Value judgements

The Quality Assurance Agency complains that it still receives "self-evaluation documents that are not sufficiently self-critical" ("College HE standards hit by flawed marking", THES , November 15). This is inevitable given the review system, which is judgemental rather than developmental.

Presentation counts as as much as reality. High grades say as much about an institution's ability to learn and play by QAA rules as about the quality of provision. Unfortunately, it is still widely believed that because "quality" is part of the QAA name that this is what it assures.

Alan Slomson
Leeds