Academics feel pressure to bump up student grades

Guardian 23 May 2015

Almost half of academics have experienced pressure in the last three years to bump up student grades or stop students failing, according to a Guardian survey of university staff, write Claire Shaw and Rebecca Ratcliffe for the Guardian.

Some 46% of academics said they have been pressurised to mark students’ work generously, according to the survey hosted on the Guardian’s Higher Education Network, while 37% did not believe teaching was valued by their institution. Just over 60% of the 2,019 respondents to the survey were academics, while others worked in a range of positions, including finance and student support.

Many academics said recent reforms, which encourage universities to treat students as consumers and expand their intake, have damaged the quality of education offered to undergraduates. Half of the academics and university staff surveyed described their workload as unmanageable.
Full report on the Guardian site

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