New reactions to OECD drive to establish a “worldwide higher education assessment system”

Another busy day for the OECD’s Directorate for Education, especially its director, Barbara Ischinger, and Andreas Schleicher, the head of its Indicator and Analysis Division. Both Inside Higher Ed and the Chronicle of Higher Education have lengthy stories today about the OECD’s role in seeking to establish a “worldwide higher education assessment system”, despite the diversity of resources and systems that exist across global space, and widely varying views on the efficacy of assessment systems at the tertiary level. News was stirred up following some recent OECD meetings on this issue.

These initial reactions are obviously mediated by the presence of higher education media outlets in the USA and Europe, with views underlain by the ongoing politics of two other territory-spanning governance initiatives with assessment elements – the Bologna Process (in Europe) and the Spellings Commission (in the USA).

The stories are well developed and it is best advised to read them directly. The Chronicle article, in particular, identifies critical views on this initiative from the perspective of organizations like the American Council on Education, the European University Association, the Council for Higher Education Accreditation, the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges, while Inside Higher Ed also highlighted critical commentary from the Institute for Higher Education Policy.