Australia’s Charles Sturt University (CSU) is offering a second chance to all students who scored as low as 40 per cent in a subject.
It is reported that CSU’s School of Social Work and Arts, which also teaches students from the education faculty, told teaching staff about a new strategy to allow those who finish a subject with a mark of between 40 and 49 to sit another assessment within 10 days.
The Head of School, Dr Sally Totman, wrote to colleagues that the aim was “to improve the retention and success of our students.”
Some lecturers fear that such a strategy on the university’s part will compromise their rigorous academic standards just to keep fee-paying domestic and international students.
Under new Australian federal laws, domestic students who fail to pass 50 per cent of their subjects lose their Commonwealth funding. However, CSU has told SMH that the sole purpose was to allow students to demonstrate they have met learning outcomes.
“The trial will be evaluated based on staff feedback, and the number of additional assessment tasks
issued and their outcomes.”.
One lecturer in their response to Dr Totman, according to SMH, questioned whether universities were still places of learning and teaching or had become businesses chasing money.
“As an institution, does CSU intend ensuring every graduate is competent and proficient to carry out the role their CSU qualification suggests they are?”
The academic further added:
“When I fail a student I actually mean it. It is not an easy thing to do. The pressure to pass students who don’t deserve it (to the detriment of those who work hard and have earned the honour) has passed endurance.”
Prof. Salvatore Babones, who has written about international students, said CSU’s move could strengthen academic standards. He adds that most students juggle university study with work and also caring responsibilities:
“Instead of pressuring academics to lower their standards and pass students through, they’re saying it’s okay to fail students, we then want them to improve their standards.
It’s very difficult to fail at the arts and social sciences at any of our universities.
Failure is typically the result of non-completed work, rather than low performance.”
An academic at a different Australian university, who doesn’t wish to be named, told The Australia Today that giving undergraduate students another chance at passing a course is common in countries such as India and even the United Kingdom. He added that in Australia such a strategy is not just designed for domestic students but also to pass and retain low-performing international students who when unable to pass drop the course and leave the university.
