Blackburn marketing students achieve perfection (From Lancashire Telegraph)

Obviously the exams have been watered down. I am afraid we can not allow a 100% pass rate, The bar is set to low.

mavrick wrote:
Obviously the exams have been watered down. I am afraid we can not allow a 100% pass rate, The bar is set to low.

Oh, stop being such a grouch, they passed didn't they?
Only the other day there was an article in the LT about how we need more people for market stalls and here's a freshly qualified bunch of them.
Now if they were to set up a stall for the left-handed in this World, I'd be the best customer. It's so hard to find a left-handed picture mug or even a nib for my aged fountain pen, these days.
Years ago, as part of a college project, I built a left handed bicycle, just because, as far as I knew, no such article existed. Left brake operated the rear wheel thus preventing you going over the handlebars because of your grab instinct. The gear shift was easier to operate - this was before the days of the indexed changer was invented. It was so unique that it made the local papers and a man from Leeds wrote to my home to offer me £30 extra for the £50 bike.
Just as people look at an expensive car now, my yellow bike drew onlookers. 'Paint it yellow', my Dad had said, 'as it's a bit of a lemon and will never work properly!' So I did and it did, perfectly.
I'd still have that bike now if some blind driver hadn't knocked me off it, twisting the frame beyond repair. So I boxed up all the serviceable parts off it and then sold them as second hand parts in the local bicycle shop, left-handed ones, of course!

woolywords wrote:

mavrick wrote:
Obviously the exams have been watered down. I am afraid we can not allow a 100% pass rate, The bar is set to low.

Oh, stop being such a grouch, they passed didn't they?
Only the other day there was an article in the LT about how we need more people for market stalls and here's a freshly qualified bunch of them.
Now if they were to set up a stall for the left-handed in this World, I'd be the best customer. It's so hard to find a left-handed picture mug or even a nib for my aged fountain pen, these days.
Years ago, as part of a college project, I built a left handed bicycle, just because, as far as I knew, no such article existed. Left brake operated the rear wheel thus preventing you going over the handlebars because of your grab instinct. The gear shift was easier to operate - this was before the days of the indexed changer was invented. It was so unique that it made the local papers and a man from Leeds wrote to my home to offer me £30 extra for the £50 bike.
Just as people look at an expensive car now, my yellow bike drew onlookers. 'Paint it yellow', my Dad had said, 'as it's a bit of a lemon and will never work properly!' So I did and it did, perfectly.
I'd still have that bike now if some blind driver hadn't knocked me off it, twisting the frame beyond repair. So I boxed up all the serviceable parts off it and then sold them as second hand parts in the local bicycle shop, left-handed ones, of course!

I have some left handed spoons going cheap, and also some left handed pencils. I think I'll keep the left handed eraser as it was so expensive I'll never find another.

Wonder how they're going to improve for next year on a 100 per cent pass rate ? I'm sure they'll think up some way - the mind boggles ! Innit great this educashun !!

Marketing is all about selling stuff. Putting a sine on shoddy stuff, conning customers out of their cash, and all the black arts of advertising. So, all in all, something for which their mums can be proud. And this isn't a news story, just another press release that the LT has printed.

What Andy Davis isn't saying is that out of 6 people who did the second year prof certificate only 3 completed it, two people dropped out and one student deferred a module after being taught it. 100% pass rate is less impressive when the fact is the course only had a 50% completion rate.

Oh, really? So, we're led to believe that these "graduates" must be among the very best in the world?

"Lecturers" "raising the bar"? Or playing the system and rigging the grades?

I know exactly how this all works, as my wife works at a college in the north-west.
Teachers are coerced (by management) into giving top grades to students who can't even be bothered to turn up. Because if they don't, they (the teachers) will be marked down and so will the college.

So, i'm not entirely sure what to make of this so-called "perfection". No doubt these new graduates will believe themselves to be the bees-knees, though! But it doesn't really seem like education to me.

The exams are graded by the Chartered Institute of Marketing, an external national professional body so it's not easy to pass. But the college is obviously taking credit for 3 pupils work instead of acknowledging that half of it's pupils quit the course without completing it.

All about customer value wrote:
What Andy Davis isn't saying is that out of 6 people who did the second year prof certificate only 3 completed it, two people dropped out and one student deferred a module after being taught it. 100% pass rate is less impressive when the fact is the course only had a 50% completion rate.

One could easily say and be forgiven for doing so, that the whole point of marketing is to put a positive spin on any information that you want known.
3 people passing is a positive but stating that 3 passed, 2 cried and went home and the other had a fit of nerves, doesn't really promote the course, does it?
As someone once said, "There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.'