In recent years has been a rapid increase in first-class degrees among graduating students in UK. The government has announced new measures to crack down on “grade inflation” to protect the value of a degree amid fears that progressively higher grading is undermining the worth of top qualifications.
Figures suggest that degrees are being “marked up”, meaning students are leaving with a higher grade than a comparable student in previous years.
A government rating system introduced last year is to be broadened to include how students reach their final grading.
More than a quarter of students are now graduating with a first-class degree.
“When you look at what makes our universities so prestigious, it comes down to the value of our degrees,” said Universities Minister Sam Gyimah.
“The value of those degrees is threatened by grade inflation and that is a problem for students, employers and the universities themselves.”
Teaching Excellence and Student Outcomes Framework (TEF) rates universities as gold, silver or bronze by assessing multiple different factors of teaching and university life including student experience, teaching quality and whether courses are difficult enough.
The Russell Group the association of 24 top UK universities has previously warned against presumptions about the cause of the increase in first-class degrees.
Sarah Stevens, head of policy, has said we should be wary of “simplistic assessments that make easy assumptions about cause and effect” when it comes to grade inflation.
>Juthy Saha
