Dr Camille Kandiko Howson, Associate Professor of Education in the Centre for Higher Education Research and Scholarship (CHERS) at Imperial College London

She is an international expert in higher education research with a focus on student engagement; student outcomes and learning gain; equality and social justice; and quality, performance and accountability.   

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She works to support high quality and high impact pedagogical research and collaborate with colleagues to conduct disciplinary-based educational research. Camille’s current research focuses on international and comparative higher education; the curriculum; using learning analytics to support the student experience; academic motivation, prestige and gender; student engagement, identity and belonging; and intersectionality in research design.  

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Educational gain: Going beyond the degree 

We know there is more to higher education than a piece of paper and a walk across a stage. However, in data-led regulatory world students can be viewed as in-puts, through-puts and out-puts. In England B3 regulatory conditions further condense students into pass rates for continuation, degree outcomes and employment. The diversity of students across the sector becomes split metrics.  While not disputing the importance of getting students in and through, we also need to consider the quality of the experience that students have, what they have gained from their time and efforts in higher education. We know it is more than a degree, but how do we go about capturing it? And how do we account for different benefits different groups of students may have?  We know there is no single silver bullet metric to measure the outcomes of higher education and that learning goes beyond disciplinary knowledge, also including wider skills and affective measures, and that robustly measuring learning gain requires multiple indicators. We are well-versed in awarding gaps, but how do we identify and intervene what is leading to those gaps, addressing equity rather than outcomes?  This talk draws on a decade of research on learning gain in higher education, the policy context for accounting for outcomes of higher education and new on-going QAA-funded research on how institutions are articulating their unique approaches to capturing the educational gain of their students. This talk explores how measures of educational gain can challenge the status quo in higher education, including the relationship with assessment and feedback; quality assurance; and opportunities for capturing the diversity of experiences that diverse students have. We will conclude with a conversation on balancing standardised metrics and those tailored to specific contexts—and what this means for institutional researchers, policy makers and students.