Tuesday, March 22, 2005

MARKET-FORCES NEEDED

First, and most obvious, universities operate, for all functional purposes, outside the market. They trumpet their "competitive" positions, but in fact most of them are immune to any real market influences. For example, they don't respond to price, because there is absolutely no price competition among universities. Oh, you see some differential among "tiers" of providers---much the way you'd see a difference in price between a Beverly Hills plastic surgeon and one in Cincinnati---but among the major state schools and the large non-Ivy privates, virtually all of the so-called "competition" comes in the form of "student support" that they provide. This "support," of course, is no different than what happens in jewellery stores in malls, where the prices are jacked up double or triple, then prices "slashed" back to where they would normally be. Universities overprice themselves by 30%, then essentially rebate to a majority of students some form of "support" that is already built into the pricing structure.

Second, a corollary of the pricing system is that it has reshaped the way students and parents see costs at the university and the way legislatures fund schools. When you talk to anyone in university advancement, or development, or enrolment, and you argue for cutting tuitions, they all say the same thing: "Students expect support. It's part of our marketing and advertising." Again, that might be well and good in a normal functioning market, because there would always be a high-quality, low-cost alternative that would attract large numbers of top students. But a two-fold "snob" factor is at work:

1) students judge their worth on how much (largely bogus) support they get from a school, and

2) universities measure their success largely by how many top students they attract, regardless of what they have to give away to get them. My own midwestern university just revels in the fact that it is recruiting actively in Florida and Puerto Rico---when kids right here in Dayton might otherwise be able to afford to attend school here if the prices were lower. I think it is fruitless to be concerned about what is taught on university campuses unless or until we can somehow make schools once again sensitive to costs that are substantially borne by the majority of the consumers.

More here







ANOTHER COLLAPSE OF STANDARDS -- IN AUSTRALIA

The nation's most prestigious academic institution, Sydney University, has been shaken by more than 300 students being investigated for cheating in their studies. The problem of "academic dishonesty" was most acute in the veterinary faculty where 73 students were suspected of cheating in one subject - more than 10 per cent of faculty enrolment. A The Daily Telegraph investigation into plagiarism in universities shows cut-and-pasting from the internet has become so widespread that spy software such as Turnitin is now used routinely to catch cheats. Sydney University faculty reports on student dishonesty, obtained under Freedom of Information laws, show the sandstone institution is struggling with a rash of cheating in some areas.

In the veterinary science faculty, the 73 students faced an inquiry over copying or fabricating assignments in the animal husbandry subject VETS 4331. The number under suspicion represents a large chunk of the entire faculty enrolment of 628. The subject required students to submit reports based on field visits to properties detailing their experiences managing animals. "All markers expressed concern about apparent plagiarism in some reports and nominated 73 reports as contained identical or very similar material," an internal inquiry concluded. Following an investigation many students were given the benefit of the doubt and 23 students faced interviews with an external review panel to explain anomalies. Many had to resubmit work although only one was ultimately failed by the faculty, reputedly the nation's best in its field.

Sydney University's faculty of health sciences, which offers courses in physiotherapy, occupational therapy and radiotherapy, was another problem area, registering 80 cases of cheating. Of these, 29 were failed as a result while 31 were given written warnings and 17 were counselled. The faculty of agriculture, food and natural resources reported 39 investigations. There were another 29 in economics and business.

But Sydney is not alone in battling the problem. The University of Western Sydney investigated 39 cases last year. Plagiarism problems at the University of Newcastle involving full-fee paying students at a partner Malaysian institution developed into a full-blown scandal in 2003 and a ICAC inquiry.

The ease of plagiarism from the internet has prompted universities to go to extraordinary lengths to catch the cheats. Licences to use anti-plagiarism system Turnitin have now been purchased by 25 Australian universities to catch students who cut-and-paste from the internet. In NSW, these universities include Macquarie and University of Technology and Newcastle.

Source




What once was: "I don't know whether or not I should admit this, but here goes: I'm a product of the public school system. Of course, public schools not so very many years ago were quite different than the public schools we see today. I can read and write proper English (I can even speak it when I've a mind to do so) because failing in those endeavors meant, well, failing. I can balance my checkbook and make change for a twenty because math teachers didn't allow calculators in classes until we were advanced enough for algebra. And I can find Iraq on a map because my geography teacher wouldn't let any of us move in the direction of the 8th grade until we learned in 7th grade how to read a typical map. Unfortunately, things have changed since I was a student."

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For greatest efficiency, lowest cost and maximum choice, ALL schools should be privately owned and run -- with government-paid vouchers for the poor and minimal regulation.

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