31st October 2018 9:00
By Blue Tutors
The government has decided to bring in measures to tackle ‘grade inflation’ at universities after the news that more than a quarter of students now receive a first class degree. Reported on the BBC website, figures show that 8% of students received a first in the early 90s, 18% in 2013, and that figure is now 26%. This suggests that grades are being ‘marked up’, and some students are leaving university now with a higher grade than a comparable student in previous years.
The government will now use a rating system to rank universities which will see a university ranked lower if they are seen to be favourably marking students’ exams. Universities set their own exams and grade boundaries, but if a panel of experts now decide that a university is awarding too many firsts and 2-1s then they will see their ranking lowered, the rankings being gold, silver and bronze.
An argument against forcing universities to adjust their grade system is that, with the increase in tuition fees, students are simply taking their education more seriously now, and working harder which has led to the increase in firsts. Research has also found that the increase in university grades is roughly in line with increasing A Level grades over the same period.
The figures do show that the top universities apply more leniency when it comes to grade inflation, with their firsts only increasing by 8% in the last 13 years. However, the A Level grade argument can be rebutted by the claim that there is also grade inflation for those qualifications too, and many people say that universities need this kind of control because otherwise they have an incentive to award increasingly higher grades.