英國高等教育評鑑制度

A Study on Higher Education Evaluation System in the United Kingdom

英國高等教育制度長久以來是以「雙軌制」稱著於世。自1992 年《擴充與高等教育法》公布，允許多元技術學院等其他高等教育機構改制為大學後，其著名的高等教育雙軌制遂走入歷史。尤其，當英國高等教育經費之補助機構由原來的大學經費補助委員會（UGC）改為大學撥款委員會（UFC）、繼而改為高等教育撥款委員會（Higher Education Funding Councils），並責成該委員會對未來高等教育機構經費的分配，應將教學與研究成果等因素，列為審核的依據時，高等教育的品質保證與評鑑遂成為眾所關注的議題。整體而言，英國高等教育的評鑑是將教學評鑑與研究評鑑分開進行，不但負責評鑑的單位不同，評鑑進行的方式及所採用之指標亦不相同。本文旨在針對英國高等教育評鑑制度進行探討，除先說明英國高等教育制度的現況外，分析的重點包括其高等教育評鑑制度的緣起、發展沿革、現行實施方式及最新的改革措施。

The well-known “binary system of higher education in the United Kingdom wasended after the 1992 Further and Higher Education Act. Before 1992， the CNAA wasresponsible for the quality evaluation of higher education institutions outside theuniversity sector， whilst the pre-1992 universities had a latent quasi-quality assurancesystem in place through the operation of the traditional university committee system andthe external examiner system. Changes in British higher education funding system， fromthe UGC， established in 1919， to UFC in 1988， and then HEFC in 1992， have alsoaccompanied with the increasing emphasis on the accountability of higher educationinstitutions， while allocating the funds. At present， the teaching quality and researchquality of higher education are evaluated by two separate bodies. On the one hand， it isthe Quality Assessance Agency (QAA)， via undertaking teaching assessment both atinstitutional and subject levels， responsible for the improvement in the quality of teachingand learning in higher education. On the other hand， the Research Assessment Exercise(RAE)， is in charge of carrying out research assessments， and providing ratings of thequality of research conducted in higher education institutions， which are usually used todetermine how research funding is allocated. This paper is aiming to explore the highereducation evaluation (or， more often used， quality assessment or assurance) system in theUnited Kingdom. In so doing， this paper starts with a brief introduction of the existingBritish higher education system， then the focus of this paper is on the analysis of theorigins， development， the existing system， and reform of the evaluation system of British higher education.