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slapntickle
Joined: 07 Sep 2010 Posts: 270
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Posted: Sun Feb 26, 2017 3:48 pm Post subject: Universities admit students who are 'almost illiterate' . . |
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By Camilla Turner, education editor
16 FEBRUARY 2017 • 7:09PM
Universities are admitting students who are “almost illiterate”, lecturers warn as they complain that dropping entry requirements has led to a generation of undergraduates who cannot read, write or speak proper English.
Almost half of academics (48 per cent) do not think that students are adequately prepared for university study, according to a Times Higher Education (THE) survey of over 1,000 academic staff.
Many academics believe that slipping standards are to blame, with one lecturer from a red brick university telling the survey: “Each year, the entry requirements for undergraduate programmes are reduced, meaning we get a high number of students who are almost illiterate.”
Another senior lecturer in nursing at a university in northern England, said: “We can now see a whole generation of registered nurses who cannot read critically or write coherently but who have somehow passed a degree – this is worrying”.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/2017/02/16/universities-admit-students-almost-illiteratelecturers-warn/ |
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spiral78
Joined: 05 Apr 2004 Posts: 11534 Location: On a Short Leash
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Posted: Sun Feb 26, 2017 5:28 pm Post subject: |
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Hmmm. What's new here? Teachers have said this for millennia. The only scary thing in this news from my perspective is that I (gulp) agree with it. I am clearly getting Older.... |
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bograt
Joined: 12 Nov 2014 Posts: 331
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Posted: Mon Feb 27, 2017 9:07 am Post subject: |
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Quote: |
Hmmm. What's new here? Teachers have said this for millennia |
Which brings up the question, if standards really have slipped would there ever be general acknowledgement of the fact? One way to try and show it would be to compare past exam papers with those of today but then again the argument will always be used that students today study different kinds of things or are better at other forms of assessment. Since 'standards' could be argued are a subjective concept, I guess the question will never really be answered. |
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slapntickle
Joined: 07 Sep 2010 Posts: 270
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Posted: Mon Feb 27, 2017 12:53 pm Post subject: |
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bograt wrote: |
Since 'standards' could be argued are a subjective concept, I guess the question will never really be answered. |
Oh yes it will be. It's really quite simple: there has been a proliferation of colleges and universities that are reliant on student fees to survive, so standards have dropped in order to get the number of required bums on seats. You might say that the IELTS test separates the wheat from the chaff, but some universities are allowing students to get onto a presessional with scores as low as 4.0, and expecting the poor teacher to get them up to speed in a few months. It's a big scam and I'm glad that lecturers are finally bringing the issue to the public's attention. |
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bograt
Joined: 12 Nov 2014 Posts: 331
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Posted: Mon Feb 27, 2017 2:09 pm Post subject: |
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slapntickle wrote: |
bograt wrote: |
Since 'standards' could be argued are a subjective concept, I guess the question will never really be answered. |
Oh yes it will be. It's really quite simple: there has been a proliferation of colleges and universities that are reliant on student fees to survive, so standards have dropped in order to get the number of required bums on seats. You might say that the IELTS test separates the wheat from the chaff, but some universities are allowing students to get onto a presessional with scores as low as 4.0, and expecting the poor teacher to get them up to speed in a few months. It's a big scam and I'm glad that lecturers are finally bringing the issue to the public's attention. |
Yeah I wasn't really talking about foreign students but I see the article mentions them. it's not really clear whether they're the main focus of concern |
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slapntickle
Joined: 07 Sep 2010 Posts: 270
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