Tertiary education in many countries has suffered from a dumbing down process as administrators focus on churning out more and more graduates. Success in boosting the capacity of students to learn is rarely acknowledged as a critical performance indicator in those responsible for preparing our younger generations for their role in society.
There has now been a partial attempt to address the general indifference of policymakers towards improving learning standards. The University of Malta has acknowledged this structural weakness in its educational offering and introduced a CASP unit – the Communications and Academic Skills Programme.
CASP, the university says, targets invaluable skills crucial to academic excellence that prepare students for the academic challenges, the demands of the world or work, and the opportunities which are yet to be created. “CASP is designed to immerse students in the experience of inquiry-based writing strategies and encourages them to engage in the iterative process of writing and presenting research.”
Students, however, do not like what this change will involve, even if designed to make them more competent learners for life. Over 1,400 university undergraduates signed a petition to have CASP removed. Students’ group SDM complained that it would create issues for students, “increasing hours on their timetable and the burden on their not insignificant workload”.
The disgruntled students may have a point to complain that CASP was not introduced properly, and that they had not been informed about this study unit when they applied to join the university.
The university administration could probably have won more support for their efforts to improve students’ abilities had they planned better and published a more revealing review of why CASP is necessary.
A survey of employers, for instance, could illustrate how many of the graduates they employ demonstrate a capacity to think critically, communicate clearly, apply knowledge and solve complex problems. While students may be acquiring subject-specific expertise in the years they spend in tertiary education, many employers believe they emerge from university lacking skills in complex reasoning and writing.
Educator and former Harvard University president Derek Bok reflected the concern of many interested in seeing educational standards improve when he wrote: “Too many graduates leave school with the coveted and expensive credentials without being able to write well enough to satisfy employers, or reason clearly, or perform competently in analysing complex, nontechnical problems.”
University students who have ambitions to be leaders in different community sectors, or even just reasonably informed citizens in a democracy, must be prepared to be good communicators at the very least. Some educators understandably believe that a good grasp of the English language should be combined with a decent understanding of economics, history and literature as part the general education provided by universities.
The knowledge deficit cannot be attributed solely to the dumbing down of tertiary education. Other factors are at work too. The low learning standards that prevail in elementary and secondary education have a knock-on effect on tertiary education. Too many unprepared students are admitted to tertiary institutions when they still do not have an ability to do that level of work.
One factor here is the lack of effective strategic leadership in the educational sector, which causes frustration in the teaching profession and puts top-grade graduates off teaching as a career. Lowering standards in education is a self-defeating strategy.
Malta’s free education system is among the most generous in any EU member state. But education policymakers and students must understand that one of Malta’s biggest problems is a general lack of critical thinking. It is in everyone’s interest to start focusing on it.