One of the big items on what is an ever-growing worry list for higher education in England is the implementation of the B4 requirement of the Office for Students. There is significant concern in the sector about how this Condition of Registration, which is intended to ensure that students are assessed effectively and that assessment is valid and reliable and awards are credible, is going to work in practice. 

I recently wrote a piece for Wonkhe on the problems and costs associated with the B4 condition which includes the following guidance:

335U. As part of its approach to assessing compliance with this condition, the OfS is likely to need access to students’ assessed work, including for students who are no longer registered on a course. A provider is therefore expected to retain appropriate records of students’ assessed work for such regulatory purposes for a period of five years after the end date of a course. 

Whilst this originally appeared to mean ALL assessments recent draft guidance seems to suggest that “appropriate” is now a sample. Nevertheless, my estimate would be that this will cost the English sector significantly more than £500m in set up and running costs over the next five years. 

And all of this is to allow for the possibility, however remote, that an inspector may, at some point, want to assess the judgements on standards of marking and assessment in relation to a particular course at an institution. This would be, by any definition, a disproportionate burden. 

Whilst the move by the OfS to a sampling methodology is certainly a positive step, the whole approach remains, in my view, fundamentally flawed as set out in the blog, which also goes on explore a more proportionate and cost-effective approach to assuring standards in higher education.