3 ms·
A graduate from the University of Waterloo would be considered the equal of one from Stanford given equal results. That isn't the case now. As a student at Wat
by chongli 7y ago
A graduate from the University of Waterloo would be considered the equal of one from Stanford given equal results. That isn't the case now.
As a student at Waterloo right now, I'd love for this to happen but I don't believe it would be the case. Even if examinations were standardized across all schools, employers would simply shift to some other metric, such as course grades.
Now that I think about it, how would it even be possible? The Faculty of Mathematics at the University of Waterloo offers over 300 undergrad (not including grad school!) courses alone! The vast majority of these courses are unique to the school. Are you suggesting we wipe that out and force a standardized curriculum? Or are you suggesting we have standardized examinations in:
* Algebraic Topology
* Analysis of Spatial Data in Health Research
* Calculus of Variations
* Control Theory
* Fluid Mechanics
* Game Theory
* Lebesgue Integration and Fourier Analysis
* Matroid Theory
* Professional Communications in Statistics and Actuarial Science
* Property and Casualty Pricing
* Quantitative Enterprise Risk Management
* Quantum Information Processing
* Real-Time Programming
* Semidefinite Optimization
* Software Requirements Specification and Analysis
I could go on and on and on... I think you get the point. Math profs are constantly creating new courses based on areas of active research. How are you going to standardize examinations for those things? Every university offers different things!
Would you support universities having the freedom to sell grades? $100,000 for a first class degree, $150,000 for a masters? No study needed.
For-profit "colleges" did just that, until they were shut down. What you've described is usually called academic fraud. If Stanford did that, their reputation would be obliterated overnight.
Look at the ongoing story over the admissions bribery scandal. It's a HUGE story and it's only a case of fabricated athletic credentials for admissions, never mind fabricated degrees. I'm not worried about this problem at all.