On 6/09/2019 8:49 PM, David wrote:
I suppose some institutions will maintain their standards and their
reputation, and the pressure can become personal; I've been threatened
by a couple of students re marking, and I know of one case where a
student took Court action concerning their failure (and lost).
And some institutions will just become second-rate degree factories.
We had a discussion about this a few weeks ago about the "value of the
degree" broadly. There are so many facets of that concept that it would
make your head spin. It came up as a result of recent media stories
about how maybe trades are a better option and that academic degrees are
floating about, we have too many over-educated people who can't get
jobs, etc. etc. So don't worry about debasing as a result of int'l
student standards. It's being done domestically already. The question
is: whose political agenda does that serve? Answer: those who want to
justify cuts to higher education funding.
As for threats, cheating, all that stuff. Nothing new in that. It's been
happening for decades. At my uni back in the states in the 70s, they
recruited Saudi students. This was midwest America, mind you. It was
always going to end badly. One of the key professors was a woman and she
kept marking them down for either bad work or cheating or something that
wasn't up to standard. I can't recall the details. Oopsie. They went for
her because they thought they could. They were *paying*, so they were
*buying* their degree, not an educational service. Those students lost,
too. But it was very hard on Mary Lois.
We've gotten a bit off the original topic, but it all relates.
Jan
--
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
[email protected]
Twitter: @JL_Whitaker
Blog: www.janwhitaker.com
Sooner or later, I hate to break it to you, you're gonna die, so how do you
fill in the space between here and there? It's yours. Seize your space.
~Margaret Atwood, writer
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