§ Mr. BoswellTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what actions he is taking in conjunction with the Higher Education Funding284W Council for England to monitor the value added by higher education institutions, with particular reference to in-course assessment. [104098]
§ Margaret Hodge[holding answer 24 March 2003]: Since 1999, HEFCE has published each year Performance Indicators for each institution on student non-continuation and progression rates, benchmarked against entry qualifications and other factors. As signalled in the White Paper for Higher Education published in January 2003, we have asked HEFCE to build upon this work, reviewing the current methodologies for recording student achievement and developing more sophisticated ways of measuring 'value added'. HEFCE will announce details of their review shortly.