‘You can see the quality in front of your eyes’: grounding academic standards between rationality and interpretation

This article considers the failure of theory to provide a workable model for academic standards in use. Examining the contrast between theoretical perspectives, it argues that there are four dimensions for which the academy has failed to provide an adequate theoretical account of standards: documented or tacit knowledge of standards; norm or criterion referenced grading; analytical or holistic judgement processes; and broad or local consensus on standards. It concludes that whilst a techno-rational perspective poorly represents the actual practice of standards in use, alternative, interpretivist accounts do not satisfy demands for reliability, transparency and fairness. It concludes by outlining an alternative framework for safeguarding standards: systematising a range of processes for learning about and safeguarding standards, particularly for new staff; reviewing the role and potential of documented standards; building staff awareness and assessment literacy; and establishing trust in standards by students and other stakeholders

External examining: fit for purpose?

In a context of international concern about academic standards, the practice of external examining is widely admired for its role in defending standards. Yet a contradiction exists between this faith in examining and continuing concerns about standards. This article argues that external examining rests on assumptions about standards which are significantly open to challenge. Six assumptions relating to the conceptual context, the operation and the nature of examiners themselves are analysed drawing on a review of the available evidence. The analysis challenges the notion of a consensus on standards and the potential to vest in individuals the ability to represent that consensus when judging the comparability of academic standards in a stable and appropriate way. The issues raised have relevance to the UK and to other national systems using external examiners or seeking to guarantee academic standards by, in some cases, adopting quality assurance approaches developed in the UK

Editorial: Practitioner Research in Higher Education, 1 (1)

Welcome to Practitioner Research in Higher Education. The aim of the publication is to disseminate and debate practitioner research and evaluation in higher education. In the first paper Bloxham, Cerevkova and Waddelove describe and critically evaluate the development of an embedded personal development planning (PDP) process within a first year undergraduate module in Law. This useful case study demonstrates the benefits of fully integrating PDP within a taught module. It also highlights the need to develop understanding of reflective writing amongst staff and students and shows how modifying the use of their virtual learning environment is moving the programme towards an eportfolio approach

Understanding the rules of the game: marking peer assessment as a medium for developing students' conceptions of assessment

Students need to understand assessment processes in order to succeed in higher education. However, recent research has identified how difficult it is for students to become absorbed into the assessment culture of their disciplines, with a recognition that providing written criteria and grade descriptors is not enough to make this tacit ‘knowledge’ transparent to novice students. This paper reports on an experiment where sports studies students used assessment criteria to mark their peers work coupled with an assessment of their peer marking and feedback comments. The latter was included to encourage students to engage with the peer assessment in some depth. Analysis of the data indicates considerable benefits for the students in terms of use of criteria, awareness of their achievements and ability to understand assessment feedback

Asset Prices, Credit Growth, Monetary and Other Policies: An Australian Case Study

The long-running debate about the role of monetary policy in responding to rising asset prices has received renewed attention in the wake of the global financial crisis.This paper contributes to this debate by describing the Australian experience of a cycle in house prices and credit from 2002 to 2004, and discussing the role played by various policies during this episode. In particular, it focuses on the efforts by the Reserve Bank of Australia to draw attention to the risks associated with large, ongoing increases in housing prices and household borrowing.asset prices; credit growth; lending standards; monetary policy; regulatory policy

Housing Turnover and First-home Buyers

While housing turnover varies over time, on average, around 6 per cent of the housing stock, or around 500 000 dwellings, change ownership each year. In 2009, first-home buyers accounted for an unusually large share of this turnover, although this share has since declined. As first-home buyers make greater use of mortgages to fund purchases than do repeat buyers, this shift in the composition of turnover helps to explain the recent divergence in movements in housing prices and loan approvals.housing market; housing turnover; first-home buyers

The effect of source of forage and level on feed intake and diet digestibility in redbros

Honorable mention in the DenmanIn recent years there has been increased consumer demand for “free range” or “pasture reared” poultry. A popular strain used for pasture rearing is called a “RedBro” and this strain was used in Experiment 1 and both the RedBro and commercial broilers were compared in Experiment 2. There is a perception that pasture can provide a significant proportion of the daily dietary needs of poultry but there is little published literature on how forage type and level will influence feed intake or forage utilization. The objective of the current study, therefore, was to determine how different forage sources and levels would influence feed intake and forage digestibility. The forage sources were dried ground alfalfa leaves, dried ground orchard grass hay, and dry ground alfalfa from bales. The four levels of dietary inclusion were 0% (basal corn/soy diet) or the basal supplemented with 5%, 10%, or 15% of each forage source. There was increased feed intake with increasing levels of forage inclusion. Excreta neutral detergent fiber (NDF) and acid detergent fiber (ADF) concentrations increased with increasing forage intake and a corresponding decrease in total tract diet digestibility.No embarg

Broadening the Scope and Increasing the Usefulness of Learning Analytics: The Case for Assessment Analytics

This paper argues that the role that assessment could play within a learning analytics strategy is both significant and, as yet, underdeveloped and underexplored. It proposes that assessment analytics has the potential to make a valuable contribution to the field of learning and academic analytics by both broadening its scope and increasing its usefulness. In doing so it considers issues of operationalization and then moves on to define what we might understand as assessment analytics

Michael Cox and Doug Stokes, eds. US Foreign Policy

Michael Cox and Doug Stokes, eds. US Foreign Policy, 2nd Edition Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012. 512pp. ISBN: 9780199585816. John Bloxham University of Nottingham Many readers of this review will already be familiar with the first edition of this work, which is a staple of university libraries and undergraduate reading lists. For that reason, this review will provide only a brief summary of the overall text, discussing those chapters considered especially useful or problematic, before ..