Quality Assurance Agency ‘not satisfactory’, regulator claims

The misnamed Quality Assurance Agency is not fit for purpose it is bureaucratic bloat causing even more bureaucratic bloat at Universities. Abolish it and free up money to pay academics properly. The Office for Students is also a waste of valuable resources, causing even more bureaucratic bloat at UK universities. We could sack at least 50% of admin types and 70% or more of senior management at UK universities with better outcomes resulting for both students and academics. The money is there but gets wasted on deputy VCs, deputy deputy VCs deputy Presidents etc etc and their silly building projects.

I wouldn't disagree with Maverick2's request for better pay for university staff! And there is some evidence from a recent OECD report that the growth in managerialism and high pay in universities has not been matched by a growth in efficiency (while senior management pay and numbers have increased by 100%, student numbers have only increased by 80%). But in defence of the OfS there has to be some monitoring of university performance. Otherwise some institutions can get away with pretty dismal dropout figures.

Having worked both with and for QAA in the past I have to disagree. The advantage of QAA was that it was independent of both the government & professional bodies & thus able to focus entirely on quality issues. The OfS on the other hand is a tool of government policy, not independent. An example is the use of non-completion rates. Whilst quality issue are important here a wide variety of factors can lead to non-completion.