insitelaw

Podcast 60: Professor Geoffrey Alderman, Professor of Politics and Contemporary History at The University of Buckingham and a former Chairman of the University of London’s academic council

Professor Alderman wrote a fascinating article in The Times on 18th June A grotesque bidding game is undermining university standards - confronting the issue of degree inflation, the pressure on lecturers to mark examinations leniently and the issue of plagiarism.

Professor Alderman stated in The Times: “Academic standards are in decline in many British universities. Students who would once have been failed their degrees pass, and students who would once have been awarded respectable lower seconds are now awarded upper seconds and even firsts."

I ask Geoffrey Alderman about the evidence for his statement about declining standards. We also discuss plagiarism, cheating and the rise of essay writing services. For anyone involved in legal or other education, Professor Alderman's discussion with me is well worth listening to. His views are robust, direct and to the point - refreshingly so.

Listen to the podcast: Professor Geoffrey Alderman on why academic standards are declining.

Professor Alderman's website

Podcast 59: QED Law has a new blog prepared by Norman Baird. The first post is an exhaustive review of degree inflation covering all the major UK universities. It is a fascinating piece of research - well worth a read.

Podcast 59: Degree inflation with Norman Baird

Podcast 58: The BVC, pupillage and other matters
A discussion with author of The LawMinx blog on her experience of the BVC, hunting for pupillage and blogging.
Listen to the podcast .

Podcast 57: The Irish Referendum "NO" vote and The EU Lisbon Treaty.
A discussion with Carl Gardner, author of the Head of Legal blog, on the practical implications of the Irish "No" vote.
Listen to the podcast.

Podcast 56: With Carl Gardner on 42 days
We discuss: 42 days - The deals - What happens when it gets to the Lords and find time to look at what the Irish are doing with their referendum on The Lisbon Treaty. Listen to the podcast: In conversation with Carl Gardner on 42 days

Carl Gardner posts: 42 days | More on 42 days | The Irish Referendum on the EU Lisbon Treaty

Podcast 55: Andrew Keogh, author, barrister and blogger

Today I am talking to Andrew Keogh, a barrister in practice, author of Twenty Twelve and author of the White Rabbit Blog. We talk of many things - including, Andrew's writing, practice at the criminal bar and pupillage and, of course, about blogging. We even shoehorn a bit of cricket in.

Listen to the podcast with Andrew Keogh

The Incorporated Council of Law Reporting have very kindly allowed us to provide links to their case summaries. We would also like to thank the charity BAILII for providing everyone with free access to the full text of some of the judgments listed below.