Research shows that formative assessment can exert a powerful effect on student learning, yet the complexity of formative assessment is not well understood and some curricular structures and practices do not fully exploit its potential. This article outlines the background to the political promotion of employability and shows that institutional…

Higher education is in flux as governments around the world seek to use it as an instrument to enhance national economies, and the half-life of knowledge steadily decreases. Lifelong learning is presented as critically important to the development of human capital, but its implications for first-cycle higher education have yet to be fully…

Reports on a pilot study of benchmarking of academic standards in the United Kingdom and offers empirical data that benchmarking in higher education needs to be approached differently than benchmarking in the industrial/commercial milieu. Argues that the complexity which underpins academic standards is inimical to generalizations applicable across…