Leading Article: Degree concern

Peter Williams, chief executive of the Quality Assurance Agency, has broken cover to give his views on degree standards. He is worried that the degree classification system of Firsts, 2:1s and 2:2s is arbitrary and unreliable, and he is concerned that universities are taking too many overseas students whose English is inadequate.

These are worrying comments from the man in charge of the higher education standards watchdog. Universities need to embrace the Burgess Review which called for degree classifications to be replaced by an achievement report for each student, and they should take more care to prepare overseas students for their studies.