Problems in Irish education go far beyond Leaving Cert grade inflation

There are many ingredients boiling in the pot of Irish higher education and the broth looks far from satisfying. As students begin or return to college, a now familiar range of challenges are listed: accommodation, commuting, student “charges”, under-investment and anxiety. Academics are also concerned about the threat of artificial intelligence (AI) and our research culture, as well as the ongoing impact of grade inflation.

For all the venting of these issues, they are not often assessed through the framework of a proper educational philosophy. When Niamh Bhreathnach, the Labour minister for education from 1993-97 died earlier this year, her obituaries noted that on taking office, when she questioned the philosophy underpinning the work of her department, the response from some civil servants was “we don’t do philosophy”.

Such dismissiveness was countered with constant references to aspirations for a “world class” education system and research culture. Reimagining third-level education led to greater State intervention and investment. Expenditure per student increased by 54 per cent in the late 1990s; student numbers in publicly funded higher education institutes increased from 107,950 in 1992-93 to 222,618 from 2015-16.

The changes, however, were too often interrupted and without proper consultation; in 2015 one sociologist of higher education, Patrick Clancy, suggested the lack of engagement between critics and policymakers reflected “a more widespread failure to develop any serious public and intellectual discourse about higher education policy”.

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Between 2007 and 2021, full-time and part-time PhD enrolments rose from 5,989 to 10,013, a rise of 67 per cent. Earlier this year, PhD students protested that their average income, including research, teaching and supervisory work, was €7.88 per hour, far below the minimum wage. An independent review has since recommended they be paid €25,000 a year for their world-class research.

[ Four kinds of student are paying the price for unfair Leaving Cert grade inflation ]

At the same time, almost 2,000 academics signed a letter expressing concerns about the underfunding of third level. With the Government preparing legislation to create a new research and innovation funding agency, they asked for greater consultation with the research community, a proper balance between science, technology, engineering and maths (Stem) and arts, humanities and social sciences, as well as democratic governance and transparent selection of those overseeing the agency. They highlighted that Ireland invests 1.23 per cent of GDP on research development compared with the EU average of 2.32 per cent.

Last year, Minister for Further and Higher Education Simon Harris acknowledged a “core funding gap” of €307 million for higher education but just €40 million was allocated to address this. Third-level student-to-staff ratios have increased from 16:1 in 2007 to 23:1 today, compared with a European average of 15:1.

It is a relief to hear Harris promise the hiring of 1,500 permanent full-time staff as the casualisation of third-level employment has been so damaging. But in tandem, as Pól Ó Dochartaigh, registrar of the University of Galway, asked recently, to what extent are extra university places related to “structured planning” and a “reflection on what society as a whole needs”? A serious discussion, he argues, “about the over-arching strategic role of third-level education and the rates of participation in it is long overdue in the interests of the country, and of the students themselves”.

Nor are universities immune from grade inflation. It is thoroughly justifiable to look askance at the number of first-class honours degrees in recent years and wonder how many of them are really of that standard

And how are to we measure the extent of student talent? Inflated Leaving Certificate grades are perpetuating unreal expectations, overestimating student ability and adding to anxiety. It requires a courageous minister for education to put a halt to it.

A recent OECD report on this matter asserted: “Unabated, this type of grade inflation will . . . undermine stakeholder confidence in the system as a whole . . . Considering how to ensure that grade inflation is controlled for future generations taking the Leaving Certificate will be important for the assessment’s integrity and to discriminate between different levels of achievement.”

Increased drop-out rates, complications for those from other jurisdictions wishing to study here and students being unable to access courses they are qualified for are just some of the consequences. Between 5 and 6 per cent of Leaving Cert grades were H1s before the pandemic, which increased to more than 14 per cent from 2021 to 2023. A total of 1,100 students achieved the maximum 625 points in 2022, compared with just 200 in 2019.

Nor are universities immune from this practice. It is thoroughly justifiable to look askance at the number of first-class honours degrees in recent years and wonder how many of them are really of that standard: 23.5 per cent of graduates were awarded first-class degrees in 2022 compared with 15.9 in 2015.

Third-level educators are swamped with managerial directives and bureaucracy relating to teaching and learning obligations. But students also need to embrace their own code of behaviour, recognising that the use of AI for the purpose of generating assignment answers is cheating, undermines their own intellectual autonomy and the idea of a university. There is an onus on them too to philosophise on educational matters.