I think the arguement for the profession artificially reducing pass rates to maximise income is fairly implausible, for lots of reasons:
• its not clear that more fails will maximise income, as plenty will drop out when they keep failing, or be deterred from joining in the first place.
• i'm not aware of any evidence this is happening.
• Its unlikely the remuneration of the markers is linked to how many they fail, and the process is clearly pretty robust - double blind marking etc.
• It seems such an approach would require a fair amount of pre-meditation and collusion (unlike a single rogue uni professor hinting at exam questions or marking generously), which would be pretty difficult to hide.
• The reputational risk to the profession would be huge, not to mention to those individuals involved
• Actuaries are generally too boring and honest to do such things
For universities its a different kettle of fish however and i'd have more concerns about that. However, i'm unlikely to lose any sleep over it
"There is no failure. Only feedback" ~ Robert Allen
Last edited by a moderator: Aug 14, 2012