'People with mediocre grades should not be allowed to go to university'

[cocaine]

I was browsing through a website called The Student Room, where I happened to stumble across this thread
http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/show....php?t=1773989

The debate is people who do not achieve above a certain level of grade (in this case, ABB-BBB) should not deserve to go to university. Half the thread is against this, half for. I think it's ridiculous and that A-Levels aren't necessarily an indicator of academic ability, particularly when studying techniques are so different between further and higher education. Here's a link to my post which explains my argument.

Thoughts?

[-:Undertaker:-]

I agree with this, that far too many people go to university - I myself perhaps shouldn't be eligable as I don't put the work in because I know that I will likely float through it all. The idea in the first place to expand the universities was a ridiculous decision and even more ridiculous was the decision to aim to have 50% of people go to university.

The problem is, with an over-regulated and over-taxed economy there are no jobs in general - therefore people, including myself, have no choice but to go to university just to be considered for the jobs that there are at present.

Its a very sad and complicated situation.

[Lost_Addict]

Agreed with above, with my Grades (ABC) i would only just skim into uni. However it was a ridiculous descison to increase university capacities. I always have and always will believe universities should be for the more academic subjects (Biology, Physics, Math, Business, Computing). You can pretty much study anything at Uni now. Why do Drama at uni rather than go to an acting school? Some courses are as ridiculous as Hairdressing at uni. Sorry i'm ranting a bit

[Accipiter]

I was the highest achiever in my class and i'm basically the only 1 not to go to uni because I feel putting effort in to getting a role in the industry is cheaper than having 30k debts

I personally think uni is a sham in most cases due to the high prices & them accepting people with below criteria needs. Especially when UCAS rejects people with high grades because of the mass numbers of people applying for courses with low grades, it's just a first come first serve system which I see as wrong.

[N!ck]

I agree. Anybody who couldn't get at least AAB at A-level would fail hilariously on my course considering the relative ease of them. The whole point of university is that it's difficult and only for the most academic of people. Anything otherwise and you're talking about a mickey-mouse degree at fake "university".

[TheEclipse]

It depends what they're going to university *for*. If they're allowed in to be doctors? Heck no.

[Mathew]

I do think it's rather problematic that degrees are now being handed out to everyone when it was only the very highest achievers who were elegible previously. Whilst I do think it's nice for everyone to have equal opportunities, I don't think this problem is going to be reduced in the near future and we're going to be in an even bigger mess than we are now; everyone will have degrees and there's no jobs to go in to.

Admittedly on the flip side though, grades don't tell you everything about a person. The EPQ is the perfect example (I'm doing it this year too) - you're given the freedom to research anything you like, how you like, and then compile it all into one essay and presentation. For example, I've decided to investigate whether regional accents are dying out or not. I put the effort in, in my own time, to visit the University of Leeds library, I looked on the internet and I arranged a meeting with two professors of linguistics at the University of York. It uses the skills you will need at university and surely if you complete that to a high standard then you can tackle anything - if you put the effort in.

[beth]

haha i have AAA but i don't agree with this proposition. i don't know why everyone is so worried about what everyone else is doing, focus on yrself. if they're gonna fail, they'll leave part-way through the course. slagging someone elses grades off won't make yrs any better.

university should be for all, everybody deserves an education. but to contradict myself, i don't think people who take that education for granted deserve an education. it should be there for those that want it though.

that probably makes no sense.

[Recursion]

Really don't want to write a wall of text...

Yes, the system needs a reform, but A Levels aren't the be all and end all of a subject. I went to a school which did A Level courses totally out of my interests (ended up taking Theology, English and Geography) so I wasn't going to get AAAs from the get-go, yet at university you're going to be studying a topic that's a lot 'closer to home' and is better taught overall. Loughborough wanted ABB or something to get onto their CS course, so I opted to apply for a Foundation Year which will top my qualifications up with the maths I need to get through the BSc course afterwards.

For an example of 'it's not all about A Level grades', I know someone who ended up with CDD at A Level, still got into Uni and is now earning over £50k in his 20s.

And then what about people with BTECs etc? Where do you draw the line for letting those people on a course?

[Inseriousity.]

If people with 'mediocre' (define mediocre. Surely this depends on what you personally expect from yourself. I know the example is AAA-BBB but someone who was predicted DDD got CCC, is that mediocre? That's an achievement imo even if in the grand scheme of things, it wouldn't be seen as very good) grades wanted to go to university, that is up to them. The problem is that there seems to be a lot of social emphasis on the product rather than the process required to get there. So much pressure put on people to achieve xyz rather than looking at the more well-rounded individual.