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Purpose: At a conference inspired by Hans Christian Andersen, this chapter makes the case for his shadowy American contemporary, Edgar Allan Poe.

Methodology: Employing a comparative literary analysis, it contends that consumer culture theory (CCT) can learn more from Poe’s quothful raven than Andersen’s ugly duckling.

Findings: Principally that Poe’s Ps of Perversity, Pugnacity, and Poetry are particularly pertinent to an adolescent, self-harm-prone subdiscipline that’s struggling to find itself and make its way in the world.

Originality: Poe and Andersen’s names rarely appear in the same sentence. They do now.

The purpose of this paper is to contest Edwards et al.’s (2002) findings that resistance to the introduction of double-entry bookkeeping and the form that it took when implemented by the British Government in the mid-nineteenth century was the result of ideological conflict between the privileged landed aristocracy and the rising merchant middle class.

The study draws upon a collection of documents preserved as part of the Grigg Family Papers located in London and the Thomson Papers held in the Mitchell Library in Sydney. It also draws on evidence contained within the British National Archive, the National Maritime Museum and British Parliamentary Papers which has been overlooked by previous studies of the introduction of DEB.

Conflict and delays in the adoption of double-entry bookkeeping were not primarily the product of “ideological” differences between the influential classes. Instead, this study finds that conflict was the result of a complex amalgam of class interests, ideology, personal antipathy, professional intolerance and ambition. Newly discovered evidence recognises the critical, largely forgotten, work of John Deas Thomson in developing a double-entry bookkeeping system for the Royal Navy and the importance of Sir James Graham’s determination that matters of economy would be emphasised in the Navy’s accounting.

This study establishes that crucial to the ultimate implementation of double-entry bookkeeping was the passionate, determined support of influential champions with strong liberal beliefs, most especially John Deas Thomson and Sir James Graham. Prominence was given to economy in government.

June 13,1972 Industrial Relations — Unregistered trade union — Unpaid shop stewards elected by fellow members with union authority to negotiate at local level with dock employers — Shop stewards initiating campaign of blacking container lorries after blacking by unregistered union knowingly inducing breaches of contract made “unfair industrial practice” by statute — Industrial Court orders to union to stop specified blacking — Union advice to shop stewards to obey court orders rejected — Court finding union in contempt and liable to fines and to compensate complainants for unfair industrial practices — Shop stewards agents, not servants of union — Whether evidence of implied authority from union to agents to black — Union not responsible for conduct of shop stewards acting outside scope of express or implied authority — Industrial Relations Act, 1971 (c.72) ss. 96(1), 101,167(1) (9).

The librarian and researcher have to be able to uncover specific articles in their areas of interest. This Bibliography is designed to help. Volume IV, like Volume III, contains features to help the reader to retrieve relevant literature from MCB University Press' considerable output. Each entry within has been indexed according to author(s) and the Fifth Edition of the SCIMP/SCAMP Thesaurus. The latter thus provides a full subject index to facilitate rapid retrieval. Each article or book is assigned its own unique number and this is used in both the subject and author index. This Volume indexes 29 journals indicating the depth, coverage and expansion of MCB's portfolio.

Submits The Times’ 1997 “league table” of universities to statistical analysis. Concludes that the changes made to the table since 1996 have made it more strongly unidimensional, with research performance being overwhelmingly dominant.

Examines the extent to which the purposes of quality assurance stated by the Joint Planning Group (JPG) in its Final Report are likely to be fulfilled, and points to a number of weaknesses in the JPG’s proposals. Argues that a more forward‐looking approach is needed, and suggests that, if the JPG proposals are implemented, the new arrangements will last a relatively short time before being subjected to further review.

Relates higher education to the labour market, noting that the pace of change in national and international economies requires higher education to encourage the development of people who can act effectively in turbulent circumstances. Shows that quality and standards are open to interpretations which depend upon the interpreter’s perspective. Argues that the extra‐institutional scrutiny of quality and standards is appropriate where higher education is expected to respond to national needs, but that the method used needs to be adapted to institutional context. Discusses the potential that ISO 9000, or an analogue, might have for an extra‐institutional quality assurance system that is economical in operation.

This paper analyses the performance criteria and learning objectives contained in the first 22 QAA subject benchmark statements to be published and considers the implications for assessment. There is much variation in the amount of detail in the statements and there are also implicit performance criteria in the intended learning outcomes listed at the beginning of each. Statements are broad in character so their relationship with standards is loosely‐coupled and open to interpretation. It is argued that attempts to achieve a high degree of precision in specification are likely to prove counter‐productive. There is evidence of some lack of coherence within the benchmark statements and between the statements and the more recently published Level H descriptor in the National Qualifications Framework. Further, the relationship between assessment practice and the statements appears to be problematic. The value of benchmarking statements as an aid to professional conversation about standards would be greatly enhanced if subject communities, perhaps facilitated by Learning and Teaching Support Network subject centres and subject associations, can elaborate for themselves the meanings of words used in the statements of learning outcomes and performance criteria. This elaboration would be aided by the appraisal of exemplars of outcomes at various levels of performance.

Subjects the league table of universities published in The Times and The Times Good University Guide in 1995 and 1996 to statistical and conceptual analyses. Shows the “measures” used by the compilers of the tables to be problematic in a number of technical respects. Shows that the number of underlying variables is largely reducible to a single factor which discriminates between pre‐1992 and post‐1992 universities. Casts serious doubt on the validity of the tables from both technical and conceptual perspectives.

The external examiner system in higher education is, for a variety of reasons, widely believed to be under strain: as a result, the role of the external examiner has, in recent years, come under particular scrutiny. Reports a survey of current and desired practice regarding external examining in higher education courses in art and design. Suggests that, in these disciplines, it is generally desired that external examiners act in an auditing role rather than become involved in details of assessment practice. The manifested desire for external examiners to take the role of “course consultant” introduces a tension which may not be capable of resolution under existing expectations of external examining. Claims that there is a need to reconstrue the role of the external examiner within a broader framework of quality assurance processes if maximum benefit is to be gained from an external perspective.