Accountability and professionalism: a contradiction in terms?

Declining trust in public services has led to increasing calls for higher education to be ‘accountable’ for the quality of its teaching and learning provision. However, increasing levels of quality evaluation have led academics to feel that their professionalism is under attack. Reflecting on this history and various dimensions of accountability, this paper seeks to interpret accountability by addressing two questions: What is accountability in higher education? How can it be related to academic professionalism? The paper argues that professionalism and accountability appear to be contradictory terms, but can exist simultaneously. If academics' moral and social responsibility becomes requisite to an enhanced social accounting for the quality of university teaching and learning, there could be less perceived tension between academic professionalism and accountability.     

美国医学教育中的职业化问题:从证据到责任

职业化是维护公众对医学职业信任的核心要素,也是医患关系的本质所在.但有证据表明,公众对医学职业的信任日渐消失,医生也在维护医学职业价值观念时面临着各种挑战.本文在医学教育背景下界定"职业化"的定义和框架,描述了职业化面临的各种挑战,也详细论述了医学院校和教学医院在维护医学职业化过程中的角色和作用.此外,还评述了现行和试行中的评价职业化的工具、方法.最后,作者还提出一些建议供医学院校和教学医院参考.     

Benchmarking Academic Standards in the UK

The Dearing Report in the UK supported the use of benchmarking in higher education, taking as its stimulus the use of benchmarking in industrial and commercial contexts. The UK Government's concern regarding academic standards has raised the question of whether benchmarking could be applied to them.This article reports on a pilot study of the benchmarking of academic standards in the UK, and demonstrates -- with reference to empirical data -- that benchmarking in this context needs to be approached differently from benchmarking in industrial/commercial milieux, since it requires a combination of finely-drawn comparisons and professional judgements if valid conclusions are to be drawn. It is argued that the complexity which underpins academic standards is inimical to the production of statements about standards that will be applicable across the span of a diverse national system of higher education. The argument presented can be applied, mutatis mutandis, to systems of higher education beyond the UK.     

THE LOST PROFESSION

In the United Kingdom, the higher education community is being deprived of components of its professionalism just when it is clarifying to itself the nature of that professionalism. Historically, academics were not required to define their obligations to society. Now, they must function in an age of accountability in which public services are being asked to demonstrate their wider value. Behind this shift stands a changing relationship between higher education and the state in which the state has moved to assess the quality of what was on offer and is now playing a direct part in influencing the shape of graduate formation. Currently, academic life is becoming so subject to external control that the autonomy required as a necessary component of professionalism is being lost. In Halsey's terminology, academics are changing from being a status group to being a proletariat but without ever having properly been a profession.     

Academic Standards and Mass Higher Education*

This article considers the role of academic standards in the wider context of the problem faced by modem societies of how to reconcile the survival and provision of elite higher education with the emergence of mass education. From the advantage of an outside perspective it examines the division between higher and further education and reflects on the implications of that separation and on the costs and consequences of the academic standards that characterise the British system of elite higher education. It considers the prospects for the emergence from further education of a truly mass system of institutions marked by lower per capita costs and lower standards standing alongside and linked with a system of higher education marked by very high academic standards. The article concludes that what is still lacking is a general recognition that all degree-granting higher education is only a part, albeit a central part, of a broad system of post-secondary and continuing education, marked by a diversity of standard, mission and cost, which has as its mission the advanced education of a whole society and not just its leadership.     

Learning as relational: intersubjectivity and pedagogy in higher education

The decision to make the UK student population financially responsible for their own university education has major implications for the future of higher education provision. Chief among these implications will undoubtedly be a much stronger emphasis on the student experience, not least the experience of the teaching and learning environment. Given the increasing influence of consumerism on student identity, the distinct possibility exists that such notions of market-led accountability will be first in line to shape how the academic–student relationship is redefined and understood in future years. It is therefore an appropriate time to explore alternatives to such a narrow understanding of relationships—an understanding that inevitably tends to frame direct accountability in terms of economic exchange. It is argued in this paper that one alternative can be developed by exploring a more relational approach to HE pedagogy, and more specifically one that is based on a synthesis of critical theory and psychoanalysis. By emphasising the intersubjective nature of learning and teaching and the role of emotions in this regard, the paper argues that a relationally centred approach takes seriously questions of trust, recognition and respect at the heart of the academic–student relationship, while also making space for doubt, confusion and relational anxiety.     

External peer review of assessment: an effective approach to verifying standards?

There is growing international concern to regulate and assure standards in higher education. External peer review of assessment, often called external examining, is a well-established approach to assuring standards. Australian higher education is one of several systems without a history of external examining for undergraduate programmes that is currently considering the approach. What can entrants to external examining at that level learn from the UK higher education system's long history of external examining? To that end, this paper reports on a mixed methods research project designed to investigate current practices in how academic standards are conceived, constructed and applied by external examiners and debates the implications of the findings for the development of external examining in other countries. The findings suggest that the potential of experienced peers in a subject discipline to provide the assurance of standards is limited. It concludes by presenting various possible enhancements that might be considered.     

