I CAN confirm from my own personal experience that the marking practices in universities are less than intellectually rigorous.
In one instance I know that the marks of a student from overseas were adjusted from a fail to a pass on the basis that she was going home and would accordingly not practise her chosen profession in this country. In another, two students who had colluded in the composition of an essay, to be marked as part of ''continuous assessment'', were both given a pass mark for the paper.
These sorry events occurred in two different Scottish universities, neither mentioned in your news report (May 14).
Such behaviour is the inevitable consequence of introducing commercial competition into universities, whose only product is the degree. Can we be surprised if the degree is sold rather than awarded for academic merit?
John D Spencely,
19 Carlton Terrace, Edinburgh.
May 14.
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