Accountability in Action?

Audit has become prevalent throughout UK Universities and in associated institutions such as funding bodies and national government. There is pressure from funding bodies for Universities to be seen as audited, for Universities to be accountable and held to account, and messages from central government about the need for greater transparency of processes and greater responsibility for action. These pressures have resulted in the development and deployment of an increasing number of auditing practices and performances, for example, internal and external audits, environmental audits, strategic audits, research assessment exercises (RAE), teaching quality assessments (TQA), information audits, value for money audits, and HEFCE sponsored research into ‘best practice’. These exercises are consequential in social and cultural, as well as financial, terms.