One of the Professors in head of the School of Law, University of Southampton, said at a media briefing in the Capital, When local and international students expressed their desire to specialise in marine law while pursuing their undergraduate degree, we decided to offer a qualifying law degree to enable students to attend maritime law classes in the final year. An exposure to maritime law at the undergraduate level will enhance the employability of students.

In the first two years, the course will focus on the core LLB programme – contract, criminal and constitutional law and legal systems and reasoning in the first year, and law of torts, land law, equity and trusts, and European Union law in the second year. In the final year of the LLB Maritime programme, the students will be asked to settle for three options from a list consisting of admiralty law; carriage of goods by sea, commercial conflicts of law and international litigation, and commercial sales and public international law. They’ll also be required to choose an additional subject from the standard LLB options.

Apart from taking these papers, students will be required to write a 10,000-word dissertation on a maritime law- related subject as part of their compulsory legal research and writing course. Entry to this course will be based on the student’s academic references, a strong personal statement and a good academic record. The tuition fees for international applicants entering the university in the 2011- 12 academic year will add up to 10,820. As this is a qualifying law degree programme, it is suitable not only for those who would like a career in the legal profession, but also for those who wish to pursue careers in industry, shipping or commerce. Check the list of other courses, which is offered by University of Southampton, UK.

List of Courses at University of Southampton

Agriculture and related subjects
Applied and Pure Sciences
Architecture, Building and Planning
Business and Administrative Studies
Computer and Mathematical Science
Creative Arts and Design
Education and training
Engineering and Technology
English language (EFL)

This Masters program is devised of two options for specialization. One option is to focus on general educational psychology, which allows the student to gain a broad concentration of psychology in education. The three main areas of learning are: learning and conceptual processes, human development, and applied data analysis and research methodology. This concentration is often used as a bridge to complete a doctoral program in psychology or other related fields.

Another option is to focus on professional development for teachers. This option is designed for current teachers who want to hone their skills in the area of educational psychology. This concentration is flexible and is catered to the each individual’s needs. Half of the course load is designed to serve the purpose of the individual with the remaining half designed to work on the same areas of concentration as the general education psychology option.

The program requirements include that each student successfully completes a minimum of 30 semester hours of course work. Each student in the educational psychology concentration must also pass an examination before obtaining their Masters degree. Those who are a part of the professional development for teachers’ concentration are required to complete a portfolio. Almost all of the courses are offered in the evening in order to allow working professionals the time and space to attend classes. You may enroll full-time or part-time, and the length of time necessary to complete this Master’s program varies depending on how many classes you take each semester.

The classes required at Temple in order to receive your Masters of Educational Psychology include a combination of core courses, psychology courses, as well as elective courses. The core courses include a total of 18 credit hours and the following classes: Introduction to Statistics and Research, Tests and Measurements, Intermediate Educational Statistics (although this class is not required for those who are in the development of teachers’ concentration), and Introduction to Research Design. Students must also take Learning Theories and Education, and Concepts in Human Development. In addition 12 credit hours of electives must be completed.

In order to apply for admission to this program you must first fill out an application from the graduate school of Temple. You must also obtain official transcripts from every post-secondary institution that you have attended. Official score reports from the Graduate Record Exam (GRE) or from the Miller Analogies Test are also required. The test scores must be current, within five years of the date of application. You must also complete a written essay from two to three pages in length that outlines your specific goals and objectives for completing a Masters Degree program. Two letters of recommendation and a current professional rsum are also required.

Though not all league tables draw identical conclusions, the usual suspects are largely present in a similar order of ascension. However, one report published in September 2010 concluded that Harvard – which has long occupied the #1 spot – was second to the University of Cambridge. The QS Table addresses factors such as the quality of research, graduate employability and internationality of faculties and student bodies.

While Harvard remains on top within many other rankings – such as the Times Higher Education World University Rankings and the ARWU – it was decided that the quality of research carried out at Cambridge was unrivalled, as voted for by 15,000 academics.

Although the top position is one of a largely unchanging nature, the 99 other university rankings are subject to significant fluctuation. While the QS survey ranks Yale as number 3 overall, the ARWU does not consider the university within the top 10.

