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

Ashwin, Paul William Hamilton (2016) Why Would Going to University Change Anyone? : The Challenges of Capturing the Transformative Power of Higher Education in Comparisons of Quality. Educational Studies Moscow, 2016 (1). pp. 21-34. ISSN 1814-9545

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Abstract

In 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.