Nanny is reforming how universities are ranked via the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF), whereby universities will be awarded gold, silver or bronze medals on the basis of a range of factors including student satisfaction, teaching excellence and preparation for the world of work.
Universities are currently ranked based on quality of research output.
This will pressurise universities to pander to the demands of "snowflake" students, and universities will give in to student demands, however unreasonable they may be.
As we have seen, "safe space" and "no platform" movements have swept across campuses including a campaign to ban Germaine Greer from giving a speech over her "offensive" comments.
Baroness Wolf, a professor at King’s College London (KCL), is quoted by the Telegraph:
“Universities are increasingly nervous about doing anything that will create overt dissatisfaction among students because they are being told that student satisfaction is key.This will end in tears!
It has had a real effect on the willingness of universities to stand up to student demands which in the past have been removing statues, safe spaces and no-platforming. This whole movement is a direct threat to academic standards and the ability of universities to stand up for freedom of speech.
The student satisfaction measure is fantastically dangerous. The way to make students happy is not asking them to do any work and giving them a high grade.
This whole movement is a direct threat to academic standards and the ability of universities to stand up for freedom of speech.
This will reduce standards and undermine quality. I just think this is totally mad, and destructive of everything universities stand for.”
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Student satisfaction and preparation for the world of work?
ReplyDeleteSurely the two are mutually exclusive? If you indulge the snowflake, you don't prepare them for work in the real world, if you don't, they're not satisfied.
Yikes!
ReplyDelete"Students in a Bible course at the University of Glasgow are being given trigger warnings before being shown images of the crucifixion — and permission to skip those lessons altogether if they are worried they’ll feel too uncomfortable."
http://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2017/01/theology-students-in-college-bible-class-get-trigger-warning-permission-to-skip-studying-crucifixion.html
I have never thought that universities prepare people for work, except in a very small number of professional fields - and even then they have a significant amount of job experience before they are allowed to 'fly solo' For the vast majority of students university is the exact opposite of preparation for the real world - it's a three year stretch in a particularly comfortable isolation ward.
ReplyDeleteDear Mr Frost
ReplyDeleteThis is the intention. Conditioning the livestock for the planned future of entitlement and tantrums and ultimately tears before bedtime, or indeed any other time.
The snowflakes won’t know what’s hit them.
DP