Universities and colleges must grapple with difficult questions over degree standards and the future of the honours degree classification system, Sir Ron Dearing has warned.
They must be clearer about what is meant by standards, what degree courses are trying to achieve, where the level of acceptable performance lies, what degree classifications mean and how these compare across the sector.
These issues, explored in the Higher Education Quality Council's new Graduate Standards Programme report, could not be "ducked or fudged," he said.
Speaking at the HEQC's annual conference in London, he warned that standards at home and overseas were slipping and needed to be checked.
Roger Brown, HEQC chief executive, said institutions must decide whether they want to build a new regime where "threshold standards", the pass/fail dividing line, are redefined across the sector.
They need to find a way of describing standards that is understable by students and employers.