In my experience - yes! I teach at a university in Australia and have colleagues who have come from other universities who give similar experiences. You may have heard that some research was released about 6 months ago where 1,000 Aussie academics were questionned re academic standards. The result was that due to financial pressures on universities (ie drop in government funding from 100% to around 40%), standards have fallen. Many of us have dropped pass marks and consequently, to maintain comparative equity raised the grades of passing students. It is an unfortunate situation. Until I became tenured I was threatened with cancellation of my contract if I failed too many students.