The University of Edinburgh, ranked 5th in the UK and 40th in the world by the THE, comes in at 54th within the ARWU listing, whilst it receives its best result in the QS survey where the Scottish university comes in at number 22.

The difference is in the metrics used to define the overall performance of university institutions. Whilst ARWU results are informed by a criteria of indicators and weights focusing on the academic propriety of staff – including the proportion of staff who have won a Nobel Prize or Field Medals – THE focus on the learning environment, research influence, and the international mix of staff and students.

For many secondary school students preparing to move on into further education at university, the plethora of ranking tables will serve as a benchmarking tool which will help them in their selection process. For the majority of state school pupils, the top ranking universities will seem out of their reach, if not on an academic basis then certainly on class-based perceptions of inaccessibility.

Annamalai University stands distinguished from most other universities. The distance learning programs have made education more accessible for people across various sections of the society. The university has provisions under which even schools drop outs can be enrolled in undergraduate programs. Thus giving a chance to educate them when most universities and institutes have closed the doors on them.

The university offers distance-learning programs in normal streams like science, commerce, and arts. Besides these programs, there are a host of unconventional courses like yoga, music, literature, hotel management; journalism.The most amazing fact is that even these can be taken up through correspondence mode. There are regular full time courses in engineering, medicine, and dentistry.

All the programs are well structured and designed so as to increase the skills of the students and thus their employability. Several certificate and diploma courses can be so also pursued through distance learning. SSLC pass students can also join some certificate courses, which equips them for jobs. Qualified doctors and engineers also enrolling the diploma programs fro advancements in their careers.

The most obvious place to start when looking at colleges and universities is location; however, that doesn’t become a factor when choosing an online university since you will going to school remotely. So what other factors should you consider when choosing a university?

Things to Consider

Accreditation – Of utmost importance is to find an accredited online university – not a diploma mill. Motivated by making a profit, diploma mills are non-accredited organizations that award degrees with poor or no academic study. They are more interested in taking your money than they are in providing you with a legitimate education or a degree that will help to further your career. Avoid these at all costs! While the thought of getting an online degree without any of the work at just a fraction of the cost may sound appealing, it’s just not worth the risk. People found using fake degrees can be denied employment, terminated, or in some cases actually face criminal charges.

Degree – Determine the type of degree that you are looking to receive. Whether it’s a bachelor’s degree, associate’s degree, master’s degree or PhD, different accredited online universities will offer different degree programs. You should choose a type of degree based on your personal interests and on the types of classes you would be interested in taking, as well as your educational background.

Major – What do you want your major to be? Not all accredited online universities offer a full range of programs. If you are certain that you want to focus on a specific field like nursing, engineering, politics, or accounting, it is important to know which schools offer these courses. Once you find a school that offers your major, check to see what resources they have for students enrolled in those classes. Look for things like the background and experience of your professors, and if the university offers career placement help after graduation.

Time – Consider the time commitment that you are willing to make for school. Certain degrees and majors will require a heavier course load than others, while some accredited online universities will only allow you to take one or two classes per session. If you are looking to go to school full-time or to complete your degree in a short period, these programs may not be the best choice for you. Determine the amount of time you will have after all of your outside obligations are met, including a job, family and other activities to help clarify your best option.

Cost – While many accredited online universities cost less than a traditional school, receiving your education online is still a big financial commitment. Having a clear understanding of what you can afford will help you to determine the best school for you. Take a look at each online university’s information page for tuition to find out how they charge; it may be by credit hour, course or semester. Each school may break down their tuition costs differently, so you may need to do a little math to compare them correctly. Also take into consideration any scholarships and grants or financial aid that you may be able to receive as this will ultimately drive down the total out-of-pocket expenses for you.

Reputation – Find out about the school’s overall reputation. A great place to start your search is through online university reviews. Through these websites, students are able to post their own personal experiences with the universities that they have attended. You can read about how the students liked the programs, the professors, the grading system and more. Just as you’d read consumer reviews prior to buying a new television or car, you should do the same when you’re looking to further your education.

