Rights statement: This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis Group in European Journal of Higher Education on 07/10/2015, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/21568235.2015.1087869
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Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Comment/debate › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Comment/debate › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Missionary zeal
T2 - some problems with the rhetoric, vision and approach of the AHELO project
AU - Ashwin, Paul
N1 - This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis Group in European Journal of Higher Education on 07/10/2015, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/21568235.2015.1087869
PY - 2015
Y1 - 2015
N2 - The OECD's Assessment of Higher Education Learning Outcomes (AHELO) project is an important contribution to discussions of how to define and measure the quality of global higher education. There is a genuine need for quality measures that can help to ensure students have equitable access to high-quality higher education wherever they study but do not reinforce existing institutional hierarchies that are simply based on historical reputation. However, I identify three problems with the approach that has been taken to AHELO which mean that even if it succeeded in its own terms, it would not meet this need. I conclude by arguing that rather than pursuing the illusion of a simple and robust measure of the comparative quality of learning outcomes globally, we should focus on the more everyday task of engaging stakeholders internationally in discussions about the development of high-quality undergraduate higher education
AB - The OECD's Assessment of Higher Education Learning Outcomes (AHELO) project is an important contribution to discussions of how to define and measure the quality of global higher education. There is a genuine need for quality measures that can help to ensure students have equitable access to high-quality higher education wherever they study but do not reinforce existing institutional hierarchies that are simply based on historical reputation. However, I identify three problems with the approach that has been taken to AHELO which mean that even if it succeeded in its own terms, it would not meet this need. I conclude by arguing that rather than pursuing the illusion of a simple and robust measure of the comparative quality of learning outcomes globally, we should focus on the more everyday task of engaging stakeholders internationally in discussions about the development of high-quality undergraduate higher education
KW - AHELO
KW - learning outcomes
KW - quality
KW - quality measures
U2 - 10.1080/21568235.2015.1087869
DO - 10.1080/21568235.2015.1087869
M3 - Comment/debate
VL - 5
SP - 437
EP - 444
JO - European Journal of Higher Education
JF - European Journal of Higher Education
SN - 2156-8235
IS - 4
ER -