Benchmarking Teaching Performance in Universities: Issues of Control, Policy, Theory, and "Best Practice"

Many of my more experienced colleagues see university teaching in the post­ modern context amid an array of paradoxical dilemmas which lead them to bouts of melancholy and whimsical musings on ways to survive. Their crys­ tal ball gazing does not readily reveal opportunities, as the ground rules move quickly from goal to goal. In fact, in the widest context there is the tempta­ tion to describe universities in the late 1990 s as gloomy places where de­ spair is taking over from hope for the longer term future.