The concept ” falling standard of Education” is a relative term because there is no well defined instruments to measure it with utmost reliability and validity. That is why scholars’ views on the concept varies. These scholars view it at different perspectives, depending on the angle each of them is looking at it.

Babalola, A (2006) sees the concept from admission of Nigerian University products in developed countries universities. That the first six Nigerian Universities (University of Ibadan, Ile Ife, Lagos, Benin, Nsukka and Zaria) had their products competing favourably with any other University in the world as their products were sought for by University of Harvard, Cambridge, Oxford and London for admission into their post-graduate courses. That these students record breaking performances and when they graduate are employed by the best multi-national companies and corporate bodies globally unlike today where no Nigerian University is among the top 6,000 Universities of the world (Adeniyi, Bello (2008) in Why no worry about rankings). He sees standard from how universities contribute to knowledge and solving problems besetting mankind.

According to Gateway to the Nation (2010), University of Ibadan is ranked 6,340th University in the world. In Africa, University of Ibadan is ranked 57th, OAU 69th and South African Universities are leading the way in Africa.
He also use written and spoken English as a yardstick for measuring standard of education which University of London conducted a research in West Africa and the result showed that teachers trained by colonial masters were better of than those trained by indigenous teachers.

He also used staffing, funding, foundation, origin and students as standard of education.

Standard of education to Dike, V. (2003) is how education contribute to the public health (or sociopolitical and economic development of a Nation).

Standard of education to either passing or failing of external examinations like WAEC, NECO, NABTEB, JAMB,(NOW UTME) among others.

Teachers without Boarders (2006) looks at educational standard from how the products of schools can be measured in terms of outcome. That is how school leavers contribute to the society in terms of cognitive affective and psychomotor. I will be using students to refer to both students and pupils, I will use head teacher to refer to both principal and headmaster.

Which ever way you may view standard of education, for you to conclude whether the standard is falling or not, you must take into consideration all the aforementioned variables including achieving educational goals.

Equally, for justice to be done while measuring these standards one has to look at reliability where all the schools to be measured must have the same infrastructure, teaching materials, quality of teachers, level and degree of learners, condition within which learning takes place, some methods of assessment and some types of contribution to the society among others.

CAUSES OF FALLING STANDARDS

Haven discussed what makes up standard in education, may I crave your indulgence to some of the established facts that constitute falling standard of education in Nigeria.

(1) Discipline: This is one of the outstanding attributes of education when it is rightly observed.

a. Repeating: school no longer observe repeating as every student is promoted to the next class whether they understand or not gives room for falling standard.
b. Attendance: The 75% of attendance universally accepted as the bases for someone to sit for examination is no longer observed.
c. Late coming: Student that come late are no longer punished, which leads to their loosing morning classes.
d. Misbehaviour: Students are no longer punished for misbehavior because of their parental influences (lost of jobs or unnecessary transfer).
e. Cultism: This could refer to rituals, usually under oath binding the members to a common course. They operate covertly in fulfillment of their objectives to the detriment of other people. Thus, planning secondary needs above primary needs.

These cults exist because of over population of students in schools, wrong admissions not based on merits, hence fear of examination failures and selfish worldly gains.

(2) Quest for paper qualification: Nigerians respect paper qualification above performance in the fields. Hence, cognitive, affective and psychomotor domains are supposed to be measured on the field.

(3) Politicizing education: Merit is no longer regarded as it is now ” who you know” and not “what you can deliver” Technocrats (educationists are not appointed Commissioner of education and education board).

(4) Policy problem: Sometimes the type of policies government make on education adversely affects output. For instance, in College of Education, we have National Commission for Colleges of Education (NCCE), competing with JAMB for admission as the two guidelines vary.

Equally, WAEC, NECO, NABTEB, JAMB ( now UTME) compete with qualifying pre-requisites and regulation of entries into tertiary institutions.

(5) Teachers not being part of the examination bodies. One wonders whether the continuous Assessment submitted by these teachers are used or not.

(6) Accessibility of Schools: The Nigerian population boom has outnumbered the existing schools as the existing schools have to over admit.

