Physics just got easier
According to Tim Oates, director of Cambridge Assessment, which owns and manages OCR one of the leading exam setting bodies, the physics syllabus has been made easier. The reason for this, apparently, was to make it easier to attract girls and less bright pupils to study physics at A level.
(I find it pretty offensive to females to regard them as less intelligent. I’m sure that some of the girls I know from Oxford University studying maths would feel the same, as would my PhD wife).
What happens when less bright pupils get to university? According to Alison Wolf who headed a government-ordered review into vocational education, universities are having to provide catch-up classes because too may teenagers with top A-level grades are not ready to cope with the rigours of a degree.
So, that’s a good reason to make A levels easier then?
Is a Degree worth it?
There is lots of talk about university fees at present. Will the UK move towards the USA system with universities free to charge students what the market will bear for tuition. If so, it would free universities from state control on numbers of students and generally require students to fund their own education. Of course, the universities would provide grants to high calibre students whose parents were of modest means. (Oxford University already supports 30% of it’s undergraduates through their bursary scheme).
But what are the implications of the USA system? In the USA university fees can be as high as £29,000 a year and so a student could emerge from university with a debt approaching £90,000. Continue Reading »
Discrimination in the City?
Why is it that the findings from a survey of 450 Oxford University undergraduates prompted calls for financial services companies to enhance their appeal to women? Why is it that 70% of the female undergraduates thought that discrimination would mean poorer prospects for promotion, half thought that they would face discrimination in workplace culture, 35% in day-to-day treatment, and just under 30% in the flexibility of working hours?
Are the female undergraduates Continue Reading »