Council For National Academic Awards Research Articles

Developing a contemporary conceptualization for consumer sciences in higher education in the UK

AbstractConsumer sciences and consumer studies as a recent interdisciplinary degree area in higher education in the UK has had limited published research either on the subject heritage or its disciplinary identity. Since the major subject review was undertaken by the Council for National Academic Awards 17 years ago, the research investigation aimed to study how consumer studies and home economics had moved to consumer sciences and consumer studies. The research has therefore involved a survey over a 15‐year period of development and changes of institutions and degrees and a content analysis of programme outlines and national benchmarking to reveal changing trends in how the subject has been conceptualized. The comparison used data from 1992, 1999, 2003 and 2007 to map degree programme and institutional changes. External and internal political and economic factors influenced subject growth, decline and development. It was found that the number of degree programme titles had remained relatively stable, with still a balance between BA and BSc degrees but that this disguised many changes in institutions and degree titles.The content analysis of trends was undertaken, comparing 1992, 1999, 2003 and 2007. Subject benchmarking statements introduced in 2002, currently being revised in 2009, were compared with programme content themes in 2003 and 2007. The content analysis showed that the overall approach or principles, areas of study, context, perspectives and processes for degree programmes at the undergraduate level had developed noticeably over the last 15 years and had been clarified by benchmarking guidelines. Themes of behavioural change, consumer ethics, consumer services, skills and education, sustainability and well‐being had developed with applied contexts depending on programme orientation.A model has been proposed to illustrate the current conceptualization of the subject in the UK at degree level, and Chenoweth's definition of consumer sciences and consumer studies has been redefined for the UK. It is recommended that there should be more theoretical reflection on the interpretation and development of the subject.

Diploma to degree 1976 to 1993

The debate on degree education for radiographers began in earnest in the mid-1970s. Initially the debate hinged around whether a degree education was necessary for radiographers. One argument was that it was felt that a degree would separate academic and clinical training but eventually when degrees were introduced practical skills were assessed formally for the first time; something that had not been achieved with the Diploma of the College of Radiographers (DCR).The DCR itself became a barrier to degree education as the College of Radiographers (CoR) insisted that it was the only qualification recognised for state registration and as such would have to remain embedded as a distinct qualification within a degree.A major breakthrough came when the Council for National Academic Awards (CNAA) recognised the DCR at the same level as an ordinary degree. Around the same time the CoR published its Degree Rationale which announced a change in policy by not insisting that the DCR was sacrosanct.Developments followed rapidly and the first honours degree in radiography was validated in 1989 despite opposition from scientific officers at the Department of Health. Degrees were approved for state registration and radiography became a graduate profession by 1993 following years of debate and after overcoming opposition from both within and external to the profession.

Higher technological education in England: the crucial quarter century

The crucial quarter century is from 1945 to the designation of the polytechnics at the end of the 1960s. Technology after the Second World War was ‘in the news’, and recommendations for higher technological education in and outside the universities came from individuals, organisations, governments and reports in the 1950s. A White Paper on technical education in 1956 further promoted ‘advanced work’ in technical colleges, and the Colleges of Advanced Technology (CATs) and a National Council for Technological Awards (NCTA) were created. A major feature of these developments (and later of the polytechnics) was the expansion of sandwich courses. The CATs became universities following the Robbins Report of 1963 and the NCTA was replaced by the Council for National Academic Awards. This paper addresses these and other developments and traditions and the controversies surrounding them. It underlines the relative absence of research on higher technological curricula in universities and other higher education.

Power, Control and Status in Physical Education

For most of the twentieth century physical education was a low status subject in Scottish secondary schools. Opportunities for enhanced status arose from two separate systems of national courses and examinations. The first conferred Degree status on graduates of the two specialist colleges of physical education. The other incorporated physical education into a new national structure of Standard Grade and Higher Grade examinations. The latter served to amalgamate two conceptions of the nature and purpose of physical education which had divided the profession along gender lines. Control of the content of college Degree courses passed to the Council for National Academic Awards and the General Teaching Council. They were able to impose value judgements about academic work, teaching practice and practical performance which ran counter to the whole culture of physical education. In a political judgement, the Secretary of State terminated training at one specialist college and merged the other with a larger institution.

RECOGNITION: THE ROLE OF QUALITY ASSESSMENT AGENCIES

Approaches to the recognition of programmes and qualifications should focus on learning, not on comparisons of curriculum content, duration of studies, or the human and physical resources devoted to teaching. A survey of quality assessment agencies in the Europe Region reveals their similarities and differences and how they might contribute to recognition. As a case study, the approach of the Council for National Academic Awards of the United Kingdom for obtaining recognition of the degrees of polytechnics is described. Its work depended on its being reactive, not prescriptive, on transparency, and on developing peer networks. Some threshold indicators for recognition are proposed.

