Professor Camille Kandiko Howson, Professor of Higher Education in the Centre for Higher Education Research and Scholarship, draws on two decades of research aiming to shift the conversation on quality and effectiveness in higher education.
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Imperial Inaugurals are term-time lectures that celebrate our newest Professors, recognising their academic journey and showcasing their research.
Abstract
Universities are lauded as world-class, ranked as number 2, given a gold badge. But what counts as success in higher education? Research productivity and reputation are covered in global university rankings—but education is absent. Satisfaction, in-puts and out-puts dominate UK domestic rankings. While not disputing the importance of getting students in and through, we also need to consider the quality of the experience that students have, what they have gained from their time and efforts in higher education. We know it is more than a degree, but how do we go about capturing it? And how do we account for different benefits different groups of students may have?
We know there is no single silver bullet metric to measure the outcomes of higher education and that learning goes beyond disciplinary knowledge, also including wider skills and affective measures, and that robustly measuring gains requires multiple indicators. We are well-versed in awarding gaps, but how do we use analytics to identify and intervene what is leading to those gaps, addressing equity rather than outcomes?
This talk draws on two decades of research aiming to shift the conversation on quality and effectiveness in higher education. It explores how measures of what students gain from their time in higher education can challenge the status quo, including the relationship of assessment and feedback; staff perceptions of teaching and research; and opportunities for capturing the diversity of experiences that diverse students have. To do better than equating prestige with age and wealth of universities, and student outcomes as more than satisfaction and salary, we need to measure what we value, because we value what we measure.
Biography
Camille Kandiko Howson is Professor of Higher Education in the Centre for Higher Education Research and Scholarship (CHERS) at Imperial College London, UK. Prior to joining Imperial, she was Senior Lecturer and Academic Head of Student Engagement at King’s College London. She received a BA in English and Classics from Cornell University, a Master’s in Higher Education Administration from the University of Pennsylvania and a PhD from Indiana University, where she worked on the National Survey of Student Engagement. She is a Council Member of the Society for Research into Higher Education (SRHE) and Chair of the Research and Development Committee, which she has served on since 2012. She is a Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.
