Several people have recommended an article to me that was printed in the Guardian a week ago about a move in UK university education to introduce what has been dubbed a Higher Education Achievement Report (HEAR). The report will provide a far more detailed record of student achievement throughout their studies than those insulting and impoverished things we know as grades and, although the current recommendation is that the HEAR should incorporate the degree classification (1st class, 3rd Class etc.), it is anticipated that more innovative and appropriate alternatives to this may be developed in future.
The sooner, the better!
Of course employers are only going to read the degree classification....
ReplyDeleteMore fool them then. Yet another reason for jettisoning grades and a more meaningful use of references.
ReplyDeleteReally? Which piece of research showed conclusively that there is any better system than traditional grades? I know they are unfashionable, but are we so sure there is a problem? In all subjects?
ReplyDeleteGrades aren't perfect, but it is my understanding that no-one has actually proven anything else is fairer.
Wouldn't a more extensive use or references actually widen the scope for abuse by lecturers, for punishment of non-conformity, or even for being the wrong class, colour or religion?
Many HE lecturers are opposed to the aims of business, and few understand them. Why would an employer care what they thought of anything other than the student's academic abilities?
Who is to say that employers are wrong to take a combination of institution and degree classification as a proxy for a combination of smarts and persistence?
Sure, it won't tell them how much a student is contributing to cultural life, but since they are looking to make money by selling the student labour cheaper than they buy it, why would they care about that?
Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that the employer's opinion is the only one that counts across all subjects. I'm not saying this is how things should be, I'm saying that how they are.
It must be nice not to have to care about making a living, and to be rich enough to study what interests you with no thought to the cost of the course, and how you are going to pay your loans back, but for anyone not in that situation, these things do matter.
I see where you’re coming from but, on the other hand, grades provide about as limited information as is humanly possible as testament to years of a student’s effort and engagement (or lack of). From the articles I’ve read (though I admit I’d have to seek them out) most employers take little notice of grades. They’re more interested in experience and references. If this is true then I don’t see that they’d miss much if grades weren’t available. The advantage of the HEAR would be the provision of a more complete picture of the student’s journey through their studies rather than the final flash in the pan right at the end of a course. If I were an employer I know what I’d take most seriously but yes certainly in the realm of subjective evaluations (humanities) nothing is going to be perfect so a healthy scepticism would still be an essential requirement on the part of employers.
ReplyDeleteOnce again we come down to the difference between disciplines that involve facts and disciplines that involve opinions. The HEAR would seem to provide a better method of capturing of the most appropriate ‘data’ for each and could certainly continue to include grades if this was felt appropriate.