Study On The Characteristics Of The QAA Subject Benchmarks

Subject benchmarks are one of the Academic Infrastructures which are published by the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education. They are the thresholds of each discipline in UK higher education, and also are considered as one of the academic standards for the quality assurance and enhancement of UK higher education.QAA Subject benchmarks set out expectations about standards of degrees in a range of subject areas. They describe what gives a discipline its coherence and identity, and define what can be expected of a graduate in terms of the abilities and skills needed to develop understanding in the subject. The subject benchmark statements clearly set out the entire academic characteristics and standards for the higher education institutions in England, Scotland and Welsh. And to be the guide for the UK programmes design, delivery and review.In order to keep the fairness of quality review and the characteristic of each higher education institution, QAA Subject benchmarks are divided into four categories, which are Honours degree subject benchmark, Master's level subject benchmark, NHS/Department of Health subject and Scottish subject benchmark. Each subject benchmark is consisted of four parts; they are Nature and Extent of the subject, Subject Knowledge and Skills, Teaching Learning and Assessment, Benchmark Standards (outcomes).The Characteristics of QAA Subject benchmarks which include the openness, the dynamic development and the instruction offers the higher education institutions a broad freedom for promoting the quality. It is the peculiarities of the subject benchmarks which make the higher education institutions aware the importance of quality, and become more active in the quality review. In consequence, the quality of UK higher education has been improved in such a government-less atmosphere. So it indicates that the subject benchmarks not only have a comparatively high reliability but also a high validity.The quality reviews using the QAA Subject benchmarks offer more chances for professors to communicate and cooperate with each other. It's easy to light the enthusiasm of the institutional faculties to assure the quality of higher education. The great maneuverability helps the higher education institutions pay much attention to their own enhancement. At the same time, it helps forming a harmonious organization culture of quality review. All the efforts made a solid foundation for the development of quality assurance of UK higher education.The advantage of QAA Subject benchmarks can be a reference. We can learn the advanced experience and scientific method from them in order to improve the system of quality assurance of the higher education.