CAPAM: an international programme for continuing professional podiatric development

In 1989 the first students enrolled on a 2-year, part-time, honours degree in the Department of Podiatry, University of Brighton. This was the outcome of one of six projects initiated and funded by the Council for National Academic Awards, and known as credit accumulation for professions allied to medicine (CAPAM). The features of this programme of study are discussed, including open learning, novel study patterns and student support. The first 6 years are evaluated and future developments considered.

Siamese Twins? Performance indicators in the service of accountability and enhancement

Abstract This paper draws on sources from a number of countries in an examination of developments in the use of performance indicators. Conceptual foundations for the use of indicators are discussed with particular reference to the tension between the purposes of accountability (to which the literature shows the greater attention has been given) and enhancement. Drawing on the outcomes of a project sponsored by the former Council for National Academic Awards, a case is argued for the use of indicators designed to support the enhancement of quality in higher education, which may need to be ‘softer’ than the statistical measures (themselves not perfectly ‘hard’) used for the purposes of accountability.

A Sharp Intake of Breath: Inspirations in Education — Some of the Issues

It is reputed that in the early 1980s a Cabinet Minister broke down in tears, tearing his hair out when degree courses for physiotherapists were sanctioned. It is probably an apocryphal story nevertheless, the excitement and expectation engendered by the validation and recognition of the first degree courses in physiotherapy at the Polytechnics of Ulster and East London and Queen’s College, Glasgow were to be short lived. The Government placed an embargo on the approval of any more four-year undergraduate courses in physiotherapy for economic reasons, it said. The Council for National Academic Awards (CNAA), the awarding body of the relatively, new polytechnics, would not approve threeyear honours degree courses in physiotherapy because of the large clinical practice component which was not given any academic credibility. This was tragic news for the physiotherapy educators a t the Polytechnics of Coventry, Newcastle and Sheffield, which had received approval from the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy to develop their courses so that students could be examined internally at either Part I or, in the case of Sheffield at both Part I and Part 11. These examinations were monitored by senior CSP examiners. Modifications to the Part I1 examination of the Sheffiield course raised a number of issues for the professional and statutory bodies, not least of which related to the mechanism for approval.

Audiences for part‐time degree study

Abstract Part‐time forms of higher education have been given little attention in policy discussions during the last 20 years, but they have been steadily growing in importance. They are likely to become even more significant as the British higher education system attempts to move rapidly towards mass participation by the beginning of the next century. This paper draws together the findings of six selected recent surveys of part‐time first degree students: carried out by, at, or on behalf of the Council for National Academic Awards, four Scottish higher education institutions, the Open University, Birkbeck College, London, the then Polytechnic of North London, and Warwick University. From these sources, the information available on the nature and variety of part‐time degree students is summarized: covering their age, sex and other demographic characteristics, social background, previous educational experience and qualifications, motivation, employment and employers, location, expenditure, reactions to thei...

