Reimagining higher education: The impact of learner outcome metrics in Ireland and beyond

Abstract A college is an institution that exists to provide instruction. Subtly but profoundly, we are shifting to a new paradigm: a college is an institution that exists to produce learning (Barr & Tagg, 1995, p. 13). This paper traces the evolution of learner outcomes, from their progeny as a diagnostic tool in accurately measuring learning gains and facilitating institutional self‐improvement, to their present distorted incarnation, in propagating “governance by numbers”. The paper proceeds in a number of steps. Firstly, it begins with a brief contextualization of the topography of higher education. It then moves to explore the OECD influences regarding quantifying outcomes and aligning them with performance metrics. From here, it looks to EU deliberations in the shape of the Bologna Process with its enduring iterations, the purpose of which benchmarks HEIs' (higher education institutions) success against the successful achievement of learner outcomes. To conclude, taking the example of the Irish funding and strategy, Hunt Report (National Strategy for Higher Education to 2030), I provide an explanatory account detailing how this “learning outcomes race” and its association with “success metrics” within the higher education landscape is mistaken and harmful.