Column: Student population is broad and rough - but they're good (enough)

Lately we have seen a lot of coverage of the 'quality' of Danish students. It is quite a paradox to read about observations that identify students as lazy and stupid at the same time as media have led a broad discussion about grade race and the allegedly negative consequences of an educational pressure and performance race that starts ever earlier.

The situation we are in is not particularly new:

“Today’s youth is rotten to the core
It is evil, Godless and lazy
It will never be what youth used to be,
and it will never be able to preserve our culture.”

The above quote is from an approx. 3000 year old Babylonian clay tablet and sets the tone quite well. The universities' task is not only to ensure that culture is preserved, but rather to ensure that culture is developed. And seen in that light, we are doing quite well. However, we see time and again that the same yardstick is applied to all students - referring to examples where individuals or groups are allegedly underperforming compared to what politicians, officials or university people consider to be responsible and serious study behaviour.

Generalising about students is in itself detrimental to a lively debate on education quality and study behaviour. With the huge increase in the number of university students in recent decades, it is natural to assume greater variation in students' competencies and experience.  Our transition into also offering society mass education has meant that universities today must be able to accommodate and develop young people with very diverse qualifications. This shift in the education landscape has both advantages and disadvantages.

Basic knowledge cannot be expected, to the same extent as before, to be a uniform and general qualification when students begin their studies. Many university teachers therefore voice their concern on behalf of their disciplines. This requires a new and diversified pedagogy suspended between two competing pressures:
On the one side the need to teach courses with big and growing class sizes - and
on the other side the need to differentiate the learning process to properly accommodate the broad and diverse basic knowledge that students start with.

However, it is not necessarily a bad starting point for university programmes that students start with diverse experience and ideas about what it means to take part in a higher education. That so many students have one foot firmly in our society through study relevant jobs, voluntary work, participation in extracurricular activities etc. poses some challenges but should however be viewed as a positive contribution to the programmes.

The relevance and significance of universities for the future's society grows as programmes develop their capacity to bridge the gap between the research foundation and the specific and relevant application of this knowledge in society's diverse businesses and institutions.

The debate about the lazy and stupid students has been quite stereotypical and it is of course difficult to go beyond generalisations when trying to make a brief point about a complicated phenomenon. The below applies to CBS and not universities in general - but they are probably also general statements about the situation our students are in:

At CBS all programmes have high entry requirements (a GPA of 7+).
At CBS we have high employability (80+% of social science graduates have found jobs six months after graduation).  
At CBS the limited number of study work-places in our buildings are in high demand 24/7.
At CBS an increasing number of performance anxious students are seeking help from student counsellors/psychologists.
At CBS we have 80 voluntary organisations (organised on campus by students for students).
At CBS the student organisation is demanding more contact with teachers and more feedback on their academic understanding and progress.

Why, then, are so many people still talking about students who work too little?

It is, in part, because the ministry and many other stakeholders are counting teaching hours (direct teaching).
It is, in part, because there are teachers who are unable to retain students' interest.
It is, in part, because CBS' economy has resulted in big class sizes with poor contact between teachers and students.
It is, in part, because of the idea that students only learn when they are sitting in a class room.
It is, in part, because many students go on exchange, take internships and work with online-based courses.
It is, in part, because some students cannot find study relevant jobs.
It is, in part, because many public and private businesses demand that student jobs must constitute a considerable number of hours per week (20+ hours/week).
...and there are many, many other factors - positive and negative.

The point is, that it is close to impossible to establish that students nowadays are more stupid/lazy than they used to be. All we can see for sure at CBS is that student behaviour has changed and offers a rich and varied picture.
It is the responsibility of the institutions (i.e.: CBS) to establish a dialogue with the present generation to facilitate the development of new teaching courses and pedagogical processes that better match the reality that universities exist in. It is both impoverishing and pointless to take up a 'head master' attitude and speak with indignation about students without considering for a second that learning processes are always based on a relation between teacher and participant. When relations are poor there is no point in trying to place the responsibility solely on one party. As we know: 'it takes two to tango.'

