Essay – University Entrance Requirements
Essay 1. University entrance requirements are much more lenient than they used to be – some university courses are prepared to accept students without any A-levels. Last twenty years was a time of ongoing changes in the higher educational institution. One of the most controversial and criticized idea was the withdrawal of the entrance exam at all universities. It had caused a serious debate about the importance of high standard on the one hand and the equality in obtaining educational levels on the other hand.
However, there are three main reasons why university entrance requirements are much lenient that they used to be. These are education reform, population decline and economy. Firstly, the politics decided to carried out an education reform. Their motivation was to facilitate the access to higher education and control better student’s improvement. As a result, there were no more entrance exam and the matura exam started to be the most important test which decided whenever student have a chance to go into university or not.
This strategy should create an equal possibility, because the exam has very strict rules, procedure and it’s the same for all Polish students. Unfortunately, when we creating an ideal exam for everybody we need to consider that the level is always lower than it used to be on the entrance exams. Consequently, it is easier to get into university. After the huge education reform, another problem occurred. The predicted population decline has come out and created unstable situation in educational institution. The great amount of students, that teachers and professors were used to, suddenly had vanished.
Year after year, there is even less students to teach. Consequently, less teachers are needed and everybody is afraid of losing their job. Because of this, universities change their strategies by lowered the level of entrance requirements and accept almost everyone. It create a situation when not only the brightest can entered into higher education but also the lazy ones who doesn’t even care about learning. The last reason surely dominates the education system. Nowadays, it is the money which rules higher education and let everyone who pays to gain a master degree.
As I mentioned before, there are less students, but universities need them to exist, because each learner is a certain amount of money. As a result, some courses accept even more students that they should. In that case, universities are constantly cheating on their clients and just churn out obedient students. What is more, there exist many private school which offer the same courses as on the university, but often don’t require positive matura results or good grades. If you pay the rent, the possibility to obtain quickly a bachelor or master degree is almost certain.
In general, it is much more easier to get into university that it used to be. However, it is the only positive point of it. Unfortunately, our education system isn’t appropriate for this century. The equal matura exam took all the power from entrance examiners at the universities. The small number of students destroyed all the competitiveness in obtaining higher education. Also, the economic issue create a situation when an university degree is so easy available that people with a Bachelor or Master degree aren’t respected enough. In other words, universities should focused on the quality not on the quantity.
