“It's not about money or connections. It's the willingness to outwork and outlearn everyone.” (Mark Cuban)
Cuban’s words are inspiringly digestible. It lay the foundations for him becoming the highly esteemed entrepreneur and investment juggernaut he is today. Yet, for certain students, the incipient phenomenon of seemingly unchallenged access to a higher education alongside those who were prepared to move heaven and earth to acquire a place at their institution of choice has birthed an issue with incentive.
For Scion Mastery, this was problematic, none more so than for the students and parents who anxiously voiced their concerns.
Six years ago, ‘The Independent’ published an article that might shed more light on what, when and why. At Scion Mastery, we scrutinized the piece and a consensus attested to the same conclusion that the Russell Group did: that quantity over quality was a questionable policy.
Prior to the decision to lift restrictions on places and provide more people with the chance to attend university, many debates and arguments took shape. Research them, they’re worth the read! I would continuously be thinking about the failure of U.K universities’ ranking in the world table.
The U.K is a first world country which means many things. Here are a few: its majority is literate; unemployment is low, and the wealth gap is bridged by a thick layer of the middle class. There are 2,600 private schools in the UK, a considerable quantity for such a small country.
Education for all! Both native and foreign students and parents euphorically anticipated the start of their impending higher education journeys, irrespective of their prior exertion and/or grades.
Foreign students also rejoiced in the nascent stages of lifted restrictions, though many didn’t understand that what glitters isn’t always gold. The result was twofold. There were those academically prepared and conditioned for the complexity of their course, studied diligently, passed their modules and in doing so naturally progressed to the next year of study, profiting from their university’s more forgiving admissions criteria. The other sect did not follow suit and continued his/her carefree life as a lucky and spoilt child of fate in the first year of study and, in line with university regulations, was not transferred to the second year of study.
Scion Mastery observed that upper-echelon universities (Oxbridge, Imperial, UCL…) did not drop academic standards and accepted students according to what they were. However, but to satisfy the government’s demand to offer every student who wants to enter higher education a place, eccentrically eclectic sounding courses that do not require high entry grades were brought in. Crucially, everyone who wanted to study at Uni was given that opportunity.
As the number of graduates increased, the 'class' of degrees awarded gained importance. Employers previously rarely paid attention to the degree, and parents seldom knew what level their children had received. Now everyone is interested in the quality. Suddenly, size mattered.
The quality over quantity mindset worryingly nullifies many of the core values that we espouse at Scion Mastery, the qualities of which should never be atomised, but rather coalesced. Academic coaching, career planning, guardianship, personal development and leadership training together with the student’s unique impetus will breed success, the cap may well hinder that. The admission process has indeed become less stringent, the same can’t be said for the learning process! The value of, for example, a BSc PPE student from Oxford with a 1st or a 2:1 will be sought after worldwide. Business asusual!
Photo by Tetiana SHYSHKINA on Unsplash
