The common tempestuous cry from students has become “Is this course credit bearing?” or “What credit do I get for doing it?” However, just as frequent is the faculty refrain, like Sirens on the rocks ready to wreck any new fangled management plan cruising past, “Is there workload credit for doing this?” Some fundamental shift has happened, especially in the contemporary, utilitarian, transactional Business School – neither staff nor students will engage, unless there is a credit or two attached to whatever they are being asked to do. Credit and Business School Certainly within a Business School, university education has…
Category: Issues in Academia
How to Pass Your Final Exam
The Final Exam is Coming! The final exam can often make or break the overall result. I have worked in systems that, regardless of the overall grade, if the final exam is failed then the whole course is gone too. I have also worked places where the final exam pass mark is so low that even if they just write their name on the front of the answer paper, in the correct box, it would potentially account for being half way to a pass. However, please note, that in this type of institution, it is unlikely that the student can…
Plagiarism Police
Well today was really wasted, it was my first meeting with a member of the Plagiarism Police. It was never going to go well, as I had a pile of marking to do and no time to waste. Just as I was getting going, I hit a wall. It turns out one of my idiot undergrads had copied a chunk of one of my own articles and stuck it in the middle of their essay. Now, for me, the greatest surprise was not that they had done this, but that I had actually been paying close enough attention when marking…
Coronavirus, University Tuition Fees and Lectures
What is happening with Coronavirus and Tuition Fees? I think the short answer to what is happening with coronavirus, university tuition fees and lectures is nobody really knows! I would treat with great scepticism anyone that tells you they know what will be happening and their University will be returning for the first semester in October and there will be no problems! Universities will want their tuition fees. Now, I don’t want to say they’re lying but they are probably doing a very good impression of the village idiot. Five months ago no one would have predicted the mess…