This point can be practically seen in the following areas:

(i) Teacher / Student ratio of 1:25 is no longer there as in my class, it is 1:3900.
(ii) Students / books / Journals ratio of 1:10 is no longer feasible.
(iii) Politics of admission: Schools can no longer set targets for admission to conform with their facilities as powerful notes from above will force the school authorities to either over admit or find themselves in the labour market again. Yet it is those that are giving these notes are suppose to build more schools or provide needed infrastructure etc. to accommodate those collecting these notes.

(7) Over-dependent on cognitive domain: Schools do not give regards to affective domain that will mould characters of our young ones. Little attention is given to psychomotor while no attention is given to affective domain.

(8) Shortage of qualified teachers: Some schools in the rural areas only have the headmaster as government employee while the rest that may be secondary school drop outs are PTA staff. What miracle can these staff perform? Dike, V. (2006) observed that only 23% out of the then 400,000 primary schools in Nigeria have grade II even when NCE is now the minimum qualification for teachers at primary and Junior Secondary schools.

(9) Teachers welfare: It is no longer news that

(a) Politicians do not have negotiation council to negotiate their salary increase.
(b) There is no disparity among political office holders from the federal, state and local governments.
(c) Their salaries are increased at astronomical manner.
(d) Their salaries are increased any time without recourse to whether the nation’s economy can bear it or not.
(e) But for teachers, they must negotiate the 10 to 20% of an attempt to increase their salary with consideration of the economy of the nation. How can these teachers contribute and perform miracle when their family members are in the hospitals and the O.S. syndrome is written on their cards by pharmacists while they do not have money to treat.

(10) Constant Strikes: This is an impediment to smooth covering of syllabus. Oefule (2009) explained that one Nigerian guest asked a question on strike at Oxford University community but the vice chancellor could not even remember about strike, only the registrar remembered it for 17 years back. This is what governance means to the people.

(11) Long rule of the military; Education was not properly funded by the military regimes as according to Babalola, A(2006) Obasanjos administration inherited many left over problems of the military such as non- payment of pensions and gratuities of retired University staff, poor remuneration of university staff, dilapidating buildings of schools, libraries with outdated books, obsolete laboratory equipments, bad campus roads, inadequate water and power supply among others.

(12) In the secondary and primary schools levels, schools do not even have buildings talk less` of furniture’s, equipments and reading materials. This is the level where the foundation of education should be laid. Any faulty foundation will lead to faulty structures. What do you expect from the tertiary level?

(13) Lack of training of teachers: Teachers are not trained to update their knowledge with latest discoveries based on research, then how can they give what they don’t have?

(14) Poor state of Educational teaching facilities: Dike V. (2006) reported that research result shows that over 2015 primary schools in Nigeria do not have building but study under trees, talk less of teaching materials.

(15) Corruption: leaders of the schools and some Government officials either connive to buy equipments with loan money that cannot be of any use to the school or take such loans and do not even do anything with it.

(16) Poor budgetary allocation to education: A research work of 2001 shows that Nigeria only, allocate less than 20% to education it further reveals that Nigeria spends 0.76% to education as against Uganda 2.6%, Tanzania3.4%, Mozambique 4.1%, Angola 4.9%, Coted Ivore 5% Kenya 6.5% and South Africa 7.9% among others.

WHO IS TO BE BLAMED?

We have seen the causes of falling standards and from these causes we can deduce that the following are to be blamed:

1. Government suppose to carry the lion share of the blame because all the other variables are dependent variables to it.

2. Teachers also have their shares of the blame with regards to their diligent duties.

3. Parents: feeding has to be provided by parents. This is because parents do not leave schools to operate without interference.

4. Students: students who do not abide by school rules and regulations nor pay attention to their studies also contribute to falling standards. Students also seek for paper qualification and disregards to performance they also participate in cult activities that derail the progress of the academy.

5. The society is not left out as it is the way it sees and respects the products of these schools that recycles back again.

SOLUTION

Based on the problems or causes identified above, the following solutions are proffered: Schools should respect and restore back discipline to bring back the lost glory of our educational standards.

Performance should be regarded and respected more than just paper qualification. Equally, education should not be politicized for whatever reason.

