KU and the 10 percent disaster

Kuwait University officially admitted that it does not allow more than 10 percent of its students to get an A grade. It even warned heads of departments, in a letter dated on April 2, that all professors had to respect that ratio set by the student’s affairs department.

Well, by this, Kuwait University (KU), or more precisely, the KU students affairs department, is creating a scientific method that is unrivalled in any university worldwide, which includes decent and nondecent students. None of them has ever set a rule that the number of students who should receive an ‘A’ should not exceed 10 percent of the total number of students.

Scientifically speaking, this is known as ‘grades quota’ when a preset number of students are entitled to get highest grades. I presume that such a quota is a pure Kuwaiti invention as the directive number 730/19 clearly called for respecting the percentage set by KU’s scientific affairs committee. Well, to those who do not know about the committee and have never heard about it, it comprises of the deans of KU colleges themselves, which means that the decision was jointly phrased and approved by the college deans and, naturally enough, approved by KU rector and his assistant for scientific affairs.

What is the scientific basis that the committee used in setting the 10 percent ratio? If the aim was to stop the marks generously given by some professors, this is not how you do it. They are acting like security officials who are trying to stop grocery burglaries in a certain city by passing a law that bans licensing more grocery stores or even orders the closure of half of those that already exist. This is not how you solve a problem. It will not be enough to cancel this decision; the whole committee that made it should be cancelled.

—Translated by Kuwait Times