Top universities including Oxford and Cambridge have been given the green light to move away from “traditional” exams in a bid to boost the grades of minority groups and poorer students.
The elite British institutions could move towards more “inclusive assessments” such as open-book tests or take-home papers instead of in-person, unseen exams in an effort to close the grades gap.
However, the plans have been criticised for potentially “dumbing down” university courses for students.
The approach was unveiled under proposals, known as Access and Participation Plans, which universities must release each year as per their registration conditions to show how they are helping students from disadvantaged backgrounds.
Under the proposals, the University of Oxford’s APP states it will “use a more diverse and inclusive range of assessments”, which would help to “improve the likelihood” of students from “lower socio-economic backgrounds” achieving better grades.
According to the University of Cambridge’s plan, “assessment practices” may be to blame for “awarding gaps” and it hoped to “improve outcomes” for Black-British and British-Bangladeshi students.
The document also references research by its own academics which describes traditional exams as “threats to self-worth”.
The Office for Students has now backed the plans, which are also being looked at by other Russell Group institutions.
It comes as universities face pressure to close the gap between the number of firsts and 2:1 degrees given to white, middle-class students compared with other groups.
FFS......why bother making them sit exams at all? Just take their money and give them the diploma.
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Topic: I really can't believe this shit (Read 1052 times)