That may well be one problem amongst others Alasdair, but that is certainly unacceptable to students and society as a whole. If they cannot work enough to get a "good" degree (whatever that is), then tough. In the first instance the University should not have given them a place, and secondly if the teaching is bad, and I think it is, then the University should suffer the penalty of being sued for poor teaching. I had some poor teaching, and it led to a row with the external examiner when I had my viva, but then that is just life. One just gets on and does what is needed. I don't think I ever recruited anyone who proved to be a "dud", and I did get many who were immensely capable. Amongst these were a number who had taken up amateur radio and got themselves licenses at a young age. They were the ones who did first class work from day one, because they understood what they were about. They could deal with the usual engineering challenges, that everything didn't work as expected and needed some thought to fix. They had done it before and succeeded, and that gave immense confidence. That is what we expect, a total desire to succeed. The thing which shocks me most is that 25% now seem to get 1st class Honours. It used to be a few percent. That shows that the teaching is poor and standards are way down, unless someone can show that we are that much cleverer. It is the same at all levels.

That may well be one problem amongst others Alasdair, but that is certainly unacceptable to students and society as a whole. If they cannot work enough to get a "good" degree (whatever that is), then tough. In the first instance the University should not have given them a place, and secondly if the teaching is bad, and I think it is, then the University should suffer the penalty of being sued for poor teaching. I had some poor teaching, and it led to a row with the external examiner when I had my viva, but then that is just life. One just gets on and does what is needed. I don't think I ever recruited anyone who proved to be a "dud", and I did get many who were immensely capable. Amongst these were a number who had taken up amateur radio and got themselves licenses at a young age. They were the ones who did first class work from day one, because they understood what they were about. They could deal with the usual engineering challenges, that everything didn't work as expected and needed some thought to fix. They had done it before and succeeded, and that gave immense confidence. That is what we expect, a total desire to succeed. The thing which shocks me most is that 25% now seem to get 1st class Honours. It used to be a few percent. That shows that the teaching is poor and standards are way down, unless someone can show that we are that much cleverer. It is the same at all levels.