By Paul Temple

Where did the obsession with comparisons in education come from? In his 1997 book The Audit Society, Michael Power identifies the causes of what he calls “the audit explosion” and the related demands for public-sector performance measurement in the 1980s and 1990s. The shock-wave of this explosion ripples on.

But one recent case, the OECD’s AHELO (Assessment of Higher Education Learning Outcomes) project, shows there may be limits to the comparison industry’s growth. This project seems to have stalled following concerns about its proposed methodology and likely costs: England said last year it wouldn’t take part, and American and Canadian universities have also said no. The OECD’s Institutional Management in Higher Education (IMHE) programme recommended in 2012 that the project be halted after seeing the results of a large-scale feasibility study. But the OECD’s Director of Education and Skills, Andreas Schleicher, is apparently undeterred, if his HEPI lecture (Value-Added: How do you measure whether universities are delivering for their students? HEPI 2015 Annual Lecture. HEPI Report 82) last December is anything to go by.

Schleicher thinks that his plans are being blocked by Continue reading →