Could ‘Criteria’ used in Quality Assessments be Classified as Academic Standards?

The Higher Education Funding Council for England was given responsibility by the government of the day for assessing the quality of higher education institutions in England. It decided to make subject areas the focus of these quality assessments, within an objectives-based approach to assessment. Assessments are made by peer subject assessors during visits to institutions. The report postulates that criteria‘other’than the aims and objectives of the institutions and subjects areas were used in the assessments. An analysis was done of reports of the assessments done in 1993–94. The study identifies which criteria were used and argues that these could be labelled as academic standards.