Madam, - I write to correct several factual errors in the article entitled "The Playing Field Must be Levelled" by John O'Keeffe, Head of the Law School at Portobello College (Working in Education supplement, April 4th), and to comment on Mr O'Keeffe's perception of what constitutes good practice in reviewing the quality of work in universities.
Mr O'Keeffe notes that the UK Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) conducts reviews of teaching and learning in each subject area and that this is a "rigorous assessment" carried out in all universities, be they the universities of London or Cambridge. His choice of examples is unfortunate.
The UK system was repudiated by the London School of Economics in 2001 (Times Higher Education Supplement, March 23rd, 2001) and Cambridge has been one of the most vociferous campaigners against excessive external scrutiny and has twice refused to be audited by the QAA (THES, March 21st, 2003). Indeed, it has not had a quality audit in 11 years.
There is no need here to rehearse the long and acrimonious debate in the UK concerning the value of their review system. Suffice it to say that as a result of a variety of pressures the QAA has recently changed the system so admired by Mr O'Keeffe in favour of a system with a "light touch" which concentrates on institutional reviews. Cambridge will be one of the first universities to be audited under the light-touch system.
Mr O'Keeffe claims that "faculties in universities in the Republic have been spared rigorous academic scrutiny over the years and whilst internal assessments are now being conducted by most they are, by definition, flawed".
This will come as news to my colleagues in about 120 academic departments, service departments and faculties in all seven universities reviewed over the past eight years by external experts from 94 universities in 13 countries.
Detailed information on our review procedures, as well as review group reports, can be downloaded from the Irish Universities Quality Board website www.iuqb.ie. Of course these external reviews follow a painstaking internal self-assessment of all the work of the unit, not just teaching and learning.
The Quality review procedures of Irish universities are similar to those used in many private universities in the US, institutions referred to with approbation by Mr O'Keeffe. Finally I wish to point out that the quality procedures being applied in Irish universities are based directly on the Universities Act (1997) and require not only internal assessment and review by external experts, but also the involvement of students, both past and present, and employers, in the review process.
Furthermore, our procedures are subject to statutory review by the Higher Education Authority and such a review is being conducted this year. - Yours, etc.,
DON McQUILLAN, Chief Executive, Irish Universities Quality Board, Lower Mount Street, Dublin 2.