Thinking of joining up as an officer...

[redorchestra]

If you look at 16-18 education, many people complete their courses and still get Us in their exams. At uni if you completed the course you would have to try very hard to fail. I am not saying that it is true for all courses but I know for some courses that the percentage for passing assignments etc is 35%!

Even if it is as easy to pass a degree as you say, a 'pass' means nothing. A degree any lower than a 2:2 or even arguably a 2:1 is virtually worthless, you might as well have failed for all the use it will be in getting you a decent job. A 'pass' in a degree is the equivalent of getting a 'U' in A-levels so there isn't really any difference.
I think you'll find most degree courses are considerably harder and more demanding than you might believe...

[RobT]

Even if it is as easy to pass a degree as you say, a 'pass' means nothing. A degree any lower than a 2:2 or even arguably a 2:1 is virtually worthless, you might as well have failed for all the use it will be in getting you a decent job.

So what? Course people even with degrees which arent very high will get decent jobs. Not everyone who does degrees are going to get the highest mark, we arent all brainboxes and people who are like me are doing a degree to have a good shot at it rather than giving up because some people belive you have to do better than 2:1.

In civvy street its not what you know its who you know. Many people i know didnt even get C's in GCSE's are now reeling it in because of various links with people they know.

[rawli]

Certainly with the highest jobs in society it is about who you know, politicians for example. Although a lot of the senior politicians have degrees it is often argued that 'to be a diplomat you need to be good at lying, to be a politician you don't need to be good at anything'. Lets face it, people like politicians only get to where they are through who they or their family know. If less than a 2:2 was an equivalent to a fail then why call it a pass?