Reforms urged to stop grade inflation at universities
A NEW system for awarding degrees should be put in place to tackle “rocketing” grade inflation at universities, a think tank has said.
Under the plans published by Reform, a new regulator would set the standards required by higher education providers when offering a degree course.
The report recommends that universities should lose the freedom to select their student’s final degree grades in order to curb the proportion of firsts being awarded.
From 1997 to 2009 the proportion of firsts almost doubled from seven per cent to 13 per cent and since 2010 it has gone up to 26 per cent. The proportion of 2:1 degrees has risen from 40 per cent to 49 per cent since 1995, meaning that 75 per cent of students now achieve one of the top two classifications, compared with 47 per cent in the mid-1990s.
The report said there was considerable evidence that “degree algorithms” which translate the marks achieved by students over the course of their studies contribute to grade inflation.
Pressure placed on academics by senior managers was also “strongly implicated”, the report said.
“Universities should operate free from government interference as far as possible,” the Reform report said.
“However, autonomy dies not mean the absence of accountability, particularly when universities receive £17.7bn of tuition fee revenue each year.”
The report added: “It is in the interests of both students and universities to stop grade inflation.”
Under the think tank’s proposals a new “designated assessment body” would set standards across a particular subject and all finalyear students would sit a new, national assessment.
The results of those assessments would determine the proportions of each degree grade that universities can award in each subject, rather than institutions making their own decisions.
The report’s author Tom Richmond, a former ministerial adviser at the Department for Education under Michael Gove and then Nicky Morgan, said: “Rocketing degree grade inflation is in no one’s interest.”