Benchmarking academic standards in the UK

Abstract

The Dealing Report in the UK supported the use of benchmarking in higher education, taking as its stimulus the use of benchmarking in industrial and commercial contexts. The UK Government's concern regarding academic standards has raised the question of whether benchmarking could be applied to them.

This article reports on a pilot study of the benchmarking of academic standards in the UK, and demonstrates ‐ with reference to empirical data ‐ that benchmarking in this context needs to be approached differently from benchmarking in industrial/commercial milieux, since it requires a combination of finely‐drawn comparisons and professional judgements if valid conclusions are to be drawn. It is argued that the complexity which underpins academic standards is inimical to the production of statements about standards that will be applicable across the span of a diverse national system of higher education. The argument presented can be applied, mutatis mutandis, to systems of higher education beyond the UK.     

Absence of the academic from higher education policy

This article argues that the individual academic is all but absent from the assumptive worlds of policymakers in UK higher education. It is taken for granted in research on academic identity that those who work in higher education as teachers and researchers refer to themselves as, and indeed are referred to by others as, ‘academics’. Evidence is drawn from a study of policymakers in the UK to demonstrate that the word ‘academic’ is not a part of the lexicon of higher education policymaking. Moreover, the concept of the academic is cast into shade by an overwhelming emphasis on ‘the student experience’, and, from another direction, by a location of professional academic accountability at the level of the higher education institution rather than the individual. The article concludes with an exploration of what work this absence of the academic in policy does in disrupting the possibilities for engagement between the worlds of academia and policymaking and in perpetuating the discourses of marketisation and new management in higher education. It also suggests understanding the assumptive worlds of policymakers is a crucial counterbalance to a growing body of literature on academic responses to change, some of which has tended towards the self‐referential.     

The distinction between academic standards and quality: implications for transnational higher education

Although the conceptual distinction between academic standards and the quality of learning opportunities is fundamental to an understanding of the role of quality assurance in higher education, the distinction, and its implications, have not always been well understood in the case of transnational higher education. This paper explores both the source of academic standards and the criteria by which the quality of learning opportunities can be judged. It is argued that the distinction is of particular importance in the context of transnational education, because whilst judgements about quality may legitimately be susceptible to a degree of cultural influence, the same is not true of judgements about academic standards. It is suggested that a lack of attention to the logical distinction between standards and quality has hampered efforts by regulatory régimes around the world to develop coherent policies with respect to hosting transnational higher education provision.     

The modernisation of research evaluation: The case of the UK

The Research Assessment Exercise (RAE), first established by the UK University Grants Committee in 1985 has been an important instrument in the modernisation of higher education in the UK. It is a means of rationalising the stratification of universities and the concentration of research resources, and of maximising research output. At the same time, while its operation remains substantially under professional control, it has had profound implications for the academic profession. The article explores these through analysing the workings of the RAE and its consequences for higher education institutions, departments and individuals. It suggests that the RAE has triggered substantial changes in the management of the research function in universities and in the culture of university departments. It has disturbed the web of relationship between the individual academic, the discipline, the department and the institution. It has impacted on individual professional identities and concepts of research responsibilities.     

Reflexive professionalism: reclaiming the voice of authority in shaping the discourses of education policy

The nature and value of “professionalism” has long been contested by both producers and consumers of policy. Most recently, governments have rewritten and redefined professionalism as compliance with externally imposed “standards.” This has been achieved by silencing the voices of those who inhabit the professional field of education. This article uses Foucauldian archaeology to excavate the enunciative field of professionalism by digging through the academic and institutional (political) archive, and in doing so identifies two key policy documents for further analysis. The excavation shows that while the voices of (academic) authority speak of competing discourses emerging, with professional standards promulgated as the mechanism to enhance professionalism, an alternative regime of truth identifies the privileged use of (managerial) voices from outside the field of education to create a discourse of compliance. There has long been a mismatch between the voices of authority on discourses around professionalism from the academic archive and those that count in contemporary and emerging Australian educational policy. In this article, we counter this mismatch and argue that reflexive educators’ regimes of truth are worthy of attention and should be heard and amplified.     

Managing the Effective University

Universities face an almost certain future of relentless variation in a more austere climate. Changes in the environment — mass higher education, knowledge growth, reduced public funding, increased emphasis on employment skills, pressures for more accountability have been reflected in fundamental internal changes. One result has been a growing sense of disillusionment among academic staff. At the same time, standards of research and teaching have come under increasingly close examination, while inter‐university competition has never been greater. Evidence from several investigations points to the crucial role of academic leadership in maintaining morale, enhancing productivity, and helping staff to welcome momentous change. Tomorrow's effective universities will require academic managers whose leadership qualities resemble those of good teachers in higher education.     

