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Get ready for the next trend in education theory. A new paper examining the habits of students at the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China suggests that 鈥渙rderliness predicts academic performance鈥�. The study uses activity logged on student access cards to show that keeping a regular schedule (indicated by showering and eating at the same time every day) correlated with higher grades. Diligence, as measured by the amount of time spent in teaching buildings and the library, showed a similar positive correlation.

For all the headlines 鈥� and even policies 鈥� that this finding is likely to generate, it pays to be orderly and diligent in our own analysis. The first and most obvious flaw is to believe that good grades are harbingers of success. The UK government has been particularly gullible in this, seduced time and again by the lure of high rankings in international tests such as PISA and TIMSS that measure academic achievement among school students.

Certain Asian countries 鈥� China, Singapore and South Korea, for example 鈥� do very well here, outperforming most Western nations. Hence the steady flow of teachers and education experts going from West to East in search of insights, and East to West to offer advice.

Yet research shows that achieving stellar grades is no guarantee of success in life, of creativity or of future economic achievement. The UK, for instance, may not produce students that rank highly in the PISA hierarchy, but it does consistently turn out people who are world class in technological hardware, software, the film industry, music and the arts.

All of these disciplines are economic powerhouses, and if we want success here, we might do better to encourage disorder in our schools. Kathleen Vohs at the University of Minnesota showed in 2013 that . Two years later, Bob Fennis聽and聽Jacob Wiebenga聽of the University of Groningen in the Netherlands showed that a .

Picture this

A of research. Einstein鈥檚 desk on the day he died is a mess of clutter. Steve Jobs鈥檚 workspace, photographed by Diana Walker for Time magazine in 2004, is far from pristine. The Marks Twain and Zuckerberg offer similar insights: there are clearly strong associations between a messy working environment and getting things done. Not always good things, I鈥檒l admit: Donald Trump often appears behind a cluttered desk. But we do have to admit that Trump is creative and productive, albeit in ways many find troubling.

It is also unclear if the trend picked up in the new study would also apply in the West. As the researchers say: 鈥渨hether orderliness is a quality that is predictive across all cultures still remains an open question.鈥�

The last thing anyone needs is a truckload of government education theorists announcing that students who turn up to school unwashed, or fail to eat lunch in a punctual manner, will be excluded on the basis that they are compromising their institution鈥檚 future grades and ranking. The ones not showering might be busy creating the next world-changing app, or working supermarket shifts to pay their tuition fees. And would you want to be the one who decided that messy slob Steve Jobs wasn鈥檛 worth a place in college?

Not that he even wanted it. Create an environment that treats students as a monolithic block, and the gifted ones will find another way. By all means, encourage daily hygiene, but also remember that conformity and uniformity are the enemies of true success.