Dumbing down rife, poll reveals

Article Abstract:

Easier access to higher education in the United Kingdom is leading to dropout rates increasing and a dumbing down of courses, according to a nationwide survey of academics conducted by the Times Higher Education Supplement and ICM Research. The survey found that 76% of respondents stated that they had been forced to adapt their teaching techniques in order to deal with an increasingly diverse student population, more than two-thirds believed that current students were less well prepared for higher education than their predecessors and 58% believed that courses had been dumbed down.

Surveys

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The great betrayal or the great hoax?

Article Abstract:

A lecturer in communication studies at Liverpool University argues that the standard of higher education in the UK has fallen in recent years as the number of people going into higher education has increased. It is contended that the reason for this drop in standards is that the Government and education regulators are not prepared to accept that some of the additional people entering higher education will fail their courses and are relaxing standards to make sure that these people do not fail their courses.

Analysis, Education, Educational standards

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Red tape has made comrades of us all

Article Abstract:

New RAE criteria will force academics to meet Five Year Plan-style targets and these new criteria have similarities with Soviet bureaucracy, claims author. The regulatory regime in higher education, like the old Soviet system, threatens to be family unfriendly, distort wider scholarship and promote bland conformity.

Political aspects

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