50 per cent rise in top degrees for students
‘More modest ability than in the past’
SCOTTISH universities are awarding students at least 50 per cent more top-class degrees than 20 years ago.
Heriot-Watt University has seen a 71.5 per cent increase in the proportion of Firsts and 2.1s awarded between 1998 and 2018, new figures reveal.
Over the same period, the proportion at Glasgow Caledonian and the University of the West of Scotland rose by 52 per cent, Strathclyde by 47 per cent, Dundee by 37 per cent, and Edinburgh Napier and St Andrews by around 33 per cent.
The trend, which has raised fears over falling standards, is highlighted in The Times and The Sunday Times Good University Guide 2020, published yesterday.
The University of West London tops the table, with twice as many top degrees awarded last year as in 1998.
Lindsay Paterson, professor of educational policy at the University of Edinburgh, said the absence of independent scrutiny made it ‘impossible’ to determine if a decline in standards was to blame.
‘However, it seems barely credible that such a large rise in the proportion getting high grades could be due to improved learning,’ he said.
‘The rise has happened while the proportion of the age group going to university has risen massively, so that students of more modest ability than in the past are getting degree results that even highly able students were not able to reach in the past.’
Professor Paterson suspects that a shift to continuous assessment and away from exams may explain the steady rise in attainment.
He added that the rise in the proportion getting high grades had happened at a time when student resources had fallen, citing a deteriorating staff-student ratio, overcrowded libraries and ‘stretched’ support networks.
In this year’s guide, St Andrews, where the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge studied, emerges as UK university of the year. Just 18 points shy of Oxford in this year’s league table, it has closed the gap from 73 points last year.
Strathclyde is Scottish university of the year, after an eight-place rise in the academic table pushed it into the top 40, its highest ranking since 2013. Dundee is UK university of the year for student experience and Stirling is UK sports university of the year.
St Andrews principal Sally Mapstone said: ‘This accolade from one of the most respected university rankings is a vote of confidence in Scottish higher education.
‘Not only is it an endorsement of what makes St Andrews special, it reflects the hard work of everyone who engages in and supports the high standard of teaching and research here.
‘We have flourished over six centuries because we are outward looking, international, and European; we will go on being so.’
Sir Jim McDonald, principal of the University of Strathclyde, said being named Scottish University of the Year was ‘a superb accolade and confirms our status as a leading international technological university’.
He added: ‘It is an endorsement of and recognition for the huge efforts colleagues and students at Strathclyde are making.’