Lecturers warned over excess of low degree marks

LECTURERS who hand out thirds and 2:2s to the majority of their students could face investigation by university authorities, it has emerged.

Staff at Queen Mary University London (QMUL) were told they would need to explain themselves if any cohorts of students had an average of less than 60 per cent, which is usually the threshold for a 2:1.

Members of QMUL’S School of Business and Management, were told to “bear the 60:60:60 principle in mind” when assessing work. The memo, seen by Times Higher Education, reminds module organisers who “return marks for any element of assessment where the average mark is below 60 and/or fewer than 60 per cent of the students receive a mark of more than 60 will be asked to explain why this is the case”.

Moderators were also asked to “sense check if the distribution of marks does not meet this principle, recommending scaling or other adjustments if justified”.

Scaling is a process used in universities to increase unusually low marks to reflect student achievement.

The email advised that “60:60:60 is not an aspirational target for marks” but is the “minimum threshold for further investigation” by moderators and “if necessary by the exam board chair as candidate assessments for scaling”.

Concern has been growing recently about degree inflation at universities. Last year, Jo Johnson, who was the universities minister at the time, urged vice-chancellors to tackle grade inflation, which he said is “ripping” through universities. The problem risks creating a “dangerous impression of slipping standards”, he said.

The proportion of students leaving university with top honours has reached record levels in the past five years, data released earlier this year shows. More than 104,000 students – or one in four – graduated with a top degree classification last year, a fivefold increase on the number graduating with a First in 1999.

A spokesman from Queen Mary University of London said: “We attract highly capable students and we have a responsibility to ensure they reach their full potential. Within our School of Business and Management, we have put in place a process to look at the data and ask if the grading of individual modules within a degree programme is fair and reasonable. All of these considerations are subject to oversight and approval by the degree examination board and external examiners.”

A recent report found that universities are ignoring students’ lowest module scores as it warned that the practice could lead to grade inflation.

Dozens of institutions use the “discounting” mechanism to leave out the courses in which undergraduates got the poorest results when calculating a student’s final degree classification, according to a survey of universities.