This is the third time in the last month I have had an academic tell my class (different classes) that they have decided not to do final exams. Because "some students can't cope with time pressure" or "it's not fair on everyone" or "I don't believe in exams". They couch it in the language of "equity", despite the fact that it clearly screws over students who are good at exams/aren't as good as assignments... This, on top of making practicals "non-compulsory", or removing lab/field classes altogether...
This ain't my first rodeo. I've been around for a while. I've never seen this before, even in the years immediately post-Covid...
And this isn't gender studies. This is, supposedly, Science and GIS.
I'm not sure how widespread this is, but I've heard from other students that more and more courses are going down this route, all very suddenly...
This despite the fact that students are much more likely to cheat on assignments than exams (obviously), and the "threat" of things like ChatGPT.
Not just at my Uni, either. Apparently this is happening elsewhere in Aus... Though my Uni has been particularly spiteful about it, with the removal of after-hours study spaces, and things like not even allowing library access to part time students on Sundays (yes, really)...
Something is very, very rotten in the state of Denmark. Not sure if other people have seen similar, in other countries, but if this is the state of "Higher Ed", even beyond all the woke shit..? Wow, we are so fucked...
Engineered incompetency crisis incoming. The purpose of equity/equality was never to raise up the turd whirled, but to lower the West to turd whirled standards.
And the issues the prof was describing? Exactly what you get when a species no longer has any selective forces working against mass breeding.
And oh, I bet the "can't take stress" kids are the exact same crowd that tell others to "git gud" at video games when it comes to getting stuck at hard SP boss fights.
AusGov is currently trying to ram through legislation which would make it so if you are Indigenous (bearing in mind that you never have to prove that you are), you are essentially unable to be failed out of University...
Currently, if you fail more than 50% of your classes, beyond a certain point, you can no longer get our equivalent of student loans.
In the pursuit of "equity", the government wants to make it so that if you're "blak", this rule no longer applies to you...
So yeah. It's even worse than you think.
For a while there, I was like, "well that's just dumb", but now I realise that it's more than that - it's intentionally malicious...
Like, this is very clearly deliberate, and they fundamentally do not care what the consequences and flow-on effects of decisions like this will be...
Madness.