Institutions of Higher Education: purposes and ‘performance indicators’

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Abstract
Institutions of higher education (IHEs) fulfil different kinds of purposes, a key distinction amongst which are purposes which are set by the wider society and purposes which are intrinsic to the character of IHEs themselves. The term ‘fitness for purpose’ which has recently entered the language of higher education masks this distinction, for it speaks to the extrinsic purposes of IHEs supplied by the wider society. The term, therefore, promotes an instrumental conception of higher education, and is (in the language of critical theory) an example of instrumental reason. In parallel with this style of thinking, IHEs are coming to be assessed through the application of ‘performance indicators’, but the logic of performance indicators (as they are currently being developed in the UK) is such that they are unable to reveal the effectiveness of IHEs in fulfilling their key educational purposes. Four essential conditions are offered as constituting the purposes of an ‘institution of higher education’, and the paper ends with some remarks on evaluation aimed at doing justice to the educational character of our institutions.

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