The biggest scandal in higher education is lowering the bar

[Ptarmigan]

The biggest scandal in higher education is lowering the bar
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/biggest-scandal-higher-education-lowering-bar

When it comes to higher education, there is no shortage of scandals, but perhaps the biggest scandal is how colleges and universities drop academic standards to match the proficiency levels of today’s student population. When professors lower standards, we are diminishing the quality of education, cheapening our own profession, and betraying the core mission of academia — to transmit knowledge, foster critical thinking, and prepare students for the professional world that awaits them.

Recently, New York University announced that it would not be renewing Professor Maitland Jones Jr.’s contract. Professor Jones believes he was terminated after 82 of his 350 students signed a petition stating that the course was too difficult and that he was responsible for their failing grades.

According to the students, "a class with such a high percentage of withdrawals and low grades has failed to make students’ learning and well-being a priority." NYU’s decision reflects a growing body of evidence that students view professors as nothing more than customer service representatives, and they believe academic standards should be pushed aside to promote "equity" and placate a fragile student population. In Professor Jones's case, it appears that faculty are no longer in charge of their classrooms as the ever-growing number of administrators seek to usurp their authority.

While Professor Jones's case is highly disturbing, even more disturbing are the recent trends in education as a whole. A Wall Street Journal study found that at least one-third of college seniors were unable to develop a cohesive argument, identify quality evidence, and interpret data. The study also found that students graduating from prestigious universities have little to no improvement in their abilities to think critically.

Higher education is not higher education. Standards keep getting lower and lower.

[Eupher]

I'd be interested in knowing what the demographics are for these 82 "students" who bitched about a chemistry course being too tough.

How many of them are hung up on pronouns? How many of them crave their "safe spaces?" How many of them believe there are more than two sexes? How many of them have purple hair and a bolt running through their noses? How many of them can actually read and write at an 8th grade level?

[ADsOutburst]

A Wall Street Journal study found that at least one-third of college seniors were unable to develop a cohesive argument, identify quality evidence, and interpret data.

I’m kind of surprised it’s only a third.

[SVPete]

High school "education" has been so dumbed down for so long and so widely that a high school diploma has become close to worthless in many areas.

Among other consequences of this, many colleges and universities have lowered or dropped admissions standards (except for certain Asian ethnic minorities, of course). This leads to higher drop-out rates, forcing the institution to "deal with" that high drop-out rate, and it looks like punishing high standards is at least an option being used (it used to be that non-credit remedial courses were how lacking students could try to come up to speed, but I wonder if that is falling into administrative disfavor).

How long before critical professions such as in medical and engineering fields get swamped with dumbed-down mediocrities?

How long before high school graduates from private and home schools and college graduates from private universities and colleges that refused to dumb down their courses become a quasi-elite-of-the-capable? Or maybe a more accurate question would be how far down that path has the US gone already.

My daughter was studying at a university in China, in her junior year (in US terms) when she came home for the January 2020 semester break and lunar new year holiday. Courtesy of Covid and Xi's No Covid policy, she is still here. With some delay on the part of her university, she and her fellow foreign students were allowed to take classes via a Zoom-like program, and she completed her degree, in Chinese Language and culture. With apologies for that long set-up, here's my points. To get her degree, an equivalent of a BA:

* She had to pass the Level 3 Chinese Proficiency exam (we had to make a sort of small isolation room in which she could see nothing but her table, chair, and computer, because it's a strictly proctored exam). This is required because students getting this degree could go on to become Chinese language teachers in China's schools.

* She had to write a 5000 (IIRC) character thesis, and present and "defend" it, somewhat similar to what is required of US students pursuing an MA or PhD degree.

BTW, in much/most of EuroLand and in China, secondary school students take an exam that determines who will be allowed to go to university, who can go to trade schools, and who will simply have their high school type diploma. This is the kind of standards to which university/college students outside of the US are being held. Meanwhile in the US, standards are being dumbed down, diluted with irrelevant pseudo-qualifications, and simply shit-canned.