University grade inflation....

[Workingman]

Many of us "old school" teachers and parents saw this coming simply because it had happened with the national curriculum and GCSEs in times past.

Modular courses and the breaking up of traditional subjects into newer, but smaller ones, skewed the marking process towards higher grades. The percentage of those gaining A, B and C grades then rose accordingly, along with the ever so predictable claims by politicians that pupils were getting a better education. These claims hinted at an unproven 'fact' that modern pupils were more intelligent than those who went before. It was sung from on high and was to be applauded, even though empirical evidence for it was scarce or, more truthfully, non-existent. However, nobody was allowed to say that.

Strange, then, that now it is happening in universities it has become a "problem" and needs to be tackled immediately - yesterday. The reason for that is because, unlike schools, universities are part of the global education market. They make oodles of money from overseas students and if a 1st from a Russell Group university is seen as no better than one from a much cheaper former FE college in another country then why come here?

It is not just about standards it is also about perception. If our degrees are not seen as strong then the world standing of our universities drops and so the downward spiral begins. At present something like 90% of all degrees are 1sts or 2:1s and, statistically, that is nonsense, but getting the genie back in the bottle is now the real problem.

[TheOstrich]

I've seen it reported that there are currently more Chinese students in UK universities than Northern Irish students.

And many schools and educational trusts are being bought up by the Chinese. For example, the fee-paying St Bees School, (Cumbria) closed in 2015, has been purchased and reopened by the Full Circle Education Group, based in Shenzhen.

As WM says:

The reason for that is because, unlike schools, universities are part of the global education market. They make oodles of money from overseas students

You can argue that UK universities have had to attract foreign sponsorship in order to survive being starved of Government funds, but personally I am not sure that this is entirely a good thing ....

[Workingman]

Nor me. Another reason for caution with inflated grades is research funding, especially for the larger traditional universities.

If the perception is that the rigour is not there for the degrees then questions will also be asked about the same thing regarding research studies. The industrial complex, NGOs, charities and governments all have funds and grants for research, and they will be looking very carefully at where those funds are placed.

Our top universities have to be out there fighting for those funds, and if that means Amelia getting a well deserved 2:2 instead of a first, so be it.