Thursday 3 July 2008

More degree inflation

I missed this on Wednesday but at least I caught up with it today. Manchester Metropolitan got caught this time.

This is what you get when you put a league table system in place and where the system is self-assessing. There is no choice but to make sure you get the best results. As someone commented the league tables might as well reward those who fail most as they must have the highest standards. If you are going to have league tables then you would need an external nationally accredited exam system. There was something like this under the old polytechnic system where they had national degrees, but universities are awarding institutions each with their own standards. The only thing that maintains these standards is academic integrity, which tends to be undermined with short-term contracts and threats from university bureaucrats to which standards, integrity and ethics do not apply.

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