12/03/2026
Sometimes a short forum letter captures something many people are quietly feeling. This was one of them.
A student recently wrote about the new University Admission Score (UAS) system, and her observation was simple but perceptive:
while the reforms were meant to reduce academic stress, they may have simply redistributed the pressure elsewhere.
And I think she raises a fair point.
Educational reforms often operate with a hopeful intention, which is to create space for curiosity, exploration and a healthier student experience. Removing the weight of certain graded components was meant to signal that not every aspect of learning needs to be numerically ranked.
But as the student insightfully notes, systems rarely change in isolation.
When one pressure point is loosened, another often tightens.
This reflects something philosophers of systems and incentives have long observed: when the rules of a competitive system change, human behaviour quickly adapts to the new signals.
In other words, the competition does not disappear. It migrates.
For many students today, the new frontier of competition has become the portfolio: leadership roles, service learning, competitions, internships, external activities. What used to be a race for grades risks becoming a race for experiences.
Sociologists sometimes call this the “credential accumulation cycle.”
When one credential becomes less distinctive, new ones emerge to fill the gap.
But here is where I would gently add a note of hope.
While systems shape behaviour, students are not prisoners of the system.
The deeper question education must keep asking is not simply “How do we differentiate candidates?” but “What kind of young people are we forming?”
Universities may look at portfolios.
But life eventually looks for something deeper.
(Continues in ‘Comments’)
Ironically, the very changes that seem to intensify competition could also create an opportunity, if only we learn to interpret them differently.
