The despair of getting a Desmond degree….
WITH MORE than sixty per cent of UK graduates now leaving University with a 2.1 degree, getting the dreaded Desmond “Tutu” (2.2) can feel like being marked with the black spot. Confession, I got one, having spent too much time in my final year flouncing about trying to become a famous actress, rather than going to bed early with my notes on Wittgenstein or even doing all the exams.
And like a lot of those who ended up with a degree that they don’t think reflected their true abilities, I immediately flung myself into further studies. Failure spurred me on to prove myself.
I have always been cheered up by the fact that Carol Voorderman, the Maths wizard on British TV’s Countdown, got a third, but is said to have one of the highest IQs on television.
One teenage boy told me recently that he thought it would be easier to confess to his aspirational, middle-class parents that he was about to enter into a gay marriage than suggest he might leave Uni without getting a 2.1.
So why do some kids apparently underachieve? Well it points to three reasons. One, they are lazy; two, they chose the wrong course or three, they were too busy doing other things, from propping up the bar, falling in love, working in the local Tesco or running the potholing society to attend all their lectures.
My cousin, who works in graduate recruitment, told me they used to prefer candidates with 2.1s not because they were necessarily the brightest, but because it pointed to the ability to deliver results; to conform to the ‘work hard, play hard ethos,’ needed to get on in placement schemes for many of the large corporations. Getting a 2.1 often proved that you had discipline, that you would do the needful, that you were prepared to buckle down and get on with the job.
But with grade inflation now putting pressure on many universities to be ‘generous’ with their awards, she told me the question is being asked whether even 2.1 degrees have any value. Increasingly, she told me they are looking at the level of difficulty of the course and the reputation of the institution, rather than the degree. They are as interested in the candidates’ educational background and the amount of work experience they have already achieved. Realistically, they know that some candidates, with private tutors to help write dissertations and parents with ‘know how’, can superinflate the students’ actual commitment to work hard and survive.
Which is why so many employers are now using specialist recruitment agencies with psychometric and intelligence based tests to sift through potential job seekers. But, of course, a 2.1 will help still to open doors. Those left in the stage wings, on the back row of the chorus, in their disappointing ‘tutus’ will simply have to push a bit harder to become a prima ballerina. Like a certain friend of Desmond, a young activist called Nelson Mandela, who failed to pass his LLB exams and look what he achieved…
