London, Aug 7 : Spelling standards among university students in
the UK have gone so low that lecturers are being urged to turn a blind
eye to the ''''blunders''''.

A study has discovered that most of the students did not even know
the spelling of the most basic words, and it has become so bad that
even their lecturers have been urged to ignore the misspelled words.

Among the basic words that are misspelled by undergraduates in
essays, are words such as "their", "speech" or even "Wednesday", it is
claimed.

It was also found that the first year students were the worst
offenders, despite already spending at least 13 years in the education
system.

Standards have deteriorated to such an extent that one leading academic has been forced to ignore common errors altogether.

Dr Ken Smith, a senior lecturer in criminology at Bucks New
University, said "atrocious" spelling was rife among new
undergraduates, with many failing to apply basic rules, such as "i
before e, except after c".

With words like "weird", "seize", "leisure" and "neighbour" being regularly misspelt by students, he said.

The lack of knowledge comes amid growing fears that many
sixth-formers are leaving school lacking basic skills, and some
universities have already extended courses by a year to give weak
students extra tuition in core subjects that they failed to pick up in
the classroom.

Writing in Times Higher Education magazine, Dr Smith said mistakes
were now so common that academics should simply accept them as
"variants".

"Teaching a large first-year course at a British university, I am
fed up with correcting my students'''' atrocious spelling," Daily
Telegraph quoted him as having stated.

"But why must we suffer? Instead of complaining about the state of
the education system as we correct the same mistakes year after year,
I''''ve got a better idea. University teachers should simply accept as
variant spelling those words our students most commonly misspell," he
said.

He lists 10 words, which students regularly misspell, including "February", "ignore", "truly" and "queue".

"I could go on and add another 10 words that are commonly misspelt -
the word ''''misspelt'''' itself of course, and all those others that
break the ''''i'''' before ''''e'''' rule - but I think I have made my
point," he added.

"All the data suggests that there are more and more students at
university level whose spelling is not up to scratch. Universities are
even finding they have masters-level students who cannot spell," Jack
Bovill, chairman of The Spelling Society, added. (ANI)