Five papers address issues in the current debate in the United Kingdom over standards in higher education, especially the "Graduate Standards" program of the Higher Education Quality Council. The first paper, an introduction by John Brennan, identifies key issues in the standards debate such as the role of mass education, the various types of standards (academic, service, program, graduate, process, outcomes, intrinsic, extrinsic, explicit, and implicit), standard setting versus assessing the standard of achievement, issues of explicitness in standards, the stigma of failure, and comparability in standards. The next paper, "Academic Standards and the External Examiner System," by Harold Silver and Ruth Williams, discusses whether the external examiner has a role in ensuring comparability of academic standards across the higher education sector and reports on a survey of educators in which most respondents indicated their belief that the present system is becoming unworkable. The third paper, "Standards and Employment," by Malcolm Frazier, focuses on occupational standards at the graduate or professional level and compares these with academic qualifications. In the fourth paper, "Degree Standards and Quality Assurance: A Discussion," Robin Middlehurst identifies issues on the Graduate Standards Program which are being addressed by the Higher Educational Quality Council and offers a framework for the ongoing articulation, assurance, and development of standards. (Individual papers contain references.) (DB)