From: Robert Minton-Taylor, Visiting Fellow, Leeds Business School, Leeds Beckett University.
Wednesday, 19th August 2020, 4:33 pm
ALGORITHMS can be an ass. I empathise with those headteachers who have just seen some of their most aspiring and hardworking students’ hopes dashed because of the crass handling of A-level results.
It must be even more galling for heads of schools in some of the more deprived inner city areas.
Some years ago, I remember marking a university student’s piece of work against an algorithm that I had devised for a course work project.
According to my algorithm, this particular student’s work was a fail. But having slept on the mark I eventually awarded the student a distinction. On reflection the work, judged by industry standards, was simply brilliant.
It was a lesson to me that algorithms don’t always give an accurate reflection of a student’s progress through university, nor do they capture the dedication and the hard work students put into their studies and the progress they make.
The student went on to graduate with a first class honours degree, won the best newcomer of the year – judged by a chartered professional body – and set up a leading award-winning consultancy which now employs 30 people.
Editor’s note: first and foremost – and rarely have I written down these words with more sincerity – I hope this finds you well.
Almost certainly you are here because you value the quality and the integrity of the journalism produced by The Yorkshire Post’s journalists – almost all of which live alongside you in Yorkshire, spending the wages they earn with Yorkshire businesses – who last year took this title to the industry watchdog’s Most Trusted Newspaper in Britain accolade.
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Sincerely. Thank you.
James Mitchinson