Academic Standards in Higher Education

“Efforts to demonstrate academic standards across universities amidst concerns about grade inflation often clash with attempts to use meaningful assessment aligned with learning outcomes. This book fills an important gap in the literature on this topic. It clearly outlines the issues and evaluates current practices such as the use of external examiners. But its greatest strength is detailing a range of strategies for improving existing methods, grounding formal descriptors of achievement, and developing consistency in assessment judgements within and across institutions. I’d highly recommend it, especially to those who think they don’t have a problem with academic standards.” Sue Bloxham, Professor Emerita in Academic Practice, University of Cumbria, UK. “Efforts to demonstrate academic standards across universities amidst concerns about grade inflation often clash with attempts to use meaningful assessment aligned with learning outcomes. This book fills an important gap in the literature on this topic. It clearly outlines the issues and evaluates current practices such as the use of external examiners. But its greatest strength is detailing a range of strategies for improving existing methods, grounding formal descriptors of achievement, and developing consistency in assessment judgements within and across institutions. I’d highly recommend it, especially to those who think they don’t have a problem with academic standards.” Sue Bloxham, Professor Emerita in Academic Practice, University of Cumbria, UK.