Sarah Lewis

Professor of Molecular Epidemiology at University of Bristol specialising in Mendelian randomisation, Nutrition, Cancer and Cleft

[Sarah Lewis @ProfSarahJLewis]

@postsocialismus @zs_tc @MichaelRosenYes A 90% reduction in students would lead to the closure of many universities

[Naomi Fisher @naomicfisher]

This time of year, we put our 16-year-olds through a coming-of-age ritual. We make them sit in rows and write down things they have spent the last two years trying to memorise. We pit them against the clock, and prevent them from talking to each other. We tell them that this is the most important thing that they will ever do and their future life depends on it.

We don’t just do this once. For most of them, we make them sit in rows and write things down between twenty and thirty separate times in the space of about six weeks. Maths, English, History, French, Biology….Again and again, they have to keep at it. Each time, we tell them how important it is and they better not have an off-day or be ill.

Then we take their papers and we rank them. For some, the result will be accolades and glory. For others, failure and retakes.

We know for sure that this will always be true, because these rituals that we call exams are designed to rank them. A third will always fail. There would be no top grades if we didn’t also have the bottom. It isn’t possible for them all to pass.

And yet, every year, we talk as if this was not true. We pretend that it would be possible for them all to succeed, if only they and their teachers worked harder. Politicians talk about raising standards and accountability. We pretend that the problem is them not working hard enough, not an exam system designed so that hundreds of thousands fail. We blame them, not the exams.

For the truth is that we have a coming-of-age ritual for our teenagers which involves a third of them being told they haven’t met the grade, that they are not good enough. We launch them into adult life telling them that they will carry the stigma of not understanding quadratic equations for ever. We put them all through intense stress, and then when some of them cave in we say they have anxiety and send them to see a therapist.

And then we’re surprised when many of them say they just can’t carry on, that they don’t see the point. They don’t see potential in the future for themselves.

We need to take a step back and ask ourselves why we do this to our teenagers. For the problem isn’t our young people. It’s not their fault that a third of them fail and many are chronically stressed. The problem is what we make them do. We’ve designed a coming-of-age system with a very high cost in human misery.

Every year a new crop of teens will come of age, and despite their distress we just push them harder. We need to ask ourselves whether this is really the best we can do for our teenagers. We urgently need to think again.

[louis appleby @ProfLAppleby]

Evidence always outweighs opinion.

Universities should be champions of independent thought, not followers of fashion.

Our commitment to freedom of speech is tested only by those we disagree with. Anything else is confirmation bias.

[Sarah Lewis @ProfSarahJLewis]

As a nation we are much more successful in athletics than football, wish more of the money and resources was focussed on training future athletes.

[Sarah Lewis @ProfSarahJLewis]

@BrandonLuuMD @ajlamesa Maybe students typing notes are getting distracted by other things on their laptop too

[Heather Barr @heatherbarr1]

“According to the code, men are allowed to beat their wives as long as they do not use “obscene force” causing fractures, wounds or visible bruises, which the wife must prove in court. For this crime a man may be sentenced to only 15 days imprisonment.” https://t.co/aMhghyv7Z7

[Sarah Lewis @ProfSarahJLewis]

@lukas_ohl @mckyau_steve Yes but it is an interesting hypothesis. There is so much to unpack from this and I agree would be good to have more granular data.

[Sarah Lewis @ProfSarahJLewis]

@lukas_ohl @mckyau_steve You wouldn’t be able to tell whether King’s and UCL benefits from this data as they are lumped with all the other Russell group unis, there might be some big differences between those unis

[Sarah Lewis @ProfSarahJLewis]

@Matt_Pinner Yes

[Sarah Lewis @ProfSarahJLewis]

@MrsNickyClark Surely people can have an opinion on things without it turning into a culture war!

[Sarah Lewis @ProfSarahJLewis]

@TomChivers It makes sense to me. Maybe it is harder to fit in with norms now because society has changed and people don’t socialise in the same way they used to.

[Sarah Lewis @ProfSarahJLewis]

@thatginamiller @implausibleblog @NuffieldTrust Why expect students to pay loans in first years of graduation when they earn less? Most people would be in favour of funded medical degrees, with perhaps an obligation to pay it back if students don’t work for NHS

[Sarah Lewis @ProfSarahJLewis]

@thatginamiller @implausibleblog @NuffieldTrust I am not sure that nurses need degrees they never used to and it is putting off people who would be great nurses but aren’t academic and don’t want to get into dept. If they need degrees why not offer degree apprenticeships

[Sarah Lewis @ProfSarahJLewis]

@Green_JohnCoyne @natalieben @ucu Sorry missed a word out, I think it would be “good”..

[Sarah Lewis @ProfSarahJLewis]

@Green_JohnCoyne @natalieben @ucu I was thinking about this earlier, I think it would be if unis offered shorter courses, night classes etc

[Sarah Lewis @ProfSarahJLewis]

@DrHWazir @paul_d_stevens I agree with you. I teach future doctors but I would never have gone to university if I had to incur the current level of dept.

[Sarah Lewis @ProfSarahJLewis]

@TJiMTS Pension contributions would mean take home pay is even lower

[Sarah Lewis @ProfSarahJLewis]

@soniasodha I agree the current system is unfair to students but Universities really aren’t raking in ten of thousands per students, they are struggling. It costs 100s of thousands just to keep the lights on, keep the buildings warm, pay cleaners, porters, IT, student support staff etc

[Sarah Lewis @ProfSarahJLewis]

@paul_d_stevens They really have not thought this through, if the status quo continues, the hospitality industry will not exist soon, and neither will a lot of other businesses

[Sarah Lewis @ProfSarahJLewis]

@splashman32 @MartinSLewis I agree a payment calculator would be good, but difficult to predict because salary can increase substantially over 30 years.