More top university grades awarded, says data
THE PROPORTION of firsts handed out by UK universities has soared, with a third of institutions now grading at least one in four degrees with the top honour.
In some cases, the number has more than doubled in five years, according to new analysis of official data.
With students now paying up to £9,250 a year in tuition fees, almost all universities and colleges are giving out a higher quantity of firsts than they were in 2010/11.
The findings are likely to spark fresh debate about grade inflation, and whether the centuriesold degree classification system is still fit for purpose.
At 50 UK universities - roughly a third of the total - at least 25 per cent of degrees awarded in 2015/16 were a first, while at 10 institutions, more than a third were given the highest award.
By contrast, in 2010/11 just 12 institutions gave at least one in four degrees a first, and only two gave more than a third the top honour. On average, across all institutions there has been around an eight percentage point rise in firsts in the last five years, the analysis of Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) data shows.
The figures, for the academic years 2010/11 and 2015/16, are based on 148 universities and colleges for which there is comparable data, and exclude degrees rated as “unclassified”.
In Yorkshire the University of Bradford has seen the biggest rise, with 27.6 per cent of degrees awarded with the top honour in 2015/2016 - a rise of 17.3 per cent since 2010/2011. Leeds Trinity University is next in line with 22.6 per cent of firsts handed out in 2015/2016, an increase of 14.6 per cent in the last five years.
Nick Hillman, director of the Higher Education Policy Institute, said: “Some rise is not un- reasonable, given that schools have got better and some universities have increased their entry tariffs so they’re getting better quality students.”
But he suggested the impact of university league tables could be fuelling grade inflation. Many institutions now employ staff to compare their results and data with others, he said, and if a university finds itself slipping down the rankings - for example on the proportion of firsts or 2:1s awarded - there is an incentive to improve this.
A spokeswoman for vice-chancellors’ group Universities UK said degree classifications are a matter for individual institutions. She said: “The sector has changed significantly since 2010, with universities putting more emphasis on the quality of teaching and investing in learning support, alongside the fact that with higher fees, students may be working harder to achieve higher grades.”