ABSTRACT
It has been fashionable to judge quality according to fitness for purpose, an approach which equates quality with efficiency and takes the purpose as unquestioned, given or imposed. The discussion of quality in this chapter focuses on the question ‘What is higher education for?’, looking at quality in terms of fitness of purpose. The capability movement began debating this issue in 1980 when it published its Education For Capability manifesto through the Royal Society of Arts (RSA) in London. This manifesto focused on the limited value of education when it is seen solely as the pursuit of knowledge and intellectual skills for their own sake. ‘Individuals, industry and society as a whole benefit’, the manifesto asserted, ‘when all of us have the capacity to be effective in our personal social and working lives.’ When couched in the context of rapid change, the manifesto implies that higher education should be judged by the extent to which it:
gives students the confidence and ability to take responsibility for their own continuing personal and professional development;
prepares students to be personally effective within the circumstances of their lives and work;
promotes the pursuit of excellence in the development, acquisition and application of knowledge and skills.
Higher Education for Capability (HEC) was established by the RSA in 1988 to take these issues into the senior common rooms of the UK and, via its members overseas, to higher education in Australia and New Zealand. Through extensive discussions of the manifesto and its relevance in over 100 higher education institutions, HEC found considerable agreement for the development of student capability as an appropriate aim of higher education. The aim of this chapter is to explore the concept of capability more fully, to set capability in its wider context and to set out some of the issues facing higher education in its delivery.