TV history 'lowering standards'

TV history programmes discourage proper thought, some academics claim

Young people who study history at university are often poorly prepared by their sixth form courses, a survey of academics suggests.

The magazine History Today found most undergraduates had not read a single book on the subject during their A-level course.

The growth in television history documentaries presented by the likes of Simon Schama and David Starkey - called "edutainment" by one academic - was also blamed for lowering standards.

Viewers expected to be told stories, rather than conduct research of the type expected at degree level.

'Universal dismay'

Television documentaries were not unpopular with all academics, however.

Sally Alexander of Goldsmiths College, London, said they had "hugely stimulated the national historical imagination" and "widened and provoked" curiosity about the past.

There were widespread complaints about undergraduates' basic skills.

Nigel Saul of Royal Holloway, London, saw a danger that history would cease to be a "deep-reading subject" and called for a "sharp improvement in the standard of young people's literacy".

A History Today spokesman described "universal dismay at the general lack of foreign language skills".

'Discrete dollops'

Duncan Ross of Glasgow University said: "The good students are very good. But the tail of uninterested, unmotivated or simply not very bright students is very large."

One applicant to an academic post at Leeds, who had previously won an Oxbridge scholarship, "had cheerfully admitted to not having read a single book as an undergraduate, working instead solely from duplicated notes".

Several respondents said dividing courses into modules, rather than offering a finals-based degree, was damaging.

David Kirby, of London's School of Slavonic and East European Studies, said: "It may seem terribly old-fashioned, but the study of history does require space and time for reflection.

"It does not fit well into modularised degrees which serve up discrete dollops along the way."

However, the survey suggested a growing interest in history, with King's College London reporting a 40% rise in applications for the subject this year.