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Relates higher education to the labour market, noting that the pace of change in national and international economies requires higher education to encourage the development of people who can act effectively in turbulent circumstances. Shows that quality and standards are open to interpretations which depend upon the interpreter’s perspective. Argues that the extra‐institutional scrutiny of quality and standards is appropriate where higher education is expected to respond to national needs, but that the method used needs to be adapted to institutional context. Discusses the potential that ISO 9000, or an analogue, might have for an extra‐institutional quality assurance system that is economical in operation.

Submits The Times’ 1997 “league table” of universities to statistical analysis. Concludes that the changes made to the table since 1996 have made it more strongly unidimensional, with research performance being overwhelmingly dominant.

Examines the extent to which the purposes of quality assurance stated by the Joint Planning Group (JPG) in its Final Report are likely to be fulfilled, and points to a number of weaknesses in the JPG’s proposals. Argues that a more forward‐looking approach is needed, and suggests that, if the JPG proposals are implemented, the new arrangements will last a relatively short time before being subjected to further review.

Presents a short questionnaire designed to support the preparation of critical self‐scrutiny of programme quality for the Funding Councils′ quality assessment processes and for internal evaluative purposes. Offers some indications as to how it might be used most effectively.

This paper analyses the performance criteria and learning objectives contained in the first 22 QAA subject benchmark statements to be published and considers the implications for assessment. There is much variation in the amount of detail in the statements and there are also implicit performance criteria in the intended learning outcomes listed at the beginning of each. Statements are broad in character so their relationship with standards is loosely‐coupled and open to interpretation. It is argued that attempts to achieve a high degree of precision in specification are likely to prove counter‐productive. There is evidence of some lack of coherence within the benchmark statements and between the statements and the more recently published Level H descriptor in the National Qualifications Framework. Further, the relationship between assessment practice and the statements appears to be problematic. The value of benchmarking statements as an aid to professional conversation about standards would be greatly enhanced if subject communities, perhaps facilitated by Learning and Teaching Support Network subject centres and subject associations, can elaborate for themselves the meanings of words used in the statements of learning outcomes and performance criteria. This elaboration would be aided by the appraisal of exemplars of outcomes at various levels of performance.

Subjects the league table of universities published in The Times and The Times Good University Guide in 1995 and 1996 to statistical and conceptual analyses. Shows the “measures” used by the compilers of the tables to be problematic in a number of technical respects. Shows that the number of underlying variables is largely reducible to a single factor which discriminates between pre‐1992 and post‐1992 universities. Casts serious doubt on the validity of the tables from both technical and conceptual perspectives.

Considers the question of how an Asian postgraduate institution sets up an academic quality assurance process when it is geographically remote from universities that are similar and has a cultural context that is unique in some respects. Presents a short case study of the development of a combined vertical and horizontal internal quality audit which combines both an institutional and individual survey into an ongoing process of quality enhancement.

The external examiner system in higher education is, for a variety of reasons, widely believed to be under strain: as a result, the role of the external examiner has, in recent years, come under particular scrutiny. Reports a survey of current and desired practice regarding external examining in higher education courses in art and design. Suggests that, in these disciplines, it is generally desired that external examiners act in an auditing role rather than become involved in details of assessment practice. The manifested desire for external examiners to take the role of “course consultant” introduces a tension which may not be capable of resolution under existing expectations of external examining. Claims that there is a need to reconstrue the role of the external examiner within a broader framework of quality assurance processes if maximum benefit is to be gained from an external perspective.

Starts from the premiss that the Government White Paper of 1991 and the Further and Higher Education Act of 1992, in concentrating their attention on accountability, paid insufficient attention to enhancing the quality of provision in higher education. Suggests that whilst the present arrangements for the external scrutiny of quality in higher education (quality audit and quality assessment) have led to some improvements, the future demands on the sector – well articulated in the MacFarlane report of 1993 – are likely to require a much more proactive approach to the enhancement of quality. Proposes that a funding agenda, explicitly oriented towards enhancement, could act as an inducement to the sector to respond in strategic ways to the challenges posed in the MacFarlane Report. A consequence of the approach would be the establishment of revised arrangements for external quality scrutiny at national level.