ABSTRACT
From exams, tutorials and essays, many of the traditional institutions and pedagogic techniques of higher education have been the subject of criticism and debate in recent years. Few would argue explicitly with the idea that universities should serve to challenge and stretch students intellectually and to push them beyond the world of their immediate experience. So we ought to welcome a debate about standards in the university sector and encourage an educational climate that is open to critical assessment, revision and improvement in its institutions and methods. In this chapter I want to consider some of the criticisms and debates around examinations, tutorials and essay writing. A survey of some of the debates as they have appeared in the academic press reveals that, problematically, much of the discussion is motivated less by a concern for higher standards than by a sense of diminishing horizons in terms of the capabilities of students and our capacity to inspire and stretch them intellectually.
