Understanding Higher Education: An Introduction for Parents, Staff, Employers and Students

Pamela J. Weaver (Assistant Director, Centre for Access and Lifelong Learning, University of Lincolnshire and Humberside)

Quality Assurance in Education

ISSN: 0968-4883

Article publication date: 1 September 2000

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Keywords

Citation

Weaver, P.J. (2000), "Understanding Higher Education: An Introduction for Parents, Staff, Employers and Students", Quality Assurance in Education, Vol. 8 No. 3, pp. 152-155. https://doi.org/10.1108/qae.2000.8.3.152.2

Publisher

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Emerald Group Publishing Limited


The publication of this book comes at a most opportune time as education is so prominent on the Government’s policy‐making agenda. The book is written in a direct, no‐nonsense style and offers a straightforward analysis of the issues relating to higher education, demystifying the jargon and addressing some common misconceptions about universities, students and academics.

The authors state that the book is for “people who have not experienced higher education and who now need to know about it”, but with its clarity of style and structure there is much of value to practitioners in higher education (HE). There are, for example, useful chapters on the development of our higher education system, in all its sometimes tortuous phases, on the principles of academic freedom and on the finance and governance of HE institutions. The section on accountability examines the systems of quality assessment at national, institutional and individual levels. While recognising the need for such mechanisms to ensure stakeholder interests are satisfied, the authors warn of the dangers of an excess in bureaucracy stifling the very quality that is demanded of academic institutions.

First and foremost, though the book offers the potential student and his or her family appropriate information on which to base decisions about entry into HE, it is not a handbook on “how to apply”, nor is it disguised recruitment propaganda. It puts forward the costs and benefits of studying in HE in economic, personal and social terms. The system of student loans and tuition fees is clearly explained, with anomalies included. There are chapters on the types of learning methods the student can expect to encounter, the range of assessment methods and on research and project planning. The admissions process is described, together with the various models of decision making on admissions within universities, which may well be enlightening to careers advisers and teachers. The authors rightly draw attention to the differing characteristics of institutions in terms of the profile of the student population; for example, the mix of part‐time and full‐time students, and the proportion of overseas students, together with a consideration of the centralised system of admissions. The personal, even perhaps eccentric, reasons a student may have for choosing to study in a particular location are looked at. The suggestion that the movements of famous footballers may have a bearing on this gives a whole new dimension to the concept of Credit Accumulation and Transfer!

This book is the insider’s view on HE made accessible to the lay person. On the whole the authors avoid value judgements and leave readers to draw their own conclusions and make decisions from the statistical data presented. As one might expect from the background of the authors, the book is not entirely free of personal opinion. There is the occasional sideswipe at New Labour’s policy on tuition fees, the pressure on academic staff caused by increasing workloads, the feeling of loss of control through more centralised decision making, and the shortcomings of assessment systems. The book is, however, to be commended for the honesty of its approach and its relevance to the real issues, which influence the individual’s decision making.

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