ABSTRACT
In late 1998, the Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) in the United Kingdom (UK) established an Advisory Group 'to consider the implications for benchmarking academic standards of modular and multidisciplinary programmes'. Modular programmes are very common across the whole of the higher education sector in the UK. Multidisciplinary degrees, whether modularized or not, are not only common but also very popular. It come in many shapes and sizes The QAA directed the Advisory Group to explore benchmarking in relation to 'modular and multidisciplinary programmes'. This implies that the Group will examine all types of modular degree and all multidisciplinary degrees, whether modular or not. The key focus for the Advisory Group should be the modular multidisciplinary programme, and not only because it is very common and very popular. Some multidisciplinary degrees involve only cognate subjects while others allow students to combine subjects from very different academic traditions.
