UNABLE TO CREATE THE EXCESS DEMAND. An Economist article (recommended by George Leef at Phi Beta Cons) offers a sceptical look at the English (as opposed to Scottish) university system, where access-assessment-remediation-retention operates under a different set of constraints.

With less government money (in real terms) per student than in his day, universities have to pack them in and keep them in to balance the books. Paul Buckland, an archaeology professor at Bournemouth University, resigned when administrators overruled his failing grades for ten students (last month he won a case for “constructive dismissal”). In June a barnstorming lecture by Geoffrey Alderman, of Buckingham University, gained wide attention with its claims of impotent external examiners, widespread unpunished plagiarism and a “grotesque bidding game” in which universities dished out good grades in order to claw their way up league tables.

That's a return to a story we noted earlier this year. The rot has been setting in for some time (keep scrolling). There must be something different in the British ranking system. The bidding game in the United States is one in which universities underprice their offerings so as to generate excess demand so as to look more selective. They are free, however, to price their offerings (and toy with the financial aid) in such a way as to charge what the traffic will bear. There's a price cap in the United Kingdom.

On September 10th Alison Richard, Cambridge University’s vice-chancellor, said that her institution’s core mission was “to provide an outstanding education within a research setting”, not to promote social mobility. Obvious enough, perhaps, but John Denham, the secretary of state for universities, said he profoundly disagreed.

Absent better state secondary schools, universities may have to take radical measures: Cambridge is considering a foundation year for students who show potential but are ill prepared. A review of the government-imposed cap on tuition fees, due next year, may also help. The current limit of £3,300 ($5,926), which nearly all universities are up against, is so low that many lose money on teaching.

The premium for a degree is also changing, in a way that makes both consideration of the opportunity cost important, and the positional arms race more likely. The constraints of the price cap and the different incentives of the British ranking system align in such a way that the less-well-known universities might not be able to make the case that the Cambridge or Oxford degree isn't worth it.