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Quality and Equality in British Ph.D. Assessment

journal contribution
posted on 2023-06-08, 08:15 authored by Louise Morley, Diana Leonard, Miriam David
This paper asks whether doctoral assessment has escaped the regulation of quality assurance procedures. Raising questions about the affective and micropolitical dimensions of an oral examination conducted in private, it explores how current concerns about quality assurance, standards, benchmarks and performance indicators in higher education apply to the assessment of doctoral/research degrees in Britain, and in particular to the viva voce examination. Successful PhD completion is a key performance indicator for universities and an important basis for the accreditation of their staff. Despite the rise of new managerialism, a general preoccupation with calculable standards and outcomes and an emphasis on student entitlements, transparency of decision making and information for ¿consumers¿, there still seems to be considerable variation, and some mystification, in how doctoral assessment is conducted and experienced. The massification of doctoral studies and the doubling in number of institutions awarding their own doctorates, post-1992, are both likely to increase product variety still further.

History

Publication status

  • Published

Journal

Quality Assurance in Education

ISSN

0968-4883

Issue

2

Volume

11

Page range

64-72

Pages

8.0

Department affiliated with

  • Education Publications

Notes

This article won the 2004 Literati Award for Excellence

Full text available

  • No

Peer reviewed?

  • Yes

Legacy Posted Date

2012-02-06

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