And a thought about fairness - I have seldom encountered a fair school or university grading system. The grading (at least in Germany) is in most cases highliy biassed and in most cases the students name is written on the exams.

In some cases (at the Universities I visited) the system has been made fairer by using codes such as numbers or matricualtion or exam codes.

However then the examiner may not be fair because she cannot read the handwriting or does not like the syntax or the way the students expresses herself...

When teaching in front of a group of persons it is only too human (and weak) to like students that engage positively with the topic and teacher and dislike students that are bored or absent minded...

What are your ideas or strategies to make teaching and exams fair?!

Who'D Like To Be A University Student? - Poem by Ali Rahimi

After untold gloomy hours of studies and concentration,

Chained to textbooks, pamphlets and notes,

A zestful arduous academic immersion,

For the tedious sterile matriculation,

Has to spend a fortune, yes, costly registration,

Who’d like to be a university student?

Assigned to the dingy small rooms of a dormitory,

Packed like sardines with other young inmates in misery, in a penitentiary,

Some ten sad souls confined in stinking dungeons, pathetic scenery,

Who’d like to be a university student?

The meals never succulent, not for manhood,

Yucky stews, rotten bread, plain rice, canned food,

Like war soldiers having their C-Ration in bad mood,

Who’d like to be a university student?

Teachers, personification of fear and intimidation,

Abuse, foolhardy, and manipulation,

Exams, pistols of revenge, fright and repression,

Targeting students’ brains, hearts, and imagination,

Who’d like to be a university student?

Textbooks, lucrative business for the academic mafia kingdom,

Classes, cubicles of stress, anxiety, and boredom,

Not havens of insight inspiration and freedom,

Who’d like to be a university student?

The campus, the hub of control, and intrusion,

Yes, dress codes, behavior codes, make up code,

Relationship codes, discourse codes,

Who’d like to be a university student?

Yes, a degree is granted, congratulations!

And the ‘’ happy ‘’ graduate is smoking

Cheap cigarettes in parks, corroding,

Or in shopping malls, melancholically wandering , fanaticizing,

Wearing worn-out shoes, uselessly job hunting,

Or joining the army with disillusionment and frustration,

A regular insignificant soldier under command, ceaselessly aimlessly marching,

Salute sergeant!

But he is basking in the academic title, gee wheeze!

Who’d like to be a university student?

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/who-d-like-to-be-a-university-student/

Dear Ali, 

this is an interesting question you are posting here.

The poem is addressing many issues of students and problems of Universities.

I think that some students are not capable and able to study due to financial constraints and possibly motivation problems...

Many families are not able to send one of their offspring to an university.

In many countries only one of the siblings can go to the university or college.

This might also be one of the topics of university curricula in order to make students a little bit more humble for the opportunities to receive an University education...

There are also problems in the university teaching system in itself.

I know of first year lectures that are held in large lectuer halls with 400 students!!! How can this be effective?! It is not - students are strongly adviced not to attend but to read a good textbook...

Another example: I have the luck to teach small groups out of 6 to 12 students - how much better can such small groups learn and discuss the issues at hand. (NB: In Germany the University is tax financed and therefore free for the students; however I am teaching at a private University and therefore the students have to pay a monthy tution fee - therefore the conditions are much better than in the state university system).

What you can see also with this answer is, that there are no globally valid and easy answers.

The situation may vary strongly from country to country and is also dependent on the political system and degree of freedom. What another discussion here on researchgate is showing is the idea that an university education shound not only be about the contents of the subejct (only learning for the mind) but also about the building of the personality of students about (soft) skills and about the idea to form independent and responsible citicens that are able to help the society as a whole and find a place in the overall society...

And a thought about fairness - I have seldom encountered a fair school or university grading system. The grading (at least in Germany) is in most cases highliy biassed and in most cases the students name is written on the exams.

In some cases (at the Universities I visited) the system has been made fairer by using codes such as numbers or matricualtion or exam codes.

However then the examiner may not be fair because she cannot read the handwriting or does not like the syntax or the way the students expresses herself...

When teaching in front of a group of persons it is only too human (and weak) to like students that engage positively with the topic and teacher and dislike students that are bored or absent minded...

What are your ideas or strategies to make teaching and exams fair?!

Dear Carsten,

thanks for your insightful  reflections and opinions, I reckon efforts to make exams fair have been undermined by subjectivism , and psychological issues like halo effect , bias , bias perception, etc.

What are the main issues and obstacles student face? Do you believe they are treated with justice and fairness? democratic education ?

One of the key obstacles I observed some students faced is can't apply / not applying what they have learned.  This can due to the following reasons:

Some students are studying the right course but due to low quality of the schools / universities making the graduates not competitive enough to get the job they have studied for (school / university issue).

The above scenarios are disheartening / not encouraging whereby as a Chinese proverb says - 学以致用 i.e. we should apply / put into practice on what we have learned.

Why this focus on the dark side of higher education and educational systems? There is a much brighter side! Notwithstanding all types of problems, effective instruction (including assessment) exists; students gain knowledge; and learner-centred research is undertaken on an ongoing basis.

Dear Sarah,

I believe in certain degree of plausible realistic positivism is fine and constructive but this has turned into a dominant unbridled irrational  discourse  .

Let's begin to call a spade a spade , am tired of the threadbare , hackneyed simplistic approach to life and education , life is not garden of roses , Sadly, it can not be claimed that henceforth the sun will always shine; you will be happy at all times in a world full of kind-hearted open-minded intellectuals waiting to love you and students.  Let's stop brushing  the problems under the carpet. you can not cultivate potatoes and harvest  pineapples .