Take Drugs, Score a 1st

Ah, student days. We remember them well. Cavernous overdrafts, hot-boxing in your digs and a kamikaze approach to romance. (8am walk of shame anyone?) What we definitely do not remember is taking cognition-enhancing drugs to improve our performance in the exam room. We were too busy wrecking our heads on highly alcoholic beer priced at the pauperly sum of 50p.

Nowadays though, it's all different. Performance enhancing drugs are no longer the sole domain of the American Olympic team and frisky pensioners gagging for a jump before they meet their maker. These particular meds were originally used to treat Alzheimer's disease and apparently, are now being gobbled down by students and their tutors, like a fat kid attacking the sweet jar.

Not everyone thinks this is a fabulous idea though. A report just issued by the Academy of Medical Sciences (AMS) suggests that the use of drugs to help short term memory and exam performance is a major problem in our universities. The AMS suggests there needs to be "localised regulation" by the universities themselves.

It all boils down to cheating. By taking these drugs, some students are arguably gaining an unfair advantage over their peers. Which will have many screeching the 'not fair' argument, but surely there's no reason why they can't all go out and get themselves a brain juice hit? And when your tutor's doing the same thing, the suggestion of "localised regulation" makes rather a moot point.

After all, it would be a strange day when you're told your dissertation and accompanying urine sample are due in on Friday.

Photo courtesy of Gaetan Lee's photostream on Flickr.

Written by Ria on 28 May 2008 11:34 AM. Permalink