The Assessment of Higher Education Learning Outcomes (AHELO) has been announced with the goal of determining whether it is possible to develop “reliable and useful comparisons of learning outcomes” across a range of cultures and languages.

The project is being perceived by many as increasingly important due to the rise in globalisation and the flow of workers and students between nations.

The experimental project, expected to cost around $12.5 million, will focus on three separate disciplines; one on general skills, one on economics, and one on engineering. The Australian Council for Educational Research will manage the development of the discipline-specific tests in coordination with the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the body behind AHELO.

OECD expects to test around 200 students in 10 varying types of school in each of these six nations; Finland, Italy, Japan, Kuwait, Mexico and the United States. The proposal is to test students towards the end of their three or four year bachelors degrees and, in the following year, attempt to determine whether their results can be made comparable.

Richard Yelland, of OECD, hopes that if the experiment succeeds they will be able to create a useful tool for individuals and organisations across the world “who are responsible for higher education.” Yelland estimates that worldwide governments are collectively investing around $1 trillion in postsecondary education, meaning that the proposed tool could generate great interest.

You can find out more about AHELO by visiting the OECD website here.