The LSU Top 5 #9
This is the ninth of our weekly links to the top 5 interesting bits and pieces we’ve found from around the internet.
(Linking doesn’t mean we necessarily agree with these articles!)
Hong Kong in hot pursuit of Ivy League education – CNN
How much does an elite education cost? Don’t forget to account for ‘admissions consultants’.
Some parents in Hong Kong are hiring consultants to increase their children’s chances of getting into Ivy League universities. Some services involve just basic advice about how to navigate the admissions system, but it seems that other services go even further to include tutoring, advice on which extra-curricular activities will support an application, and ‘help’ with writing admissions essays. Who then, you have to wonder, is getting admitted?!
Wanna be Vietnam civil servants? Pay 100 mln – Tuoi Tre
In the LSU Top 5 #6, we linked to an article about first graders being taught to cheat and lie. It seems that the cheating and lying is pervasive at the other end of the exam system, too.
To pass the Vietnamese civil servant exam, you have to pay 100 million VND, according to the Chairman of the Hanoi Party Committee’s Commission for Inspection, Tran Trong Duc. This cheating doesn’t even seem to be entirely subtle, from the words of the Chairman:
“In many cases, the examination papers were totally identical in every detail, even in punctual marks, to the exam answer keys. That means examinees with such of ‘excellent’ papers certainly got the maximum mark.”
In Britain, an Assault on Academic Values – The Chronicle of Higher Education
This article details the beginning of a movement in England that may spread to other nations where Higher Education has taken on an increasingly commercialized position in society and within the institutions themselves. It provides insight into the principles and aims of the Council for the Defence of British Universities and puts out a call for others in academia to join the resistance against commercialism in universities.
Plagiarism in Grant Proposals – The Chronicle of Higher Education
It isn’t just undergraduates who plagiarism; the US National Science Foundation has seen a tripling of allegations of plagiarism or fabrication in grant proposals over the past 10 years. Those accused have come from across the spectrum of academic staff.
The article indicates that education on plagiarism shouldn’t just be for students:
Some faculty members are simply unaware that the practice constitutes research misconduct. In one case, a full professor asked a colleague for a copy of a proposal that had received federal funds… The borrower then lifted sections verbatim, put them in a new proposal, and gave it to the author of the borrowed proposal to review.
The flipped academic: turning higher education on its head – The Guardian
In a world awash with information, academics shouldn’t be assessed just by what they publish, but by how they communicate their work. This piece profiles a movement “seeking usefulness as well as truth in their research and striving to publish only after having had an impact on students and society.”
We love hearing your thoughts on these articles, so feel free to comment below!
