Abstract

We live in a digitised world where everything tends to be described with numbers: students have their ID numbers, they pursue their degrees trying to achieve the highest scores for their future employment chances. But can everything be described with numbers? All the focus is on the records, on the ones students are pursuing during their study. What stands beyond the numbers? In universities around the world, academics are encouraged to provide excellent teaching. The challenge however is that people understand ‘teaching excellence’ in different ways. And whose interpretation of ‘excellence’ are we focusing on? Is it about teachers or students? Can we assume that all students perceive excellence in a similar way? Concepts of excellence, like concepts of quality, are subject to debate. How excellence is defined and measured in relation to teaching and learning seems subjective and may depend on a number of factors.