IoD on university standards

The Institute of Directors (IoD) has just published its annual Education Briefing Book. Now, there are many interesting pieces of data in this briefing book relating to all sectors of education but the most eye-catching issue is of course what a 500 strong sample of the IoD’s membership has to say on the subject of standards:

First, schools:

• 32 per cent of IoD members thought the quality of education provided by schools had got better, 49 per cent thought it had got worse.

Oh dear. Now FE:

• 32 per cent of members thought the quality of education provided by FE colleges had got better, 38 per cent thought it had got worse.

Getting a sense of the general drift? Finally, universities:

• 29 per cent of members thought the quality of education provided by universities had got better, 41 per cent thought it had got worse.

So, that’s that settled then. Note that it is not clear whether respondents were furnished with all of the data in the Briefing Book before responding or if they drew on some other sources of information before delivering their judgement on the country’s universities.