I read in this morning’s Metro (yes, I admit it) that Boris Johnson is proposing that students be given cash incentives by universities to learn. This, he suggests, would encourage greater efforts on behalf of the students, and also limit the grade inflation in universities (because presumably, they would not want to pay out too much).
The demand for cash payouts, in the face of limited supply of funds should ceteris paribus drive up standards through competition for those funds. Though the university can clearly manipulate payouts through the grading system, it can’t refuse payouts altogether, by having no first class degrees for example. This would cause a severe reputational problem and perhaps a second order effect whereby students do not put in greater effort because the university has reneged on the deal.
My problem with the solution is that in the short-run, I can ssee students attracted to those courses where getting a first might be relatively easy, and this negating the main incentive (desire to study etc.). Of course, in the long run, it might not matter that there are too many media studies students chasing a pot of cash, because standards will be driven up and a great many students will be left regretting their decision to study a ‘cheap’ subject.
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