If students lack basic knowledge, that should be accounted for in the learning process planning so that this basic knowledge is made accessible and is integrated in the courses (e.g. through the use of online learning processes, crash courses and similar).
If students opt out of classes it should lead to serious considerations about the pedagogical method (e.g. the balance between syllabus and dissemination, activating students and similar).
If students 'are alternatively active' in the classroom on their computers, it should lead to considerations about how the student and computer can be integrated in the learning process (e.g. through online group work, specific internet search process and similar).

The preconditions for establishing a sustainable relation is for teachers to accept that it is their responsibility to start the dialogue with the students. If you approach a class without taking the time to first establish a relation based on mutual respect and trust, you send a signal to the class, that they are just another class to be taught and that they are not seen by the teacher as a plurality of different people and expectations. To be anonymised and reduced to a class is something akin to rejection for a generation of young people raised to an extensive individualisation and personal pressure. Perhaps not the best way 'to tango'.

The students are CBS' greatest unexploited resource.
We have talked about it for many years - but CBS' own ambition to partner with the students has been overtaken by the public discourse in such a way that the process has failed to properly take off. The precondition for a partnership is for both parties to recognise and respect each other. We are a long way from that.  There is too much superficial and projected mutual criticism. Teachers criticising absent and unenterprising students - and students criticising uncommitted and poorly prepared teachers.
A few years ago the students at CBS started a campaign (posters and blogs) with the slogan: "Where is the professor?". It was a cry to get the teachers' attention and not just (although some of the students themselves believed so) a wish for more professors in the classrooms.

Why show up for class when no one will notice? 25 years ago the answer to that question was simple. The answer was discipline and a rational understanding that being present was a precondition for learning/passing. Today the situation is completely different. Teaching in itself is not always a precondition for understanding/passing and luckily discipline in itself is not enough to take part in a course where the knowledge dissemination is unconvincing (today the necessary knowledge can be obtained through other, often digital channels).

CBS is still characterised by a view on learning processes that belongs in the past. And the past tends to appear rosy. However, those learning processes that made the professor appear as the great source drawing on his knowledge to the benefit of a starving and grateful selection of young and hopeful students are - for many good reasons - outdated. The old professor who in nostalgic retrospect longs for the days with intellectual talks in the winged armchair with enthusiastic individual students sitting at his feet soaking up knowledge is a caricature that still characterises the indignant finger-pointing at today's 'stupid and lazy' students.

All the greater need for a renewed effort.
However, there are considerable structural limitations on this effort. Resources are extremely scarce, and there is not necessarily any shortage of good ideas or initiatives. The fundamental challenge is to take what is developed locally and in limited measure and turn it into models and processes that can be supported on a larger scale.

In the light of the idea that universities should not only preserve - but rather contribute to the development of society and culture, there are, however, areas in which students should assume a greater responsibility. Precisely because of some younger generations' increasing individualisation and personalised educational ambitions, one could sometimes as the caricature of the old professor dream of the times when students played an active and visible part in the public debate. When have we seen students rally in earnest round an opinion about the society they are going to take over. Last time they occupied a rector's office it was a criticism of the political regulation of education programme organisation...

Younger generations have a lot of political adaptability and a narrow focus on own interests and rights. Not surprisingly an era of increasing individualisation leads to greater compliance with general framework conditions, and more criticism of local conditions. But it is difficult to decide one's stand on national and international conditions when you are raised to work hard and perform on a personal level.

Excellent teaching is delivered at CBS. Every single day. Teachers are essentially committed and ambitious on their students' behalf. The students are on the whole excellent students, not least because CBS' brand attracts a very large part of the region's best first-priority applicants. Against that background CBS is trying, with very limited resources (compared to Denmark's other universities) to create productive and effective education programmes. Sometimes more successfully than other times. It is part of a university's DNA to be self-critical and reflect on its own practice and part in society, wherefore it is central to respond to the debate about "the stupid and lazy".

Much can and will be improved. Also at CBS.
The precondition for creating a better university for students and society is that we stop throwing the responsibility onto others. The learning process is built on the productive dialogue between teacher and students - and between students themselves. At CBS we are working on a number of initiatives to strengthen relations between teachers and students. It is a long-term investment that is happily being received with great interest and support from CBS' many different players.

Welcome to the cooperation.