The soft-marking syndrome.(higher education)(Essay)

"WHY WOULD ANY sensible, qualified, capable or independent-minded person want to pursue an academic career [in an Australian university]?", declared professional editor Michael Giffin to the Senate inquiry into higher education in 2001, after presenting numerous reasons as to why academic life in this country had over the previous decade or so become increasingly dissatisfying to present-day and unappealing to would-be academics. The first of these reasons was the "pressure on academics to participate in soft marking and deteriorating standards".

Over the last ten or so years soft marking in Australian universities has increasingly been an issue of public concern. Scarcely a month goes by without newspapers such as the Australian or the Sydney Morning Herald--which take a special interest in higher education--reporting someone deploring the trend. The dismissal of Professor Ted Steele from Wollongong in 2001 and the resignation of Professor Peter Abelson from Macquarie in 2005 because of their public criticism of soft marking and "declining standards" highlight at least two points. One is that a few academics have not been deterred by the climate of fear in Australian universities from speaking out against this insidious evil. The other is that those most likely to do so are approaching the end of their careers and have less to lose by voicing their objections.

But even more worrying than the fate of these eminent academics have been the outright denials from authoritative sources that soft marking is common. In 2002 the Victorian Auditor-General's Office investigated three universities in that state and declared that "where 'soft marking' exists, it is an isolated and occasional incident within universities" and that there was "no evidence to suggest that systematic institutionalised 'soft marking' occurs". In February last year the still new federal Minister of Education, Julie Bishop, virtually taunted critics of soft marking by saying, "it's just accusations and allegations. I want to see some evidence."

In June last year someone as seemingly well-placed as the executive director of the Australian Universities Quality Agency, David Woodhouse, said that he "did not believe standards were falling in any national, comprehensive fashion" and that "any focused investigation that is carried out does not substantiate falling standards". Gavin Moodie, a higher education analyst, wrote in late 2003 that critics of universities' commercialisation have failed to demonstrate that the problems they report--soft marking, plagiarism, and more generally "a lowering or compromise of academic standards"--are "systemic".

One irritating feature of this controversy is that the allegations have tended to focus on the easy entry into and passage through Australian universities of full-fee-paying foreign students, for many of whom English does not have the status of a second or even a third language. In such a way the focus has been taken away from the far more widespread and deeply ingrained policies and practices in the culture of Australian universities that effectively lower the standards required of all students.

Far more disturbing, however, has been the acquiescence to it---or more often outright denial of it--from lecturers themselves. While academics are those most likely to complain about the pressures applied to them to "soft mark", the vast majority of academics do not complain about it, especially not via the media. The people who are pressured to lower, for their own students, the standards they themselves were taught, are those most frightened of speaking out against what is being done to them.

Only very recently have a few tentative steps been taken to investigate soft marking in Australian universities in a formal way. Unfortunately, as in the mass media, this research focuses on fee-paying international students. In addition, it is far from certain that in future universities will allow, let alone support, such research. Already, however, the research suggests that not only is there a great deal of soft marking but also, amongst academic staff, a "widespread fear of talking about it".