Articles and Publications

Articles and Publications by Mary Ellen Chijioke and Claire B. Shetter A full review will follow in the next issue, but readers will want to know of the publication of The Lamb's War: Quaker Essays to Honor Hugh Barbour, a festschrift edited by Michael L. Birkel and John W. Newman (Richmond, Ind.: Earlham College Press, 1992). The 1988 and 1990 sessions of the Conference of Quaker Historians and Archivists produced an exchange between Howard Beeth and several young American historians writing on Quaker topics. The Southern Friend has produced a special issue (vol. 13 no. 2: 1991) with the full exchange, beginning with a reprint of Beeth's 1988 paper, "Historiographical Developments in Early North American Quaker Studies" (pp. 1-17), previously published in The Southern Friend 11.2 (Autumn 1989): 17-32; noted in our vol. 19 no. 1 (Spring 1990). This is followed by the 1990 replies: Steven Jay White, "Quaker Historiography Revisited: Another Look at Early American Quaker Studies" (pp. 18-33); Jean R. Soderlund, "Response to 'Historiographical Developments in Early North American Quaker Studies' " (pp. 34-39); and Jonathan Chu, "Recent Developments in Early North American Quaker Historiography: A Reply" (pp. 40-54). The debate closes with Beeth's "Methodology, Perspective, and Utility in Early North American Quaker Studies: A Reply" (pp. 55-66). Religious thought during the first period of Quakerism appears largely in passing in recent publications. In her Ph.D. dissertation, "Innovation and Tradition: Towards an Institutional Theory of Religion" (Open University (U.K.), 1990), Claire Disbrey includes a case study of George Fox as part of her discussion of theories that stress the priority of experience. D. A. Walker's dissertation, "Puritanism and Natural Theology after the Restoration of 1660" (Ph.D., Council for National Academic Awards (U.K.), 1989), is focused on the epistemology underlying the conviction that human beings possess a natural knowledge of God. Walker's emphasis is on the Churches of England and Scotland, but he does make a broad examination of some smaller sects, including Quakers. Even more tangential is Joyce Irwin's article on "Anna Maria van Schurman and Antoinette Bourignon: Contrasting Examples of Seventeenth-Century Pietism" (Church History 60.3 (1991): 301-315). Neither was Quaker, but both early Friends and later scholars have remarked on the affinities between seventeenth-century Quakers and the continental pietists. A more direct comparison is undertaken in E. Glenn Hinson's article "Baptist and Quaker Spirituality" in Christian Spirituality: Post Reformation and Modern, ed. by L. Dupre and D. E. Saliers (New York, Crossroads, 1989), pp. 324-338. Hinson's evaluation is made from an ecumenical Christian point of view. In American colonial history, Thomas J. Sugrue challenges the perception that Quaker social policy was the major inhibitor of violent conflict between Native Americans and white settlers in the first decades of Quaker Pennsylvania. In his article "The Peopling and Depeopling of Early Pennsylvania: Indians and Colonists , 1680-1720" (Pennsylvania Magazine ofHistory and Biography 116.1 (1992): 3-31), he concludes that, despite the lack of military conflict, Pennsylvania showed remarkable similarity to other colonies in the manner in which the landscape 116Quaker History was reshaped, including the disappearance of Native Americans due to disease, alcohol, and rapid colonial settlement. The especially fast pace of European settlement in Pennsylvania only advanced the point at which the remaining Native Americans moved west to escape the spiritual and economic calamity which had overtaken them. Christopher Densmore describes "The Samuel Bownas Case; Religious Toleration and the Independence of Juries in Colonial New York, 1703-1704" (Long Island Historical Journal 2.2 (1990): 177-188). In a situation remarkably similar to Penn's trial in England, English and American liberties were extended by the courage of a jury that refused to convict despite official pressure to do so. While many scholars have studied Quaker politics in early Pennsylvania, Michael Batinski turns his attention to "the other Quaker colony" in his article, "Quakers in the New Jersey Assembly, 1738-1775: A Roll-Call Analysis" (The Historian 54.1 (1991): 65-78). For the post-colonial period, Timothy L. Smith includes Quakers in his study of "The Ohio Valley: Testing Ground for America's...

A Higher Education: The Council for National Academic Awards and British Higher Education, 1964-1989

Originally published in 1990, A Higher Education was commissioned by the Council for National Academic Awards to commemorate its silver jubilee. The book covers the history of a period of rapid expansion in higher education outside the universities, mirrored in the growth and development of the CNAA. The Council was established with the role of awarding degree courses in polytechnics and colleges, and so its successes and strengths – as well as its problems and difficulties – reflect very closely the preoccupations and events of higher education since 1964. The book describes how the CNAA helped to broaden the range of degree courses beyond the traditional subjects, the way it maintained and enhanced standards in a swiftly changing academic world, and its part in widening access to higher education. The book draws on interviews as well as extensive records of the CNAA and some of its institutions.

Unification of Higher Education in the United Kingdom

By the time this article is published, legislation should be in place for higher education in the United Kingdom to undergo an organisational change without parallel in its history. The controversial 'binary' policy, which underpinned its development for the last quarter of a century, is to be abolished. No longer will international conferences be bedevilled by British academics disputing the legitimacy, supremacy or differentness of their sector's traditions. The polytechnics are to be able to award their own degrees and to use the title 'university'. There are to be new funding councils to allocate public funds in the unified system. The much respected Council for National Academic Awards, which awarded degrees to students in non-university institutions, is to be abolished. These changes are meant to implement specific government policy for higher

The use of credit and experiential learning in nurse education. Exciting opportunities for student and tutor alike

This paper considers and analyses the use of Credit Accumulation and Transfer Schemes (CATS) and Assessment of Prior Experiential Learning (APEL) in nurse education. The Council for National Academic Awards (CNAA) initiative in higher education for CATS has opened up many new prospects for post registered nurse education linking ‘Project 2000,’ colleges of nursing and higher education and allowing nurses to show the qualitative values of their education rather than a quantitative approach. APEL has opened up opportunities for a move away from the traditional patterns of prerequisites for nurse education and openings for direct entry to both basic nurse education and also post registered courses. The recent document on The Report of the Post-registration Education and Practice Project (PREPP) shows that the UKCC are moving rapidly towards a similar programme of study for nurses, midwives and health visitors in line with those undertaken by undergraduate polytechnic students.

Quality Assurance and Accountability in Higher Education

The issues, Professor Gareth Williams is there a need for a Higher Education inspectorate?, Pauline Perry the current role of the council for national academic awards, Richard Lewis Should the role of the CNAA be extended?, Sir Christopher Ball inspection of University departments of education, Professor Denis Lawton are external examiners an adequate guarantee of academic standards?, Professor Philip Reynolds conclusions, Carl P.J.Loder.

