With the expansion in university numbers, there has been a divisive debate about how much students (and their families) should actually pay.

There are several arguments to suggest the government should provide university education free at the point of use, and make it available to everyone.

1. Greater Equality.

Free education enables everyone to have the opportunity of studying. It also avoids the complexity of means testing systems

2. University Education is a Merit Good.

People often underestimate the benefits of studying at university. This is exacerbated by the fact that the benefits of studying are a long time in the future. If people have to pay it will encourage people to leave education at 18 or 16.

3. Positive Externality of University Education.

University education gives benefits to the rest of society. For example, a qualified doctor helps treat other people. People with degrees can become teachers and impart knowledge. Therefore, the social benefit of universities are higher than private benefit. Therefore, in a free market university education will be underconsumed, because the free market ignores these positive externalities. This justifies the government providing it free at the point of use.

4. Difficulty of Finance

In the US, students often leave university with very significant debts. This creates financial stress from a very young age. In the UK, student debt is becoming an increasing problem. It forces many students to take part time jobs whilst studying. Student loans can be a disincentive to get a better paid job, because low paid jobs do not need to pay them back

See also: Why Students should pay to goto University

Labels: education

Apparently, it is worth 'half a GCSE' - I'm not exactly sure what that means. But, the new qualification is aimed at educating young people about sensible drinking.

With alcohol abuse costing the economy over £3billion a year, - not to mention health and social affects, there seems to be some good reasoning behind the new scheme.

It is estimated 25,000 school children drink to excess every week.

Make Mine a half

Labels: education

To all those who recently got their A level results - I hope you did as well as you deserved. If you were disappointed you might be considering having them remarked.

It is not easy to say whether this is a good thing or not. However, it is worth considering these points.

• Remarks are more likely to go up as well as down.
• However, this may be because people will only remark if they were dissappointed and did less well than expected.
• Ideally, you would get your teacher to look through your script and compare it to the mark scheme. This should give them an idea if you have been harshly treated.
  
• However, it is worth bearing in mind, it is more difficult for a teacher to judge a Mark scheme who didn't get the training professional markers did.
• It is said that students from private schools get an advantage from the process of remarking. - Why? well, students from private schools are much more likely to get scripts remarked and remarked scripts are more likely to go up than down.
• If the grade has cost you the place and you really feel you deserved more then it might well be worth it.
• In my experience, it is difficult for students to judge how well they did in an exam. For example, you may write good economics, but, unfortunately answer the wrong question.

From my experience of marking economics, there is always an element of subjectivity in marking. Basically, this means that even the best examiners will have small differences for the same paper. However, during remarks any benefit of the doubt issues will generally not be changed. Examiners are looking for clear errors in application of the mark scheme.

Labels: education

Every now and then you will get a newspaper report showing how an 11 year old Chinese kid can do a British A Level maths exam, aimed at 18 year olds.

Does this mean British education is falling?

No, what it means is that the Chinese education system places great emphasis on learning maths. I doubt that the Chinese have a natural inclination for maths, it is simply that this is the kind of learning that is encouraged. If you placed a British kid in a Chinese school, there is no reason that they would not develop a similar good standard. One complaint of Chinese students in the UK is how everyone assumes they will be good at Maths, just because they are Chinese. This is a fair point, just because you are made to study Maths extensively, doesn't mean you have to like it or feel a natural affinity for the subject.

Limitation of Chinese Education.

The newspaper reports which highlight the gap in a subject like Maths, rarely report the other side of the equation. Basically, Chinese education is good at Maths, but when it comes to independent thought it is sadly lacking. Despite the many failings of British education, A levels are testing in that they require students to evaluate questions, considering both sides and go beyond merely repeating standard textbook answers. Learning by rote is not the route to success for A Levels. They do require a high degree of understanding and evaluation. Take a student from a Chinese school and they will find the A Level standard quite perplexing.

It is in writing essays that Chinese education shows its limitations. Chinese education does not encourage independent thought or evaluation of written material. Instead, emphasis is placed on learning by rote.

For example, ask a Chinese student what they think about Chairman Mao; in 90% of cases they will repeat by rote how:

• He was a great figure,
• but, made a few mistakes.
• On balance he was about 70% right.

What always strikes me is how all the Chinese always repeat this mythical figure of 70% right. Obviously someone decided this the figure of 70% is what should be on the curriculum.

Can you image 95% of British students repeating by rote:

• Margaret Thatcher, great person,
• made a few mistakes,
• overall about 70% correct.

(and let us remember Margaret Thatcher, for all her failings, didn't lead to the deaths of over 20 million of her own countrymen)

Other Myths you get from Chinese Education

Democracy is maybe OK for the UK, but there are too many people in China for it to work. Democracy in China would lead to the disintegration of society.

The Tiananmen Square massacre of 1989 is unknown to the majority of the Chinese students. If they come from the south away, from Bejing, they may know about it. But, those brought up in Beijing rarely have any idea.

Labels: education