Published Date:
24 July 2008
UNIVERSITY degrees no longer provide a "serious test of knowledge, intelligence or critical ability", a historian said today.
Professor Kevin Sharpe said that in recent years "the bar had been lowered" and students were now simply required to stick with their course and competently complete a number of tasks.
He said in the past, a university course was three years of attaining knowledge, developing understanding and acquiring skills.
But a shift towards modular study and coursework and the demise of final exams had changed what is required for a degree and how it is assessed.
Prof Sharpe, who teaches Renaissance studies at Queen Mary, University of London, said
: "Our degrees have profoundly changed and are no longer in any sense a serious test of knowledge, intelligence or critical ability."
The number of students achieving a first class degree has more than doubled since the mid-90s.
Prof Sharpe said: "If one sets the bar very low, one cannot blame the judges for awarding all the successful jumpers' a high mark."
The full article contains 177 words and appears in Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.
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Last Updated:
24 July 2008 2:48 PM
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Source:
Edinburgh Evening News
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Location:
Edinburgh
