§ Lord Pearson of Rannochasked Her Majesty's Government:
In view of their recent White Paper Your Right to Know: Freedom of Information, whether they will require institutions of higher education to publish the following information about each course offered by those institutions:
- (a) the academic content or profile of the course, fortnight by fortnight;
- (b) the names and curricula vitae of those expected to teach the course, including details of any external examinerships they may hold or have held:
- (c) the names and curricula vitae of the external examiners appointed to the course, together with the duration of such appointments;
- (d) an indication of the expected workload of those delivering the course, split between teaching, marking, tutorials and research;
- (e) an indicative reading list for the course. [HL326]
§ Baroness BlackstoneOur White PaperYour right to Know: Freedom of Information proposes that universities should be among the bodies covered by a Freedom of Information Act, giving people a general statutory right of access to the information held by public authorities in connection with their public functions. We do not intend to require higher education institutions to publish the information listed in the question, but we believe students and others must be able to make informed decisions. The National Committee of Inquiry into Higher Education has proposed that institutions of higher education should develop, for each programme they offer, a programme specification which gives the intended outcomes of the programmes in terms of knowledge, understanding and skills. We welcome the positive response of the higher education representative bodies to this proposal.