Memorandum 13
Submission from Dr Stuart WG Derbyshire[19]
EVIDENCE REGARDING
STUDENTS AND
UNIVERSITIES
Executive summary
This paper is a personal account of my experiences
since returning to the UK as a senior lecturer in 2005. In summary,
British universities have a vastly increased intake of students
compared with the late 1980s to the mid 1990s. This increased
intake has not been matched by increases in resources, especially
staff. At the same time the A-level grading system has changed
such that a greater proportion of students now receive top grades
making it more difficult to find the truly excellent students.
Despite educating more students, who are less well selected, and
with resources stretched more thinly, increasing numbers of university
students obtain a 2:1 or a 1st class degree. This indicates an
obvious decline in standards. This decline is driven in part by
the increased pressure on academia but also by a retreat from
the idea that students can be educated.
About the author
The author is a senior lecturer in psychology at
the University of Birmingham. He obtained his first degree from
University College London in 1991 and his PhD from the University
of London in 1995. From there he took a research fellow position
at the University of Pittsburgh, USA in 1996 and was subsequently
employed as an assistant professor at the University of California,
Los Angeles and at the University of Pittsburgh. He returned to
the UK in 2005 when he joined the staff at the University of Birmingham.
1. In 1986 only 15% of the population sat A-levels
and only 10% were awarded an A-grade. When the quota system was
scrapped the percentage of A-level students attaining an A-grade
began to steadily increase and reached 15% by 1996. Since then
the trend has accelerated and nearly 25% of students sitting A-level
will now receive an A-grade. At the same time, at least 30% of
the population now sit A-levels and many more sit A-level "equivalent"
type courses. Whereas in 1986 only around 5-10,000 A-level pupils
would pass an A-level at grade A today that figure is 30-40,000.
2. In 1980, UK universities educated about 20%
of school leavers, today that number is closer to 44% and is intended
to reach 50% by 2011. University attendance for popular courses,
such as psychology, has doubled or tripled since the late 1980s.
Over the last 20 years we have transitioned from a system of educating
a relatively small group of highly selected students to educating
a much larger group of much less clearly selected students. This
trend has accelerated since 1996 and has not been accompanied
by commensurate increases in resources, especially staff. Something
had to give and it appears that our students are no longer producing
work to the standards of the past but, nevertheless, receive degree
classifications that are improving. Nationally, in 2006-07 13%
of students received a first compared to 8% in 1996-97.
3. The obvious conclusion is that students
now receive upper degree classifications for work that would have
previously been graded with a lower degree classification. For
my final year course I have received essays that were almost impossible
to follow, largely empty of content, a regurgitation of lecture
notes or basic textbooks and factually incorrect. I routinely
awarded these essays low grades but have been brought under pressure,
internally and externally, to provide higher grades.
4. The following is lifted from an essay
that I would typically provide with a D grade, "In this essay
I will explore only the relative merits of the genetic predisposition
argument to alcohol independence as a branch of the biological
approach for comparisons with the merits of the cognitive-behavioural
perspective, most specifically the role of operant conditioning
in alcoholism… Arguably the statistics could be representative
of hidden population stratifications existing between the study
sample and the controls placing a cultural partiality on the findings
thus decreasing its reliability". The ambiguity and incoherence
is evident and as I cannot extract much sense from the prose I
can only assume that the student has little understanding of the
topic and thus deserves only a low grade. Indeed given that our
school criteria for a D include—a basic understanding
of theories but conclusions drawn may be unclear; the material
has a discernable structure but some sections may lack coherence
and/or direction—a D might even be considered generous.
5. Two years ago our external examiner added
3 marks to the grades provided for my final year course. When
I complained he stated that it was no longer 1986 and that we
cannot mark like we did in the past. We must, he said, look harder
for excellence. I regret that I did not press him on what he meant
by excellence.
6. The sentiments of our external examiner
have been echoed by my immediate colleagues here and elsewhere.
External examiners, it seems, are not under pressure to reduce
grades but are under pressure to ensure that grades rise. Not
via an improvement in work but via structural changes in assessment
and marking.
7. Subsequently my level 3 course was double
marked and essays I failed or gave low grades to received pass
grades or an increased grade. One student last year received an
F from me but a D after further marking. That student was then
profiled from a 2:2 overall to a 2:1. It is a single case but
not an exceptional one.
8. I understand why these pressures are
being applied. If grades fall and the university drops down the
league tables then we risk getting fewer students or worse students
or both. If we get fewer students we earn less money and risk
redundancies. If we get worse students we risk grades falling
further unless we lower standards. Given the pressures it is entirely
rational for universities to pressure their academics into providing
higher grades.
9. What is not so certain is why the attack
on standards is being received so passively. In the past education
was viewed as a means to create cultivated and capable human beings
who could argue their own corner. Consequently academics were
a prickly bunch who vigorously defended their independence and
put their students under pressure. In 1967 a report on the university's
role in social and political action stated, "The mission
of the University is the discovery, improvement and dissemination
of knowledge. Its domain of inquiry and scrutiny includes all
aspects and all values of society. In brief, a good university,
like Socrates, will be upsetting". In contrast, the slogan
for the University of Derby is, "Safe, Friendly and Supportive".
It is not that I want university to be unsafe, unfriendly and
unsupportive but education is inherently disturbing and has to
be tackled in a robust and forthright manner. If we have abandoned
that belief then we have abandoned the belief that people are
capable of education.
10. The unwillingness or inability to challenge
our students makes university life dull and boring. Education
is being replaced with instruction. Education involves critical
enquiry, debate and self-motivation. Crucial qualities include
active and independent learning, self-reliance, reflection and
evaluation. Instruction, in contrast, involves rote learning of
procedures and skills, learning to the test, accepting authority
and treating information as fact rather than evidence. The abundant
use of learning outcomes and handouts break university down into
fact sized chunks that can be swallowed and regurgitated. These
practices are destructive to the real purpose of a university.
11. Whoever and whatever caused these problems
it most certainly was not the students but it is the students
who are suffering the consequences. One obvious consequence is
receiving degree classifications that no longer mean what they
are supposed to. This was drummed home to me by one of my students
who was pleased he got a "proper first". A proper first,
apparently, is a first obtained across the board and not dependent
on one high grade or profiling. Less obvious consequences include
spending three years going through the motions of education at
not insignificant monetary and spiritual cost.
12. What can be done about this? Longer
courses and changes to the way degree classifications are delivered
represent commonly debated solutions. I think these proposals,
however, merely shift the goalposts while threatening to increase
the cost and agony to our students.
13. I don't have a magic solution but I
think the place to begin is with an understanding that our students
are capable of delivering much more but only if we do them the
honour of demanding it. Personally I think expecting anything
less is immoral.
14. Sources: UUK/HESA 2007; Ecclestone K,
Hayes D. The Dangerous Rise of Therapeutic Education. Routledge,
London, 2009
January 2009
19 The author is a senior lecturer in psychology at
the University of Birmingham. He obtained his first degree from
University College London in 1991 and his PhD from the University
of London in 1995. From there he took a research fellow position
at the University of Pittsburgh, USA in 1996 and was subsequently
employed as an assistant professor at the University of California,
Los Angeles and at the University of Pittsburgh. He returned to
the UK in 2005 when he joined the staff at the University of Birmingham. Back
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