Does everything have to be the way it is?

For example, most Cambridge colleges were only opened to women in the ‘70s and ‘80s – a century after the University of London was authorised to grant degrees to women in 1878. Over the course of this century, the university, colleges and students resisted every step to women’s equal treatment: their presence at lectures, their participation in exams (from 1881), the awarding of even unofficial “titular” degrees (from 1921), recognition of women’s colleges and membership of women in the University (from 1948). The last men’s college in the UK was Magdalene in Cambridge (until 1988); the last women’s colleges are Lucy Cavendish (until 2021), Murray Edwards and Newnham, also in Cambridge.

Of course, both Cambridge and British society have changed beyond recognition since the ‘80s. Students and academics come and go, and few who remember that era are left. Nevertheless, the rules, traditions and norms of the University are linked to its conservative past: it is overall strict and uncompromising. That is why I was surprised that, within a few months, it has introduced distance learning and lecture recording, cancelled or simplified exams, abolished degree classifications, and made many students pass the year automatically.

One ancient rule at Cambridge is that students must live in the city during term; apart from vacations, they cannot leave the city overnight more than three times per term or for longer than one night without permission. This rule is generally ignored in practice, but theoretically it is a condition for graduation. Last term, it was suspended.

Another convention was that lectures were not recorded. Lecture recording only existed as a trial adopted by, among others, the Department of Engineering. Other departments were uninterested or opposed to it, even though it is the only reasonable option for many disabled students (many University and college buildings are poorly accessible, the distances between them are large, and public transport is supposedly unreliable and covers University sites inadequately). However, last term all lectures were recorded, and this is likely to remain the case next year (but seminars will be held in person again – the aim is only to limit mass gatherings).

A third convention suspended this year was that every year all students sit written exams under controlled conditions and receive a classification (1st, 2.i, 2.ii or 3rd). The classification is usually based almost entirely on exam results, as opposed to coursework. Students who fail (which is very rare) are expelled; it is not possible to repeat exams or an entire year. This year, various shortened and simplified exams took place (the details depended on course and degree year), students took them at home without supervision, and, as far as I know, no classifications were awarded.

The concepts introduced for last term aren’t entirely new. The Anglophone academic world generally isn’t conservative and concepts such as take-home exams, pass/fail grading, online lectures and videoconferencing, which have now entered the public consciousness, are more or less well-known in it. (I belong to the small minority of pre-pandemic Zoom users!) Some of them had already been implemented at the Department of Engineering, which has always seemed far more progressive to me than the University as a whole (see my article on Standard Credit).

Many students must be asking: why wasn’t it possible before? The campaigns for lecture recording, fought in the name of disabled students, were long and largely fruitless; suddenly, within a single month, it was introduced by all departments. The pandemic is putting the entire system of university education from lectures to exams into question and making students and the public ask: is the system the way it is (i.e. with a strong emphasis on in-person teaching and challenging written exams) because that is truly necessary for good education, or just because it has been this way for centuries and nobody dares to change anything? Universities offer no clear answer to this.

Incidentally, in all matters except mixed-sex education, Oxford is much more conservative than Cambridge. I have heard that students must wear gowns even to some videoconferences there.