Why Would Going to University Change Anyone? The Challenges of Capturing the Transformative Power of Higher Education in Comparisons of Quality

Paul Ashwin

Voprosy obrazovaniya / Educational Studies Moscow, 2016, issue 1, 21-34

Abstract: Paul Ashwin - Professor of Higher Education, Centre for Higher Education Research and Evaluation, Department of Educational Research, Lancaster University. Address: Department of Educational Research, County South, Lancaster University, Lancaster, LA1 4YL, UK. E-mail: p.ashwin@lancaster.ac.ukIn this paper, I examine the tensions between the transformational potential undergraduate degrees and ways we have of measuring and comparing the quality of those degrees nationally and internationally. I argue that what makes higher education a higher form of education is the relations that students develop to knowledge through the study of particular bodies of disciplinary and professional knowledge. Given, this I argue that this needs to be central to the ways in which we understand and measure the quality of an undergraduate education. I review current ways of measuring quality and argue that they do not capture these aspects of an undergraduate education and so are not fit for purpose. In conclusion I argue that higher education researchers have a responsibility to develop more valid ways of comparing the quality of undergraduate degrees. DOI: 10.17323/1814-9545-2016-1-21-34

Keywords: knowledge; higher education research; personal transformation; measuring quality; teaching and learning; university rankings (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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