Forums > Personal > The numpties are taking over - funny or sad?

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Talk about being spoon-fed!

http://education.guardian.co.uk/higher/news/story/0,,1706051,00.html

Guardian Unlimited home

School leavers lack basic skills, say universities

Universities are dismayed by the poor levels of literacy and numeracy among school leavers who arrive in higher education expecting to be "spoon-fed", according to a new study.
Tutors at 16 universities - including Oxford and Cambridge - complained that many school leavers lacked a good grip of grammar and had a "fear of numbers".

...Focus groups of 250 lecturers and admissions tutors found that increasing amounts of time were being lost at the beginning of degree courses in remedial work, ranging from maths to essay writing.

"Remedial maths courses are on offer and the department has employed a learning officer to help with 'how to learn'," one tutor told the Nuffield study.

Another said: "No actual civil engineering is done in the first semester, and the second year material has now moved to the third year."

Comments on written work included: "They cut and paste essays from the web. Reading books is a skill which has been lost."

An admissions tutor at a "selecting" university said: "I was able to skim the cream of candidates, but even they do not necessarily know how to use an apostrophe."

Physics admissions tutors complained: "They can't even write in sentences. Their spelling is appalling. They can't be understood ... they graduate with a 2:1 but they still can't spell or write English."

And from biology admissions tutors: "Elementary maths is missing. They can't put decent sentences together" and "Students hate numbers, they're scared stiff of numbers."

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And how does the wife feel about that?! :-)

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well, it kind of is similar. Only about 30% of the people who go to college actually graduate. And, no, Tommy Boy doesnt count.

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What the hell? Maybe if you play D-1 football.

If a school graduated only 30%, it would go out of business quickly. Grad rates are higher than that, though the minority get them done in 4 years. Most students take 5-6 years anymore, especially if their fraternity is under double secret probation.

EDIT - after looking through some stats, including those from the NCAA, it looks like the nation average is around 50%-60%. Community Colleges are lower, which may affect the overall average.

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I graduated with my four year degree in four years. Although I had to go summers as well to get in all my classes because I had many practicums to complete. I had to finish my degree in four years because my dad said all he was paying for was four years. I'm thankful for that too. I've been out of college for 9 years and I've got friends who started the same time as me and are STILL working on their four year degree.