Oxford and Cambridge are planning to abandon traditional closed examinations in favour of open-book and take-home assessments. This decision, dressed up as modernisation, represents the institutional betrayal of academic excellence. If implemented, it will reduce the two ancient universities of England to vacuous credentials factories, indistinguishable from the mediocrity of the universities they once despised.
The Purpose of Exams: A Filter, not a Crutch
Examinations exist for a reason: to separate the exceptional from the mediocre and to discard the incapable. Closed, timed examinations in controlled conditions are the only means of assessment that cannot be easily corrupted. They test not just what a student knows, but his ability to think under pressure and argue coherently within constraints. These are the qualities that define intellectual excellence.
Of course, even closed exams are not immune to corruption. I know this from my own experience. The only closed examinations I have sat so far are my GCSEs. While technically closed, these were exercises in box-ticking and regurgitation. Success depended not on creativity or intelligence but on slavishly following the mark schemes. The questions were predictable and designed to reward compliance rather than thought. The exams were uninspiring, but they were still better than the farce that is coursework. This is a total fraud. Teachers know it. Students know it. Exam boards know it. Much of it is ghost-written by private tutors, or now by AI tools like ChatGPT. This fraudulent system will only grow worse if applied universally to undergraduate degrees. Open-book and take-home exams will ensure that coursework’s culture of dishonesty infects the entire assessment process.
An Invitation to Mediocrity
The abandonment of traditional exams is often justified on the grounds of “accessibility” and “fairness.” But these are euphemisms for giving certificates to the lazy and the stupid. Examinations are meant to be hard. They are meant to discriminate. If a student cannot cope with the pressure of a three-hour exam, he is unlikely to deliver where decisions have real consequences.
By lowering the bar, Oxford and Cambridge are not levelling the playing field; they are erasing it. Everyone shown one of the degree certificates will see the changes for what they are: a concession to mediocrity.
Cultural Decay in the Making
The effects of these “reforms” will not end with the academic. They will reshape the cultural fabric of these universities. As standards fall, so too will the quality of students they attract. The best will go elsewhere—to universities where excellence remains the key to success. What will remain at Oxford and Cambridge is a different kind of student: one drawn not by rigour but by the prestige of a name that no longer means anything.
The decay will be universal. College libraries will be vandalised, unread books stolen and put on E-Bay. College grounds will become places of drugged or drunken debauch, littered with the vomit and excreta of human trash who have no respect for the traditions they inherit. The focus of student life will shift from intellectual debate to petty grievances, with mobs ripping down portraits and statues, and whining about ancient names, for perceived microaggressions.
The Betrayal of Education
The broader context for this decline is a cultural shift away from valuing excellence. Education is no longer seen as a means of cultivating intellect and character. Instead, it has been reduced to a process of credentialing—a system that puts inclusivity above merit. The result is a race to the bottom, where standards are sacrificed to ensure no one feels excluded.
The Only Cure for Educational Rot
The only cure for this educational rot is to do to universities what a gardener does to a tree that produces rotten fruit. Half the administrators should be sacked without replacement. Everyone concerned with making education “fair” should be sacked on the spot. I know that nothing will be done. This should make me sad. However, I feel a certain warmth from the reflection that everything has gone bad, and will continue getting worse. There will be no meaningful reaction while any part of the present order of things remains standing. Improvement will come only as a fresh start, with new universities, run by new people.
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This is a direct attack on anything worth anything in our culture. Oxford and Cambridge will both fall out of the ranks of the top world universities.