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Reservations about the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development¡¯s attempts to measure what students learn at different universities around the world have to come from two directions (¡°Bid to judge learning blocked by ¡®oligopoly¡¯¡±, News, 6 August).

First, what is being measured and how? We already know that the research excellence framework in the UK is distorting research behaviour to the detriment of good long-term research, so a teaching equivalent is bound to have a similar effect. Second, the statement by Hamish Coates reflects a very Anglo-Saxon view of higher education, in which fees are paid for universities and there is a focus on parents wanting to know about the cost of their children¡¯s education and whether it is worth it. Perhaps we should begin by considering the purpose of a university within society as a whole and thus assess how higher education contributes in a multiplicity of ways rather than start another narrowly focused measuring exercise.

Finally, any such exercise will inevitably have a homogenising effect on teaching content and methods around the world as institutions battle it out to climb (or avoid falling) in any such league tables.

Christopher Brewster
Via timeshighereducation.co.uk