Policy makers should be mindful of policies that affect education .eg JAMB(UTME) regulation in admissions.

Teachers should be involved in examination activities and examination bodies should always publish examination reports and distribute it to various schools for them to hold school workshop for training of subject teachers on their areas of weaknesses observed in the students’ scripts with regards to following the marking scheme.

More schools should be built to increase accessibility by all. Cognitive, affective and psychomotor domain should be used for assessment of students.

Teachers’ welfare should be given priority by government to avoid unnecessary strikes in our educational sector while more qualified teachers should be employed to curb the present shortage of teachers in our schools.

The university has 109 affiliated colleges, with study centres in Madurai, Chennai, Trichy, Theni, Ramnad, Tirunelveli, Nagercoil and other states. There are seven evening colleges for students with day jobs, and distance learning centres in 103 other states and seventeen different countries. On the home campus, the Kamaraj University Library is the second largest in Tamil Nadu. There is a Computer Centre and an Educational Media Research Centre for video production which has created and aired 3380 educational television programs.

Schools within the college include biological sciences, biotechnology, chemistry, energy and environmental resources, economics, history, math, physics, philosophy, Tamil, earth and atmospheric studies, business, education, languages, information and communication, performing arts, religions, social sciences, and youth welfare. Each school is comprised of several departments. For example, the school of biological sciences has departments of biochemistry, plant sciences, molecular biology, genetics, animal behavior and physiology, microbial technology, immunology, plant morphology and algology. The school of religions, philosophy and humanist thought has departments of Islam & Islamic Tamil studies, Saivasiddhanantha philosophy, Gandhian Studies and Ramalinga philosophy, interreligious relations, philosophy, Christian studies and Guru Nanak Studies. There is also a department of Adult / Continuing education, a volunteer programme called the National Service Scheme for social services, and a Kidney and Bone Marrow Transplantation Matching Service Facility.

Complete campus facilities serve the needs of the many residents. 1080 students may be accommodated in the University Hostels, in five men’s and three women’s dormitories. Staff and guests are also given their own quarters. There is a 24 hour University Hospital, a canteen, cooperative stores, a post office and branches of the State Bank of India and MDCC Bank. There is a beautiful indoor sports stadium with a wooden floor and seating for 1000. Basketball, badminton, table tennis and volleyball facilities are available.

Established in 1976, the University’s goal has always been to make higher education easily accessible to working students. Over the years, they have become the largest private university in North America, with 200 campuses and distance education facilities available online.

Distance education has become an increasingly popular choice, even for non-working students. The ability to learn at one’s own pace, in the privacy of one’s own home is appealing to many people.

It’s less stressful for anyone and works particularly well for students with disabilities. There’s no real time-table to meet, except for one that you make for yourself.

Today, there are many institutions that offer courses over the internet, but Phoenix was one of the first. They have more than 100 different programs to choose from at the Associate’s, Bachelor’s, Master’s and Doctoral levels. The programs that they offer are geared towards career advancement or development.

With a University of Phoenix online degree, you have an advantage in the job market. Today’s employers are looking for the best educated and most qualified individuals to fill all of their positions. Your motivation to obtain more education, by choice, looks good on a resume.

If you are currently employed, you may find that your employer offers partial tuition reimbursement. Lots of employers offer this kind of incentive. If you qualify for financial aid from the federal government or Stafford loans of either type, you can use them to obtain a University of Phoenix online degree.

The college is accredited by the US Department of Education. Credits that you receive at the college should be transferable, should you decide to attend another school, depending, of course, upon the field of study that you choose to go into.

The fees charged are comparable to what you would pay at any other college. They vary depending on the type of program that you are interested in and the materials required. You can easily learn more about the applicable tuition for a specific program, online or at one of their many campuses.

Currently, they have campuses in 41 US states, in two Canadian provinces and in Puerto Rico. That’s one of the things that make a University of Phoenix online degree more appealing than some of the other distance learning providers. There are some programs that require labs or other classroom activities. This requirement prevents single location universities from offering the broad range of educational opportunities that are available through Phoenix.