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Higher Education Consumer comparisons mooted for university courses

PLANS announced today to help students make consumer-style course comparisons have been lambasted as “the marketisation of higher education.”

Under the government’s proposed rating system, university subjects will be given an overall gold, silver or bronze award for prospective students to view publicly.

Awards will detail areas such as their chances of finding work after taking a course, possible earnings and dropout rates.

The government is billing the system as a way of providing potential undergraduates with more information in order to compare courses and universities, as well as “exposing poor-quality teaching.”

The move is the next phase of the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF), which came under criticism from a number of top universities when the first ratings of the university-level awards were published last June.

Many leading institutions failed to achieve the highest award.

Concerns are being raised that the system does not fully measure quality and potential students need a clear guidance about what the results mean and how they should be used.

Ana Oppenheim of National Campaign Against Fees & Cuts said: “TEF has nothing to do with the quality of teaching and everything to do with the marketisation of higher education.

“They are forcing universities to prioritise arbitrary metrics over the production of knowledge and the welfare of students and staff.

“It is already leading to job losses and will further exacerbate problems like casualisation.

“Education can only be improved through democratising universities, taking control away from unaccountable managers and putting it in the hands of students, workers and the communities that universities serve.”

The proposal has been put out for consultation and, if introduced, the first ratings will be published online in 2020.

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