747 some points for you just so you understand
1) GCSE are in no way equivalent to what you did or even i did a few years back, but GCSE are not what gets you a place at university...These exams are aimed at 15-16 year olds who wish to progress on and to study certain subjects at A level which determines if they are eligible to apply.
2) The content of work covered in your maths exam then and now or any exam,differs in respect that what you studied at GCSE for maths is incoperated into the new A level syllabus whish provides a sound knowledge to build on
so compare your maths exam to an A level paper
3) many more people are not going to university, the numbers have not increased and the reason for this is A) abolishment of student grants
b) introduction of uni fees
now if students complain then i say why not.in fairness many of them are studying and working to pay rent and cover living expenses.
one of my friends has just left as he cannot afford to work and study, some people do struggle...
4) the introduction of these new degrees are in my theory mostly being introduced by polytechnics..eg the david beckahm degree. yes i agree with you a complete waste of time and yeah sure they may be a degree in opening mars bars soon....LETS HOPE NOT
5) this sudden rise in students at uni is not true in that sense the exams are getting easier.
in fact whats happened is that many people are struggling to meet the high requiremnts required to obtain that place..so whens results come out the exam boards say blah Blah Blah the unis say well person X and y havent met our requirement so lets let them in
the reason for the universities doing this is there has been a decline in no of students applying each year and not meeting entrance requirments.if they dont fill a certain number of places each year the universities are not eligible for funding from the government or LEA.
i mean if they were meant to recruit 100 students and they didnt and only got 50 due to the reasons many of these courses dont get funded.
the end of last year there was an enquiry launched by the education comittee on why many universities broke there policies and lowered entry requirments.. reasons were as above.
many of the top 10-15 universites eg Oxford, cambridge, warwick, umist didnt alter there entrance requiremnts in the wake of this only wanting too attract high calibre students.
many of the people who wnated to go too these unis ended up being told too look else where whish in turn has resulted in a high drop out rate several factors were the student becoming depressed due to financial problems, being rejected from there first choice uni etc etc
i can lay down many points to you 747 bit this is only me expressing my opinion, but still i disagree with you on two things
exams are not getting easier and there are not more people going to uni