To think there is grade inflation in universities

[Thetelly8]

I’ve noticed a lot of students gain very high grades it seems people getting a 2.2 or a third is extremely unusual.

I'm a recent graduate with a 2:2 from the Open University (and a place on a Masters starting next year). I'm bored of the narrative that it's easier than before by people who mostly don't even have a degree but their child / younger family do. It's not easier - it's more accessible.

All true, but there was also a lot of well documented inflation to A level grades. We are just now stabilising post-pandemic.

A level grades are still not back where they were 40 years ago

This bothers me when I’m recruiting as we have the educational institutions blanked out but it really matters in assessing the quality of a graduate’s application!

Does this not work both ways? I thought that metric was also to make sure an institution wasn’t handing out too many 1sts? I used to be a lecturer in a degree where over 70% of students got a 1st.

There was blind panic from SLT who said it couldn’t be allowed to continue as it devalued the qualification and they were panicking that the university may have it’s ability to award degrees removed from it.

We had to remove 3 modules which students were all getting over 90% in.

i do also agree with the person who said that due to staffing we don’t have the time to be failing students. It’s more tutorials, more marking, etc. if someone is borderline fail it’s easier to pass them. Students also kick off about their grades and demand meetings wanting to know why got 65% and not over 70%. And I don’t just mean they want to discuss how to improve for next time I mean very accusatory and disagreeing with me.

I do also think students get lots more support now. Writing workshops, referencing workshops, critical analysis workshops, literature searching workshops. Being able to give 10% of an essay to the module lead before hand in for feedback. Mock exams before the actual exam. I don’t remember having any of that when I was at university.

When I graduated 25 years ago there was one single first awarded on my course (at a uni currently considered well within top ten in the uk). Absolutely there is grade inflation - fees mean they have to keep the customers happy and the lack of people wanting to go to uni means it’s a way to make themselves attractive to students.

I can assure you that DD is not thick or lazy. She achieved her first by hard work at a university that doesn't round up grades.

She read around her subject and did far more than the bare minimum. Yes it was an RG university, but I'm not sure how relevant that is.

But some employers wouldn’t hire your niece over your son either. My friend works in an industry that values the schooling over the grades. She’s the only person working at her level that went to a normal uni. They all come from the top 3 in the country

They work instead so don’t have the time to study as much as previous generations. And A levels have also been subject to grade inflation so far more people get higher grades; A level grades have been shifted up a grade B->A and A->A star. Far more people go to university so they accept a much broader range of ability now. Plus you are assessed bit by bit over the years of the course so don’t have to retain it all for one set of final exams.

You DD no doubt worked hard but it is a myth that students were lazier or thicker in the past when universities only handed out firsts to 5% instead of 30% of students. Grade inflation has definitely happened - which is a shame for your DD if she could have been one of the 5%.

@christmassytimeagain I agree completely. I know kids who have got 1sts from places like Bournemouth- bright enough kids, and I have no doubt they worked hard, but in no way is a first from Bournemouth in media studies the same kind of first as one in maths from imperial. If you can get into uni on BCC it’s unlikely your first is anywhere near as rigorous as the kid who got 3 A Stars but a 2:1 from Durham, for example.
Anyone who thinks theyre the same is deluded.

I'm not suggesting that students were lazier and thicker years ago, but to tar all students who achieve a first with the same brush is unfair (and lazy). DD achieved AAA at A level BTW. This was after the A levels were decoupled to become more challenging, so no AS levels, and before covid.

DD is not super bright. She is above average with a very strong work ethic.

Yes they would, if you had a goid interview and passed the entrance exams ( I think) Someone in my A Level English class got an EE offer from Oxford in 1990.

I got my degree in the 90's then recently did a post grad. I was amazed at how much quixker and easier the work was. For example, all library resources online, you were given a click through reading list so you could get your references and use a digital tool to do your reference list..no more going to the library and waiting for books. So using these types of tools you can work.more quickly and efficiently which makes it easier to get a first if you put the effort in.

Do Russell groups not also inflate grades? I definitely have my suspicions

I would agree. When I was at uni (early 90s) maybe 10 people in my course of around 70-80 people got a first. They were the brainiacs.
So far DD has a first, but she worked v hard on a degree she was v overqualified for (if that makes sense).
DS will probably get a first or 2.1. He’s in a v challenging degree and has got a couple of high 2.2s in his coursework but did get a first overall last year which is worth 25% of the mark.

Those of us with longer memories would tell you around 1 person out of 100 got a first in the 70s. It was unusual. Also a 2:2 was perfectly normal. It usually meant you had enjoyed university life but were competent. My DH had 5 job offers with a 2:2. The group with a 2:1 wasn’t huge either. They all got jobs though because only around 10% went to university and they were all bright.

Now we have 37% of school leavers going - obviously they aren’t all super bright. Courses are amended to cater for all sorts of students and we have a clear hierarchy of universities with differing entry grades. Employers don’t trust the degrees and now have extensive testing and assessment procedures to weed out the unsuitable grads. They all have similar looking degrees but that hides huge differences in ability and suitability.

As for Oxbridge and EE at A level - yes - but they had their own entrance exams back then. Often dc were tutored by doing a term of a third year in the 6th form. It’s a better system now but ridiculously competitive. Even attending these universities you aren’t guaranteed a job without a decent cv though.

Bear in mind in the early 1950s we had 22 universities. Now it’s in excess of 122. We really aren’t that much brighter!

And now you do not know if she is in the top 5% or the top third of uni students. Maybe she would have got a first with her 1980s equivalent of BBB at A level (a very respectable grade then) or maybe she has benefited from grade inflation at university too.

Definitely - they hand out six times as many firsts as they used to.

Maybe where you work it's pushed up but not where I work. The cut off for rounding up would generally be about 69.85. It would occasionally go slightly below that but not by much.

That's some hike! There would be uproar at our exam board if anyone suggested a hike of that size.

DP works in HE. They bump up at 67.5%

Why not simply set the grade boundary at 67.5%?

As an academic I'm more concerned with the fact that it is now borderline impossible to fail anyone. At least in some places.

You should not be able to buy a degree.

Totally, I’ve had students fail a resit. Put in extenuating circumstances appeal with no reason to appeal and no evidence and it’s been approved with a messy of “we wouldn’t normally approve this, but we are doing but don’t expect it to happen again”. So then I just have to mark something for a third time. By then the student has had so much feedback of course they scrape a pass. Rinse and repeat. I feel we might just cut all the extra work out and give people 42%.

And now you do not know if she is in the top 5% or the top third of uni students.

I don't really care. I don't disagree thyat there has been grade inflation and degrees have been devalued, but some of the comments on this thread are pretty insulting to the students who have worked hard.

DD's (RG) university was pretty tough with the marking on her STEM degree and they definitey do not mark up a score of 69.5% to 70%. She is now at another (RG) university for post grad and 15 out of her cohort of 40 failed one or more of their first year exams, so not all universities make it too easy for students.

If 15 out of 40 have failed there’s something wrong either with the teaching or assessment. It’s unlikely that on a PG course at an RG uni nearly half of the students were too dim or too lazy to pass!