Changing systems of external examination
Date | 11 July 2008 |
Pages | 211-223 |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/09684880810886231 |
Published date | 11 July 2008 |
Author | Bjørn Stensaker,Ellen Brandt,Nils Henrik Solum |
Subject Matter | Education |
Changing systems of external
examination
Bjørn Stensaker, Ellen Brandt and Nils Henrik Solum
NIFU STEP – The Norwegian Institute for Studies in Innovation,
Research and Education, Oslo, Norway
Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to review and identify changes in systems of external
examinations in Denmark, the UK and Norway.
Design/methodology/approach – Comparative analysis of studies, reviews and documents
concerning the purpose and functioning of systems of external examination in three selected countries.
Findings – The paper concludes that systems of external examinations are being transformed from a
focus on student performance to a focus on programme quality and coherence in all three countries
studied.
Practical implications – The paper shows that older and newer forms of quality assurance are
becoming more integrated with the potential of creating quality assurance procedures addressing
teaching and learning issues more directly.
Originality/value – Much attention has been given to newer forms of external quality assurance
schemes. More traditional forms of quality assurance have, as a consequence, received less attention
although they may still provide benefits to higher education.
Keywords Quality assurance,Examinations, Higher education,Denmark, United Kingdom, Norway
Paper type Literature review
Introduction
Quality assurance has been one of the hottest topics in higher education in the last
20 years leading to the build-up of national external systems for evaluating teaching
and learning. Hence, in Europe new forms of external subject assessments, institutional
audits and various forms of accreditation have been developed as a response to
demands of improved accountability, better efficiency and improved effectiveness of
national higher education system (Brennan and Shah, 2000; Schwarz and
Westerheijden, 2004).
In addition to externally initiated systems, more and more countries are also
requesting higher education institutions to develop internal systems for quality
assurance including demands that such systems should secure the core processes in
higher education – teaching and learning. Even though available evidence does not
suggest that such systems have had a dramatic impact concerning the quality of
teaching and learning (Stensaker, 2003), this has not prevented the interes t in developing
new forms of quality assurance as can be shown with the recent tendency for developing
accreditation systems in Europe (Stensaker and Harvey, 2006).
Private actors, such as newspapers and more commercially based ranking sys tems
are also increasingly playing an important part of the picture, resulting in a
tremendous growth in the amount of information about the performance, effectiv eness
and quality of higher education.
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
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Systems
of external
examination
211
Received 3 January 2008
Revised March 2008
Accepted March 2008
Quality Assurance in Education
Vol. 16 No. 3, 2008
pp. 211-223
qEmerald Group Publishing Limited
0968-4883
DOI 10.1108/09684880810886231
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