Why students could soon find it harder to get a First
UNIVERSITIES have finally vowed to halt grade inflation after a soaring number of firstclass degrees led to accusations of dumbing down.
The proportion of firsts handed out has doubled in the last decade, with 24 per cent of graduates now awarded the top grade, compared with 12 per cent in 2008.
Universities UK (UUK), which represents vice-chancellors, is today pledging for the first time to ‘tackle’ the problem and end the remorseless rise in the number of firsts dealt out.
Education Secretary Damian Hinds welcomed the move and warned any university producing an inexplicable rise in top degrees will face intervention from the regulator Office for Students.
He said artificial grade inflation must be ‘stamped out’ and warned quality must not be ‘cast aside’ to ‘inflate an institution’s reputation or league table ranking’.
As part of a package of measures, universities have agreed to follow a new framework specifying what a student must demonstrate to achieve a certain grade.
They have promised to ensure this criteria will ‘stretch and challenge’ all students, and ‘protect the value’ of qualifications. It comes after UUK admitted for the first time in November that tutors may be under pressure from both students and their bosses to inflate degree results.
Staff may be tempted to hand out more top marks because they fear bad reviews in student feedback surveys, it said, while institutions could be motivated to do so to improve their position in national rankings. Critics have long warned the trend undermines employers’ confidence in the system, as they cannot pinpoint exceptional candidates to hire.
A UUK investigation discovered 43 per cent of first-class degrees last year were likely to have been awarded due to factors such as grade inflation.
Today’s ‘statement of intent’ is the result of a consultation led by the UK Standing Committee for Quality Assessment, UUK, GuildHE and the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education.
Professor Dame Janet Beer, president of UUK, said: ‘The UK higher education sector has a world-leading reputation, so it is critical to protect the value of a university degree.
‘Students deserve to have qualifications which they can take pride in, and employers and the wider public need to have confidence in the results.’
UUK’s pledge, which will be in place for the 2019/20 academic year, also asks universities to improve external exam moderation, ‘protect the integrity of classification boundary conventions’ and ‘maintain comparability of qualifications over time’.
Two months ago, Mr Hinds warned universities could be stripped of powers to award degrees if they did not act to stop the steep rise of ‘unjustifiable’ first-class qualifications.
Yesterday he welcomed the new pledge, adding: ‘Quality is at the heart of our world-leading universities and I have been clear that it must be preserved – it should not be cast aside to inflate an institution’s reputation or league table ranking.
‘These are powerful steps towards protecting the value of higher education qualifications in this country. We now need this statement to be followed by action.’
Dr Tim Bradshaw, chief executive of the Russell Group of elite institutions, said: ‘Russell Group universities take very seriously any questions around the worth of UK qualifications and are committed to transparent and robust practices for awarding grades.’