League Table Culture: What is a degree worth today?

League Table Culture: What is a degree worth today?

The UK higher education year is almost half way through and many students will now be starting to plan the work that will count towards their degree grades. However, what many of them might not know is that the beginning of the year saw a significant debate on the worth of a degree in light of accusations made by a number of highly regarded academics.
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nIn June last year Professor Geoffrey Alderman, during his inaugural lecture at the University of Buckingham, highlighted that ‘academic standards at many British universities are in danger of collapse – and at some have already collapsed – because those responsible for them are unwilling or unable to withstand the pressures coming from the culture of league-tables.’ In a press release issued by the university, Alderman stated, ‘I have heard it seriously argued that international students who plagiarise should be treated more leniently that British students, because of “differential cultural norms”.’
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nAccording to a report in The Independent at the time, Alderman was not the only academic with such an opinion. Accompanied by a graph showing an explosion in first degrees (the numbers jumped from 16,708 to 36,645 in a decade), the Professor of English at Warwick University, Jonathan Bate, also expressed his concern.
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nInterestingly, since these points were raised, it seems that very little direct action has been taken by universities to put an end to so-called ‘league table culture’. This lack of action is notable in regards to similar accusations made about the standards and worth of GCSEs and A-Levels in response to exam league tables. In the following August, many respected independent schools (albeit, ones with well-established reputations), such as Eton, St Paul’s, and Radley, decided to boycott these league tables. Martin Stephen, of St Paul’s, stated, ‘league tables have rather subtly injected a kind of poison into the education system.’
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nSince then, enrolment figures for UK students (which had increased as dramatically as first degrees) have now started to decline for the first time in many years. Although, it may be too soon to consider that this as an echo of lack of faith in the system, the rise of distance learning, online education, and the newly proposed open content plans might well be the saviour of the degree – especially in terms of establishing a better method to measure the quality of courses, and implementing up to date measures on issues such as plagiarism in the 21st Century.
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Posted Date: 2009-03-05 01:28:03