Increasingly, I’ll agree with the title of this post. I maintain that GCSEs were the toughest exams I went through, getting easier at A-Level and then just plain ridiculous at third level education
Example 1. In my first year, needing just 40% to pass the module (which counts for nothing towards the final degree) I get a potential 10% for attendance and participation in seminars
Example 2. In my second year, a proposed three hour exam was reformatted into a one hour class test. With a seen question. And you were allowed to bring an A4 page of notes in with you.
Example 3. In my final year, during my final exam, I look up wondering what the mumbling noise is. It’s the invigilator. With his back turned to a room full of students. On his phone
May 25, 2009 at 7:34 pm |
I don’t wish to boast but I have two degrees and thought so little of either that I didn’t bother to turn up to graduation to pick them up. Is a degree worth the paper it’s printed on? Well, if what you wanted was a certificate you can take to prospective employers, aiding your ascent up the pole of working life, then the 9000 odd quid was well spent. And in which case we should just get rid of the archaic graduation walk and replace it all with a supermarket check-out. If on the other hand, what you sought was the knowledge and enlightenment then you might well be wondering “WTF was that all about?’
I have a radical proposal: let’s abolish assessment, exams and awards. They have nothing to do with learning. They are only a measurement of learning. Students sometimes seem to confuse learning with assessment, seeking the ‘right’ answer to questions rather than thinking critically about the existing body of knowledge.
This is understandable to some extend because once you introduce assessment students become anxious and fearful, seeking instrumental approaches to education that actually undermine the learning process.
In the end the awards bestowed by universities are socially divisive and are really only given out so that employers can select from the deluge of graduates in the job market.
So don’t go to your graduation Ulsterman. Don’t indulge and dignify such a stupid, corrupt system. Instead, pick up your degree certificate from the university the following day and use it as a beer mat on a good night out with your mates to celebrate the fact that you went through three years of higher education and never lost your critical faculties.
May 25, 2009 at 8:27 pm |
P.S.
Just a thought but maybe the invigilator was only getting his own back for all those time that he had to compete with the buzzing, bleeping and vibrating of mobile phones, iPods and MP3 players etc in his lectures and seminars….
May 27, 2009 at 5:13 pm |
Totally agree, I’ve always maintained that the majority of students are at University for a degree, not to learn, and that very few think there is a difference. I quickly became aware that I was here for a degree. I have learnt some things within the structure of university teaching, some of which has proved foundational in some of my thinking, but when you know that a 2:1 is easily acheivable through a little bit of common sense and a night’s revision when it comes to planning for exams, well, why bother putting in the hard graft?
Re Assessment, within History there is a tendency to argue one side of the argument, counter it with the other side of the argument, and conclude that both sides are somewhat right. And so it becomes a model. Students won’t critically assess the essay title, but rather get some quotes to support one side, get some quotes to support the other side, and conclude with absolutely no opinion of your own.
Your call to arms is admirable Rab, and if the folks weren’t so keen for a day out (and the photo for the mantlepiece) I wouldn’t be going, but one must indulge the system.
What is University? I think the whole system has lost its way, perhaps driven by the secondary school system which presents university as a natural progression, not as a choice.
I’d love to see the impact of minimum age for University set at 19
May 27, 2009 at 7:48 pm |
Yeah, you gotta go to graduation if your folks insist. My Ma has never forgiven me for not going, even though I gave her my certificates to hang on her wall. She says they’re no substitute for a photo of me in a Batman cape.