Comparability between STEM subjects and others

This paper was written in conjunction with a seminar organised by Office of the Qualifications and Examinations Regulator (Ofqual) on the subject of “Inter-subject comparability”, held at the University of Warwick on October 20th 2008. The issues involved in trying to ensure comparability between subjects are by no means straightforward. However, the present situation is so deeply unsatisfactory, not just for individual students but for the nation as a whole, that we really must come up with a better methodology and one is proposed, in outline, in this paper.