The popular notion that "old" universities tend to out-perform the "new" in the quality of their courses was challenged this week with the publication of eight funding council assessment overview reports. Some former polytechnics found themselves awarded the top grades in certain subjects while there were "old" universities whose assessment point-score fell below the average.

The reports, produced by the Higher Education Funding Council for England, cover eight subject areas assessed in 1995/96 and bring together conclusions and recommendations from assessment reports for each institution.

They show the points awarded to each university and college for curriculum design; teaching, learning and assessment; student progression and achievement; learning resources; student support and guidance; and quality assurance. In each category points awarded range from 1, signalling major shortcomings, to 4, when objectives for that area of work are judged to be fully met.

Overall, the reports show that the quality of higher education in English universities, whether "old" or "new", and higher education colleges, is high. Most institutions manage a mixture of grades 3 and 4, and in all but six cases the quality of courses has been approved by the funding council.

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Consistent top performers include the 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ of Northumbria at Newcastle, which was among those which achieved the best scores in Russian and Eastern European languages, Iberian languages, German, and French; and Queen Mary and Westfield College, which was among the best in Russian and Eastern European languages, Italian, linguistics, Iberian languages, German and French.

Sheffield 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ gained "straight 4s" in Russian and East European languages, as did Hull 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ in Iberian languages, and the Open 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ, Birmingham 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ, Sussex 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ and Warwick 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ, all in sociology. Cambridge 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ topped the point scores in chemical engineering.

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Durham 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ found itself among the bottom grades for Iberian languages, as did Exeter 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ in linguistics and Manchester 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ in Russian and Eastern European languages.

Consistent poor performers included La Sainte Union College which failed to have quality approved in Russian and Eastern European languages, German, and French; and Bournemouth 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ, which did not win approval in French, German and Iberian languages.