Abstract
Proliferating claims have been made for Learning Outcomes (LOs) potential to re-shape higher education: as forces for transparency and harmonisation, new forms for measurement or a format that fundamentally challenges traditional teaching and learning. Evidence of their actual influence remains sparse, however. This analysis of 45 interviews with university teachers, students and leaders from England and Norway investigates their experiences of LOs. The results suggest LOs are received as an ambiguous policy object, resulting in varied interpretations and uses. However, two persistent tendencies emerge. While LOs have been introduced in relatively flexible ‘process’ forms, which can support reflection and communication around teaching practices, respondents describe pressures to develop more high-level, standardised and measureable ‘product’ LOs. Tensions between the forms seem likely to reduce the scope for LOs to support teaching and learning practices.
KEYWORDS: Learning outcomes, Bologna process, policy enactment, comparative policy