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- Path: sparky!uunet!pipex!unipalm!uknet!warwick!covpoly!cck.coventry.ac.uk!esz001
- From: esz001@cck.coventry.ac.uk (Will Overington)
- Newsgroups: sci.physics,uk.misc
- Subject: The Institute of Physics Graduateship Examination
- Message-ID: <hybnbt1x@cck.coventry.ac.uk>
- Date: 28 Jul 92 09:06:58 GMT
- Sender: ouz044@cck.coventry.ac.uk (USENET News Owner)
- Followup-To: sci.physics
- Distribution: uk
- Organization: Coventry University, Coventry, UK
- Lines: 94
- Nntp-Posting-Host: cc_sysk
-
-
- I am sending out this note to sci.physics and also crossposting to
- uk.misc, with followups directed to sci.physics.
- I have set distribution to uk, as it really is just a uk issue.
-
- 28th July 1992
-
- During at least part of the 1970s, maybe before as well, maybe later
- as well, The Institute of Physics used to conduct its own Graduateship
- Examination.
-
- The broad idea was that persons who got an Honours degree in Physics
- from a University or of CNAA were exempt from the Graduateship
- Examination, so the Graduateship Examination was really an alternative
- way of becoming professionally qualified as a physicist for those
- people who had not got an honours degree in physics, for whatever
- reason.
-
- There were two stages, Part I and Part II, with Part I exemption
- being available to persons with Ordinary Degrees, Pass Degrees, HNDs
- and HNCs with a number of endorsements, (it being stressed that this
- latter was a concession to part time students, not a recognition of
- content).
-
- It was possible to take the examinations by private study, but the
- going rate was to go to day release or evening classes at a polytechnic
- or similarly. For example, Oxford Polytechnic used to offer a two
- year day release course, but whether you took Optics in year 1 or year 2
- depended which year you joined the scheme, and so on with half a dozen
- subjects.
-
- Gradually, the Graduateship Examination scheme got fewer and fewer
- entrants, colleges had problems getting enough students to run classes
- and it all got wound up. I do not know the details as to how long this
- run down took, maybe quickly or a gradual decline in numbers, but it
- happened. It may be that the rise of the Open University had a great
- deal to do with this decline in numbers.
-
- However, there is an interesting second order effect concerning the
- scheme.
-
- In the early 1970s the Part II Thesis Option was introduced, whereby
- a person could do a project and write a thesis instead of taking the
- traditional course and examination route.
- The work could either be done with a college, or with an employer,
- which, for people unable to go to day release, either because they
- live too far away from a college, or family commitments or because
- they cannot get day release facilities, was a major opportunity.
-
- This option was abolished along with the main scheme.
-
- I have, at various times, over several years, being trying to persuade
- the Institute of Physics to give consideration to reintroducing the
- Graduateship Examination Part II Thesis Option.
- This, I feel, could be done without needing to reintroduce the main
- scheme, though logically, it might need to be called just
- Graduateship Examination.
-
- I have not been at all sucessful with this, merely being told that
- there are no plans, the reasons why the scheme was wound up (difficulty
- in getting enough students on a course at a college, which I feel
- misses the point about the Thesis Option, as they are essentially
- one off cases every time), and the various ways that one can get to be
- an M. Inst. P. upon confidential reports of ones work by an employer.
-
- (For the avoidance of introducing confusion, M. Inst. P. requires
- both a combination of academic achievement and responsible experience.
- I am not saying here that the report is said to be as good as a
- qualification, I am regreting that the issue of a qualification is
- being marginalized in a system that is requiring both academic
- achievement and a report.)
-
- Now, in my own opinion, a confidential report from an employer, no
- matter how glowing, just does not compare with a certificate of having
- passed an examination at a nationally recognized level, for the
- Thesis Option certainly included an examination, both the thesis
- volume itself and an oral examination.
-
- I have now decided to have another attempt at getting the Institute
- of Physics to consider the matter, which, I feel, it has not yet done,
- merely telling me the present situation, not investigating the
- possibility of change.
-
- I am, this time, seeking to create a lobby of people who would like
- to see the thesis scheme reintroduced, at a proper first degree
- honours level, with the availibility of academic dress, as before.
-
- I feel that this reintroduction would be of interest to potential
- students, such as people working in industry or colleges; to training
- officers; to people seeking to provide educational incentive to their
- staff; indeed to all people interested in the increase of educational
- opportunity.
-
- Please discuss this suggestion, or reply by e-mail if you prefer.
-