BBC News reports that Kingston University has put some pressure on a QAA inspectors to change their verdict to avoid bad publicity
. Now they have the reputation of being a university that is so desperate to avoid bad publicty, they harrass QAA inspectors. Way to go. What did the QAA report have to say? Well, students were producing not just barely acceptable but sometimes unacceptable work are attaining passes at Honours level... it is surely important not to over-reward this work and thereby devalue the Degree
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The Guardian are reporting on comments from the head of aforementioned QAA about degree classifications being arbitrary and inconsistent, because universities do not want to do anything to harm the golden egg that is foriegn students. Recently, a student walked out of an MSc Finance coure at the University of Southampton because of concerns over standards of English. The BBC published an interesting report from a lecturer on this topic. It really is quite problematic that we have people getting on to postgraduate level courses who cannot speak English. It is bad enough in the arts and humanities, where reading and writing at a high level are expected - try reading translations of Wittgenstein or Hegel or even some of the current, analytic philosophy written in English, now imagine how difficult that would be if you cannot actually read the language - but as the article points out, it has some very problematic consequences in more practical subjects which have laboratory work. Working in a science lab or art studio with someone who cannot read the safety information is a very good way to get hurt. I have worked in photographic darkrooms - and I think it would be very difficult to make sure people are safe in such an environment unless they can clearly communicate with one another.
And, at the same time, there are concerns about postgraduate plagiarism (although there are also methodological concerns about the study). I've discussed this before - specifically, the essay sites that some people are using. It is unbelievable that people are actually paying huge amounts of money to get someone to write them an essay with the faade that they are not then submitting it as their own work. I had a look at one of the essay services recently, and got a quote. To get a first-rated undergraduate dissertation of the same length as the one I did in the final year of my degree would cost two thousand pounds. The essay sites say that they are only providing a 'research service' - that one would pay two grand, get an essay on exactly the same topic one is writing about for their degree, then use that to help them write their own essay. Pull the other one. Even the essay-writing sites wouldn't hire people who got their degrees by using essay-writing sites.
And, after all that negativity, I didn't get around to announcing that I am starting an MA in Philosophy in the autumn.
