Mommy has to sign your report card..

[theshadowhost]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/education/universityeducation/3229424/Universities-to-offer-degree-report-cards.html

hopefull it will say stuff like: "X didnt work in his first semester and spent every tutorial asleep. he retook all the first and second yr modules and fluked a 2:1"

I would be happy if was a fair reflection of people's efforts. but if all uni's aren't doing it - it may do more harm than good if you aren't a top student.

[Duggeh]

It will initially be used by students taking English, biology, accounting and creative arts degrees.

Thank christ I'll squeeze through on the old numbers system. The first half of my sheet would not read well.

[Hennessy]

Creative Arts Degrees? Doesnt include Classics I hope, what a load of tosh. There are more people getting firsts because there are more people in the system than ever before, if you want to focus on rampant grade inflation it's the secondary school system that has been most affected, mostly because of government meddling. If schools operated a system which took those with interests outside academic work and fostered them in vocational courses without any of the associated stigma (which may I add Labour has doen nothing to assuage), then there would be no need to cram universities with 50% of school leavers, many of whom won't do well there and will end up with a big fat debt to the government and to the taxpayer. Any grade inflation is due to tertiary education establishments having simply too many people and thus the most intelligent percentiles achieving better grades on average. To adapt Tacitus; the more corrupt an institution the more it legislates.

[David Bean]

Too right! What we need is not 50% of school leavers going to university, but 100% of people having the opportunity to gain qualifications that will allow them to pursue careers that interest them and have a good life, based on the skills our society actually needs.

That's why the Conservative Party pledges to offer real apprenticeships and an end to arbitrary targets, not still more of this illiberal window-dressing nonsense that will force employers to spend a week trying to figure out exactly what every candidate's experience at university is supposed to mean to them - that's why they have assessment processes, for God's sake, and the government isn't going to be able to devise a system that caters to all their needs, whatever its pretensions may be.

[Al]

I don't see the point of this. Surely every student already has access to their academic transcript. What is going to be on these reports that makes them sufficiently different? Besides, most employers know and understand the various divisions of degrees. If employers are not already asking for a complete breakdown of a job candidate's university education as part of the application process, the chances are that they don't care. Shoving in extra - and unasked for - pieces of paper is not going to endear the candidate to anyone, and the forms'll probably go straight in the bin.