by Eleni Petrakou
Let this text be a string of anecdotes this columnist has been exposed to, mostly through her work in research and academia. Said work was spread in space and time. The anecdotes, however, come from the western world and its sphere of influence.
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The first-year student is asking me what to do about the courses by those lecturers who don’t know how to answer her questions.
Five minutes later she’s asking the same thing again.
In the meantime she explained that she’s aware many students lack the background necessary for higher education and of the reasons why. And that yes, she knows she can find lectures from elsewhere online.
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The senior lecturer is showing me photos of past exam answer sheets. It is clear that some science students don’t know lower high school math.
All of them passed the exams thanks to their marks for the other half of the questions, graded by his co-teaching colleague.
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Minor detail in Guardian article a few months ago. A seasoned professor says that the quality of studies is going down and for the first time ever she had to fail more than 10% of students.
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The friend who quit academia is listening to me being concerned about grade inflation. She comforts me by adding that at one university, on her first day at work, she was made to sign an agreement that she wouldn’t ever fail more than 15% of students.
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Universities featuring at the lofts of the world rankings attract local and foreign students alike (after all, the ranking Key Performance Indicators, or KPIs, make sure they do; the ratio of foreign students is more important than teaching). Are these people’s families buying a posh certificate of attendance that will find them a job?
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Last week’s Tortoise Media article. Ten years ago UK removed a cap on student numbers. Top universities grew, small ones crashed.
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The PhD student is explaining, in detail, that her university is a mess.
Her university is one of the top five in the world; a household name.
She is also saying that the teaching is not particularly good, but quality of studies comes from the fact that really good students get to gather there.
A few years back. Another PhD student is telling me the exact same thing about studies.
His university is one of the top five in the world; a household name.
The two universities are found on different sides of the Atlantic.
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The in-the-know colleague is discussing scholarships in USA. They are genuinely open to people of all social backgrounds, as long as they demonstrate a tendency for excellence; a disadvantaged farmer will find a scholarship if their cows excel at a livestock show.
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Is learning considered to be only a matter of an individual’s handling of competition? Is it only a personal matter? Are the transfer of knowledge and the shaping of scientific thinking old-fashioned educational concepts? And the fear of every middle-aged person: am I old-fashioned?
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The most important KPI used in global university rankings is literally reputation.
Followed by citations, regarding –i.e. against– which so much has been said.
(Clearly there is only one thing in the world worse than counting citations, and that is not counting citations.)
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The US institutionalized the reputation game through the Ivy League. Just me stating well-known facts.
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Story from the ’80s. A famous physicist has said that he moved to work at a specific US university because it was the only one that would give him a higher salary than its football coach’s. He had a Nobel prize under his belt.
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In the western world and its sphere of influence, undergraduate degrees are now mostly a 3-year soup.
With one more year occasionally thrown in; where academic courses have given way to internships.
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Europe institutionalized the blatant serving of the market through the Bologna declaration, 1999.
From Wikipedia: “The Bologna Process is a series of […] agreements to ensure comparability of higher-education qualifications.” (Because who would expect from an academic agreement to ensure education and science standards.) (What am I, old-fashioned?)
Undergraduate degrees were changed to three, or three-to-four, years.
That first level of studies shall “be relevant to the european labour market”.
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In the UK they don’t call it Ministry of Education anymore, now it’s part of the Ministry of Skills.
In the US they don’t call it university anymore, now it’s college.
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“Universities should be relevant to the labour market, but not working for the labour market.” Upon hearing this, the peers and superiors present begin attacking my unacceptable immorality.
We are in Germany; since I come from Greece, someone jokes with a straight face that they shouldn’t have rescued Greece after all.
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Greece might actually make for a case study: One of the few western countries with academia still holding some ground against Bologna. Undergraduate degrees with comprehensive curricula instead of clickbaits for pricey add-ons. Exam fail rates of 15% being the stuff of distant dreams.
Don’t get me wrong, greek education got ninety nine structural problems. But a failure to produce actual scientists ain’t one.
However, ask the man in the proverbial street, or in the government, and its problem is quite different: It’s university staff and students getting involved in politics. Ask the world rankings and its problem is a difficulty in graduating.
The KPI game is already here, though; some students starting to use comparison as a substitute for therapy isn’t helping.
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Legendary runner Ben Jipcho said, “Running for money doesn’t make you run fast. It makes you run first.”
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Over coffee, my fellow student of decades ago is listening to my tirade against KPIs, and cracks up.
Time for him to leave and spend the evening filling out the KPI forms for his high school assessment. I am old-fashioned after all.