How mass education is lowering the standard of our universities

This month, thousands of Australian students will celebrate entry to university and the start of their tertiary studies. At the same time, politicians and VCs will congratulate themselves on increased participation rates and Australia's success at becoming the 'knowledge' nation.

In an increasingly competitive world, where future prosperity relies on 'smart' industries and technology, the reality is that it will be those countries with the strongest tertiary sector that achieve success.

Unfortunately though, there is mounting evidence that our universities and colleges fail the 'standards' test. Instead of developing academic excellence and high-quality education, many of our tertiary courses promote a 'dumbed down' and mediocre level of ability.

Evidence of falling standards can be found in the recently released report, Changes in Academic Work prepared for the federal Department of Education and Science. The report presents the results of a national survey of some 2000 academics and addresses issues such as the quality of first-year students and the quality of degrees being granted.

The first thing to note about the report is that, notwithstanding the fact that all tertiary institutions pride themselves as being intellectually rigorous, "there was no VC or dean who had any valid or reliable means of knowing about the intellectual standards of their university's degrees …".

Worse still, 54 per cent of academics completing the questionnaire felt that the standards required to gain a degree have been 'dumbed down' and 40 per cent "reported an increase in the award of higher grades" as many succumbed to the pressure to lower standards "so that fewer students failed".

Especially with overseas students, the mantra from those in charge of our universities is more 'bums' on seats to guarantee increased funding and revenue, instead of maintaining rigorous intellectual standards.

As the report notes, the tertiary sector alone cannot be blamed for falling standards. Equally to blame is a secondary-school system that fails to properly equip students for tertiary study.

As noted in the report, when academics were asked about whether standards had declined over time, "almost half said standards of incoming students had declined". Lower levels of student ability explain why so many university departments, in particular in maths and science, have had to rewrite first-year courses to make them easier.

Further evidence of falling standards is the increasing number of first-year students requiring 'remedial courses' in English and maths. Even after six years of secondary school, the sad reality is that increasing numbers of students cannot write a properly structured, grammatically correct essay or undertake basic computational tasks.

The result? As noted by the academics interviewed in the above-named report, "The less able students, and those with inadequate skills in English or other basic skills, are very demanding of time".

Added to the problem of academics having to waste valuable time teaching the 'basics' is the financial cost of meeting the needs of under-performing students. While Australian research into the problem of remedial courses is almost non-existent, American research proves how significant the problem can be.