taken from The Business Times, Singapore, Wednesday June 18, 2008

"..the upholding of academic standards is thus replaced by a grotesque 'bidding' game, in which standards are inevitably sacrificed on the altar of public image."

- Professor Geoffrey Alderman

I was told by a Tan Sri once, that the London University External Degree that many of our fellow Malaysians especially teachers in those days, used to acquire during my secondary school days, were of inferior quality, so it seemed. The standards, I was told, were lowered to help Commonwealth countries as compared to if one were to sail to England (those days going to Her Majesty's Great Britain on a sail boat, was much more fashionable...hahaha).

I would like to think that this is an isolated incident (it happened in 1990) where when an asian gets an A in class, his or her fellow 'Brit' classmates would spontaneously mumble at the back of the class...'disgusting' (ever had that experience?). Now this professor is kicking up dust again. Can you imagine the implications of the concerns he raised in the article above? To UK graduates? Already, the Times Higher Education Ratings is giving our local universities a nightmare. But I suppose, you can be the judge, jury and prosecutor yourself...when you read some of the blogposts of supposedly 'highly-rated UK universities' graduates hehe ....the plot, theme, grammar, choice of verbs, adjectives etcetera ectera..hmm in a nutshell...editorially-challenged pieces...hahaha. If you know what I mean lah....I rest my case. Do enjoy the rest of the weekend folks!