Assessing student performance

`Failure¿ of some students is an inevitable result of the stratification that exists in higher education, and high failure rates in scientific and engineering subjects may have assisted the swing towards arts subjects at sixth-form level. Why do some students fail after good examination results at school? This article reports an investigation carried out on CNAA B.Sc. honours-degree students in the department of electrical & electronic engineering of the Brighton College of Technology during the 1967¿68 session.