More graduates than ever, but increasing polarisation of grades
The latest batch of statistics from the HESA, the body responsible for collecting data about students, were released today and they make interesting reading if you have the patience.
The headline figures, which will be reported widely in the press, are that the number of first-time graduates is at an all-time high (282,100, since you ask) and the number of science graduates was up from 42% in 2002/03 to 43% in 2003/04 – this at a time when universities are closing departments, allegedly because of falling student numbers.
Of course, just because their degrees are classed as science it doesn't mean graduates did the "right" (read: traditional) subjects. While the numbers doing biological sciences remained constant and those for medicine and dentistry rose, the number of students doing physical sciences and engineering both fell.
Pass rates, as always, will come in for some scrutiny. The usual line of attack is that since record numbers of students are passing, standards must surely be falling, students are wasting their time, the nation is facing economic meltdown, etc etc.
The number of students getting the top two grades increased by 5,000, but the overall percentage stayed the same as the last two years at 55%. Within this number there has been a slight drift from 2:1 to first, again as in the last two years – 10.5% got the top grade, 44.5% got an upper second-class degree. Broadly speaking, the better students are getting even better.
2:1 remained the most popular degree classification, followed by 2:2 at 30.9%. This was down slightly on last year, while the proportions getting third-class and pass grades rose slightly. We can assume from this that the worst students are getting worse.
So what conclusions can be drawn? Students still want to do science, but not necessarily in the traditional form. More students as a proportion are getting firsts, but equally a greater percentage are getting the lowest grades. This presents a problem for tabloid columnists, since they can hardly argue that degrees are getting both easier and harder at the same time – unless, of course, the brightest students are doing the easiest subjects and the least able students are doing the hardest ones.
In essence, the trend of polarisation is continuing: more students are getting the best grades, which devalues them and furthers the impression that the lowest grades – themselves an achievement – are worthless. With more school-leavers being encouraged into higher education by the government – by definition mainly lower achievers - this worrying trend looks set to continue.
Send this article to a friend