Grade-inflation UK … The customer is always right!
The Higher Education Statistical Agency (HESA) has released figures that show that 64% of students in UK higher education graduate with an upper second or better, compared with 60% in 2006/07.
The Guardian report quotes Nicola Dandridge, chief executive of vice-chancellors’ group Universities UK: “As in previous years, the proportion of firsts and 2:1s awarded has increased marginally. But A-level performance has also improved in recent years, so it is unsurprising that degree results would also show an improvement. However, it has been clear for some time that the current degree classification system is a blunt instrument for assessing achievement, hence Universities UK’s support for the ongoing trialling of the Higher Education Achievement Report (Hear).”
The Campaign for the Public University reported back in July on a US study that showed how grade inflation was linked to a more consumer-based approach to higher education and was driven by private, elite universities. The problem is not one of degree classification systems, but the consumer ethos brought about by the need to sell degree programmes and achieve market position.
This woeful statistic ought to show an ever increasing standard of educational/academic achievement. Sadly, it is much more likely to show the ever increasing pressures on university staff to satisfy a “Market”, in which many students regard the payment of their fees to be the purchase of a qualification, and where student evaluations of staff have equal or greater weight than staff assessment of student ability. Over centuries, British seats of learning built up a reputation in the world for academic rigour and excellence of outcome. This is being squandered in a perverse war on “Elitism”. Pride in our elite is replaced by worship of mediocraty. There are probably few votes in combatting this tragedy but our grandchildren will pay the price not only of our profligate indebtedness but also of our impoverishment of minds.