[LINK] "Group Assessment"

[JLWhitaker]

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
jwhit at janwhitaker.com
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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