Beyond the Parkyn Report

"What sphinx of cement and aluminium bashed open their skulls and ate up their brains and imagination?" —Allen Ginsberg, Howl.

I have argued that the major defects of our universities can be traced to the examination system, and that this system must be either abandoned or radically reformed.

But the problem of examinations cannot be studied in isolation, nor can it be understood if approached solely from the point of view of evaluating achievement or of setting standards. If reform in this field is to succeed, we must have a clear idea of the place and purpose of evaluation in the modern university.

The Parkyn report, with all its admirable recommendations, may fail to persuade because it fails to transcend the purely technical level.

The problems of unreliability and inconsistent standards are, as Parkyn has shown, serious enough; but the wider questions of the validity of examinations and their consequences for the individual remain unanswered.

When the aims of a university are defined, the conduct of examinations is not usually listed among them; yet in the minds of students and academic staff they tend to occupy a very prominent place. However ill-performed, the functions of teaching and research remain — at least ideally — the central concerns of the institution. That the business of examinations compromises the former and obstructs the latter is sometimes recognised; but it has usually been accepted as a necessary evil. If Socrates were to return to earth he might gain the impression that his statement, "The life that is unexamined is not worth living," has been accepted too literally and somewhat extravagantly by our educational system.