards across 41 subject areas; the development of institutional codes of practice and institutional reviews; and the strengthening of the existing external examiner system to encompass a formal role of feedback on quality and standards to the QAA. The paper was submitted by the Association of Business schools to the QAA, in the format specified by the QAA. It can therefore best be understood in conjunction with the QAA’s consultation paper “An agenda for quality”, which provides greater detail of the main components, set out above.