5 ms·

Maybe its my European mindset but I find it impossible to believe that any school can just start inventing extra grades.

coldtea 7y ago
Maybe it's my southern European mindset, but I find it totally possible. The world is not as rigid as northern Europe thinks it is...
- emptyfile 7y ago
  I'm from the Balkans.
  - coldtea 7y ago
    Well, if you're from the Balkans you should surely see it as totally possible! Far more rule and law-bending is happening than that, for the possibility of "inventing a new grade" to be really impossible/surprising.
    - coldtea 7y ago
      Case in point, I know a university case where the professor body wanted to appoint their "own" candidate for a professorship position. The dean and several (majority) professors had already agreed under the table, and the few others didn't matter. The only problem was they legally had to go through a open contest for the position. So when someone came up with 5x the qualifications (citations, papers, conferences, better universities attended, etc, globally too) than their ho-hum friend (some relative of the dean), the professor body suddenly folded the position. A few months later, they announced a new opening, with some specially crafted qualifications, so that only their friend could pass.
      - dantondwa 7y ago
        I can really see this happening, unfortunately, and I actually did many times. However, Southern bureaucracies are flexible only when they shouldn't be and insurmountably rigid when it's actually good, reasonable, or funny to make an exception. So, no, no extra grade for Watson here. But we might as well create a whole new professional category for the friend of my friend.
signal11 7y ago
New grades are introduced all the time e.g., https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Certificate_of_Secondary_Education https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Certificate_of_Seconda... > In 1994, the A* grade was added above the grade A, to further differentiate attainment at the very highest end of the qualification. This remained the highest grade available until 2017. The grades are now 1-9, with 9 being the highest and above A*. In this particular case, I think it certainly is within a University's remit to award a special grade given the exceptional circumstances.
- Maarten88 7y ago
  >The grades are now 1-9, with 9 being the highest and above A*. Another example of the US inching toward the metric system ;-)
  - signal11 7y ago
    This isn't the US -- these grades are from the UK. Although yes, the UK too is in this hybrid world where gas (petrol/diesel) is in litres, temperature is in Celsius, but vehicle speedometers are in miles per hour and feet and inches are very popular for height, measuring rooms and furniture, etc.
    - freeflight 7y ago
      Don't forget about measuring your own weight in "stones".
  - paublyrne 7y ago
    They're still miles away from converting.
  - Spoom 7y ago
    Seems like they're finding the path.
  - C1sc0cat 7y ago
    That's just A levels (which are open to fiddling by the government of the day) Universities have their own ideas

coldtea 7y ago

Maybe it's my southern European mindset, but I find it totally possible. The world is not as rigid as northern Europe thinks it is...

emptyfile 7y ago
I'm from the Balkans.
- coldtea 7y ago
  Well, if you're from the Balkans you should surely see it as totally possible! Far more rule and law-bending is happening than that, for the possibility of "inventing a new grade" to be really impossible/surprising.
  - coldtea 7y ago
    Case in point, I know a university case where the professor body wanted to appoint their "own" candidate for a professorship position. The dean and several (majority) professors had already agreed under the table, and the few others didn't matter. The only problem was they legally had to go through a open contest for the position. So when someone came up with 5x the qualifications (citations, papers, conferences, better universities attended, etc, globally too) than their ho-hum friend (some relative of the dean), the professor body suddenly folded the position. A few months later, they announced a new opening, with some specially crafted qualifications, so that only their friend could pass.
    - dantondwa 7y ago
      I can really see this happening, unfortunately, and I actually did many times. However, Southern bureaucracies are flexible only when they shouldn't be and insurmountably rigid when it's actually good, reasonable, or funny to make an exception. So, no, no extra grade for Watson here. But we might as well create a whole new professional category for the friend of my friend.

signal11 7y ago

New grades are introduced all the time e.g., https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Certificate_of_Secondary_Education https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Certificate_of_Seconda... > In 1994, the A* grade was added above the grade A, to further differentiate attainment at the very highest end of the qualification. This remained the highest grade available until 2017. The grades are now 1-9, with 9 being the highest and above A*. In this particular case, I think it certainly is within a University's remit to award a special grade given the exceptional circumstances.

Maarten88 7y ago
>The grades are now 1-9, with 9 being the highest and above A*. Another example of the US inching toward the metric system ;-)
- signal11 7y ago
  This isn't the US -- these grades are from the UK. Although yes, the UK too is in this hybrid world where gas (petrol/diesel) is in litres, temperature is in Celsius, but vehicle speedometers are in miles per hour and feet and inches are very popular for height, measuring rooms and furniture, etc.
  - freeflight 7y ago
    Don't forget about measuring your own weight in "stones".
- paublyrne 7y ago
  They're still miles away from converting.
- Spoom 7y ago
  Seems like they're finding the path.
- C1sc0cat 7y ago
  That's just A levels (which are open to fiddling by the government of the day) Universities have their own ideas