QAA Subject Benchmarking

What do we need to know? The creation of subject benchmarking statements facilitated by the Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) has the potential to take us to a new level of understanding about the types of student learning we are trying to promote and assess in higher education. This is the first time that any national system has tried to systematically codify the types of learning that are valued in discipline-based study at undergraduate level. It will provide a working vocabulary for teaching and learning that can be used across the whole education system. While we may criticise the detail and some of the results, we must recognise this as a major achievement and a unique selling point in the global marketplace. As far as we can judge the statements have been well received by subject communities so all we have to do now is make effective use of the information! Unfortunately, knowledge about use is very limited because the policy making process did not simultaneously grow understanding of how the information could be used by practitioners. The Learning and Teaching Support Network (LTSN) was established to support the development and use of knowledge relating to all aspects of teaching and learning. Subject benchmarking was chosen by the LTSN Generic Centre as a focus for knowledge development because of its potential impact on teaching and learning. The papers in this volume and a series of practitioner accounts hosted by some LTSN subject centreWebsites are the products of this work. The idea of benchmarking as an aid to the regulation of academic standards grew out of the research and development work undertaken as part of the Higher Education Quality Council’s graduate standards project (HEQC, 1997). A central thrust of this major research and development project was to understand the meaning of academic standards in the context of a diverse mass HE system. Those working on this project recognised that academic standards are influenced by the many cultures, traditions and conceptions of education within different institutions and subject communities. Institutional cultures influence the nature of the learning opportunities provided, e.g. About the Guest Editor Norman Jackson BSc, PhD is a Senior Research Fellow in the School of Educational Studies at the University of Surrey. He is also Senior Professional Advisor in the Learning and Teaching Support Network Generic Centre. Prior to joining the LTSN he held Assistant Director posts in the Development Directorate of the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education, where he was responsible for developing policy on programme specifications and progress files. He was a member of the Graduate Standards Project team when he was an Assistant Director with the Quality Enhancement Group of the Higher Education Quality Council. He has authored over 40 publications in the field of education including a book on benchmarking. He has edited a special issue of QAEon programme specifications and