You would not be surprised to note how much I welcome this statement from John Sutherland, a senior academic. I endorse his sentiments entirely. It contains some other relevant views, such as the drift to higher grades in many universities. This would be expected if you make the proportion of first class and upper second passes a criterion in the measure of a university's excellence in the 'league tables' and rankings of newspapers. As a criterion that is under the control of the university's academics it is a licence to lift the university's grading, which attracts students and faculty but may not have anything to do with underlying changes in quality of the university. Where continuous assessment by off-campus and out of sight means contribute to a final grade, the opportunity to cheat is enhanced, as is the temptation by access to the work of others on the Internet. This adds to grade inflation from student fraud, which adds to the grade inflation from faculty in pursuit of higher 'rankings' associated with the proportion of students attaining high grades. We still have some ways to go before we achieve fraud free measures of quality.
I found this article to be quite an eye-opener. I was struck by the enormous differences between the U.S. system and the U.K. system -- which are even more pronounced than I had thought. I had thought that the South African system that I had experienced 25 years ago was similar to the British system from which it was derived. But this is clearly no longer so in some key aspects (relative to the modern approach in U.K.). I was also interested in Sutherland's comments on how skilled British students are at taking the examinations. I would not have done well -- I was always a very undisciplined examinee (e.g. if I got stuck on the first question I would stubbornly continue on it for much much longer than I should, thus compressing the time available for other questions). I was saddened to hear about grade inflation in the U.K. I had still been under the impression that an upper second is something exceptional. In my own experience as a part-time academic in the U.S., my greatest disappointments have been related to the pressure on grades and the fact that we are routinely graduating students who are truly incompetent and ignorant in our field. This is in part due to assessment regimes that lack rigour, and in part due to rampant cheating and plagiarism. My colleagues tell me that I should focus on the students who are indeed learning (and what they are learning), rather than focusing on those who are not. "Don’t worry, be happy." This is why I have a lot of sympathy for D.D. (hc) at College Hints and his campaign against diplomaism.
Yes an interesting article, though I have to wonder how prevalent grade inflation is. At least from my experience in the UoL external program, I can say, without reservation, how difficult it is to get a 70 on an essay. My impression is that many tutors would rather give up his or her first born than grant a 70. My assumption has been that, in general, the UK system is much less forgiving than most others in this regard, but maybe it's just my own slightly disappointing performance that is the culprit. Nevertheless, there is this from www.yansa.org, the site devoted to the external program (mostly LSE undergrad): "...I asked my Prof for Org theory (33) what the highest mark was, and out of nearly a thousand students 68 was the highest mark." Sheesh!