The Activist Professional and the Reinstatement of Trust

Public sector reform in the field of education has been ongoing and relentless. Whether in the UK, Europe, the USA or Australasia, there has been an expectation that the education 'industry' can be managed in the same way as any other commercial enterprise with an emphasis upon forms of accountability which require less and less professional judgment on the part of practitioners. In this article we examine the growth of the 'audit society' and its consequences for professional practice in education. We indicate that there are two responses to bureaucratic surveillance: to act as an entrepreneurial professional or as an activist professional. We argue that the latter is achievable when trust is reinstated through the community of professional practice itself. We illustrate our case using issues surrounding the establishment of professional standards for teachers and we develop strategies for activist professionalism in education.     

划定高深知识的边界:高等教育哲学的使命——读布鲁贝克《高等教育哲学》

高等教育哲学的使命是对高深知识的规定。在高深知识的性质上,布鲁贝克认为,政治论高深知识与认识论高深知识既有其内在合理性又存在不足之处。在高深知识的传播对象上,精英教育和大众教育各有利弊。关于高深知识传播的方式,普通教育和专业教育都不能被相互取代。学者作为高深知识探究的主体,只遵守外在规范或只坚持内心信仰,只崇尚学术自由或只强调学术责任都有失偏颇。在划定高深知识边界的基础上,布鲁贝克重构高等教育哲学的大厦。布鲁贝克认为,高深知识是认识论高深知识与政治论高深知识的统一,精英和大众二者同是高深知识的传播对象。在传播方式上,布鲁贝克主张普通教育和专业教育二者融合。学者要既遵守外在规范又坚守内心信仰,在探究的方式上,学者要平衡学术自由和学术责任二者的关系。     

Lesjes van de nederlanders: Little lessons from the Dutch to promote educational quality

Using a multisite case study approach, this study explores quality assessment and accountability in Dutch university education. It describes their national system of quality assurance and the various models that are being successfully employed to implement it. It summarizes the range of apparent effects and influences that quality assurance has had on Dutch higher education. Finally, it invites comparison with American higher education to promote speculation about implications for policy and professional practice.     

Justice through higher education: Revisiting White Paper 3 of 1997

Interrogating the White Paper 3 of 1997 which upholds academic freedom, institutional autonomy and public accountability, I make the case for justice through higher education using public accountability. I argue that the higher education system in South Africa is capable of fulfilling such a role in the context of extreme injustices but not without a critical engagement of the extent and causes of these injustices and an understanding of their implications for academic curricula, practices and deeply embedded conceptions of knowledge. A redefinition of higher education institutions' public accountability in terms of responsibility to their ‘institutional locale’ or community (the populations whose needs they should be meeting) can be an effective ‘proactive tool’ with which higher education can redress social injustices. This requires an interrogation of the social, political and economic conditions of possibility that either inhibit or aid educational desire and attainment. An investigation of this nature entails a rigorous reappraisal of all three of the key principles within which higher education systems operate—academic freedom, institutional autonomy and public accountability—if they are to guard against the continued perpetuation of epistemic and social injustices.     

PROFESSIONALISM, PROFESSIONALITY AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF EDUCATION PROFESSIONALS

ABSTRACT:  What purpose is served by renovation or redesign of professionalism, and how successful a process is it likely to be? This article addresses these questions by examining the effectiveness as a professional development mechanism of the imposition of changes to policy and/or practice that require modification or renovation of professionalism. The 'new' professionalisms purported to have been fashioned over the last two or three decades across the spectrum of UK education sectors and contexts have been the subject of extensive analysis, and this article avoids going over old ground and revisiting issues that have already been much debated. Nevertheless, the example of UK government education policy during this period is used as a basis for considering the pitfalls associated with mechanisms for modifying professionalism through a reform and standards agenda. The article's analysis incorporates re-definition and examination of the concept and substance of professionalism and offers new perspectives in the form of three distinct conceptions: demanded, prescribed and enacted professionalism. Exploring the existentialist status of 'new' or 'modified' professionalisms and the relationship between professionality, professional culture and professionalism, it examines how professionalism may be interpreted and utilised for the development of education professionals.     

Academic standards and regulatory frameworks: necessary compromises?

Assessment regulations in higher education, which are important for assuring threshold academic standards, reflect institutional cultures and histories, and are shaped by pragmatic concerns about quality indicators such as retention and progression rates, as well as principles of equity. This paper articulates some of the tensions that confront higher education institutions in the development and revision of regulatory frameworks, and describes a survey of assessment regulations from a sample of UK higher education institutions for the first year of undergraduate study. The survey identifies key variations in regulatory policy and practice that challenge assumptions about comparability of academic standards between higher education institutions. These findings imply that student success and progression may not be a simple reflection of academic attainment, and raise questions about notions of equity. It is intended that this research will contribute to informed discussion in the sector about academic standards and the regulatory frameworks underpinning first-year assessment policy and practice, and thus potentially lead to more transparent and consistent practice.