Written by Dr Tim Pitman for The Conversation
Quality in education is something that seems so obvious – until you try to define it. This week the new Minister for Tertiary Education, Skills, Science and Research Chris Bowen said that “the quality of a course should be measured by the capabilities that students have acquired by the time they complete their course, not the capabilities they have when they begin.” He went on to defend the government’s aim to get more and more people from disadvantaged backgrounds going to university, rejecting claims that uncapped enrolments would adversely affect the quality of a university education. The minister is correct on this score but it is also a myth to say that educational quality can be measured reliably.