The Experience of Introducing Work‐Based Learning on an Arts Degree Course

1. This article is a revised version of a paper given at a conference on Assessing Work‐based Learning in Business Studies, Social Sciences and Humanities, held by the Council for National Academic Awards at the Polytechnic of Huddersfield, 11 June 1991.

The Future of Public Sector Academic Validation—key issues

Summary Since its creation in 1964 the Council for National Academic Awards (CNAA) has been responsible, both for the awarding of degrees in the public sector of higher education and for the validation of the courses leading to those degrees. The 1987 Government White Paper, ‘Higher Education: Meeting the Challenge’ (DES, 1987) marked the first step towards the creation of a new system of accreditation of institutions and a shift in emphasis from external to internal validation. This paper fills in the background to this change of direction before discussing various issues which arise out of it such as the problems of defining academic quality, public accountability, the appropriate role of the Government in education and what the future holds for the CNAA and education as a whole in the age of accreditation which is about to dawn.

Who defines quality in higher education? Reflections on the role of professional power in determining conceptions of quality in English higher education

In recent years British higher education has come under considerable financial and political pressure which has led increasingly to the use of various indicators for the measurement of quality. Although the use of such measures has often been seen as leading to encroachments on academic autonomy, the paper argues - drawing on concepts from the sociology of power and the professions - that such measures still, essentially, derive from, and reproduce unquestioningly, the tacit assumptions and professional self-interest of academics. This point is illustrated through a brief consideration of the most commonly-recommended performance indicators and by reference to the work of the Council for National Academic Awards in the review and validation of courses. Attention is also given to the stimulation of market forces as a means of quality control. The paper concludes with a plea for greater pluralism within British higher education and argues that several factors make this more likely. These include demographic change, the increasing involvement of industry and the emergence of diverse sources of funding for British HE including the Manpower Services Commission (now the Training Commission).

Accrediting Teacher Education: the work of CATE∗

Summary The Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education (CATE) was set up in 1984 to offer advice to the Secretary of State on the approval of courses of initial teacher training. Such accreditation must be distinguished from academic validation, which is the responsibility of universities and the Council for National Academic Awards (CNAA). Initial training courses must now satisfy published criteria as to qualifications for entry, length, balance of content, professional experience, and curriculum coverage. In particular, undergraduate courses must include at least two years of subject study at a level appropriate to higher education. Staff concerned with pedagogy are also required to have recent and successful experience of school teaching. The membership and procedures of the Council are described, and some of the issues that have arisen during its first two years of operation identified. ∗ © William Taylor, 1987

Changes in the training of teachers

The worldwide changes in the role of the teacher have obvious implications for their training, at both the pre-service and in-service levels. This article focuses first on the increase in the external control of training institutions, whether directly by governments or less directly through agencies which represent the views of the schools, the teaching profession and the employers. Examples are taken from the United Kingdom, with some analysis of the influence of the Council for National Academic Awards, the General Teaching Council for Scotland, and the Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education, but the issues dealt with, such as standards in training, are of general interest. The nature of the changes that are being made in training are then examined. Some relate to preparing teachers to meet the requirements of new curricula in the schools. Others are more concerned with the ways in which the training itself is becoming more integrated, more immediately relevant, and more professional. Two current needs are referred to: one for the trainers to help teachers relate more closely to the work of other agencies in society; and the other for them to take more account of the multicultural nature of the communities they serve. Finally, the author turns to what he regards as the greatest problem facing the training institutions today — the need for the development of their own staff. In the Third World countries the need is for trainers who are themselves better educated, more experienced and more skilled in helping teachers meet the challenges of nonformal education as well as those of the classroom. In the industrialized West restrictive personnel policies have left institutions with staff who are well qualified but middle-aged and personally inexperienced in facing the demands of a changed situation in the schools. The need for a staff development policy for institutions is urged.

The maintenance of quality in the public sector of UK higher education

Since the establishment of the UK binary system of higher education in the mid-1960s, the Council for National Academic Awards and the public sector institutions have together evolved a distinctive system for quality maintenance. The paper has three goals: to identify the key elements in the interactions between the CNAA and its associated institutions; to sketch the shifting balance of responsibilities from the CNAA to its associated institutions; and to make some observations on course review in the public sector compared with the university sector. Central to the UK public sector is the sense, within institutions, that the responsibility for the maintenance of quality is an essentially corporate enterprise. That corporate review process has, until the present time, been conducted through the framework of a national peer review system. However, the university and the public sectors are converging in their course review processes, with individual institutions assuming greater responsibility for the quality of their courses. These changes make uncertain the continuation of the national context for course review.