Head2Head: Martin O'Gradysays that there is no evidence of improved learning to justify the dramatic climb in grades. Áine Hylandsays that students get higher marks because they have higher standards and work harder than before.
More than 75 per cent of university students graduate today with an honours degree compared to less than 30 per cent 40 years ago. To use words such as "dumbing down" or "grade inflation" to describe this phenomenon is, in my view, unfair to present-day students. I believe that it is wrong to interpret the improvement in the proportion of students getting an honours degree as artificial grade inflation or to imply that students are awarded grades or marks that are undeserved.
The academic standard of most students entering Irish universities is considerably higher today than it was a generation ago. While the Leaving Certificate points system is far from perfect, it has resulted in students entering university today with Leaving Certificate results that were unheard of in the 1960s. It has also contributed to a culture of hard work, confidence and competitiveness among students on a scale unimaginable a generation ago.
How many readers today remember the university admissions system of the 1960s? Apart from a small number of students who got university scholarships, university admission was restricted to those whose families could afford to pay college fees and living costs for their offspring, and who could forego the extra income that a working son or daughter might contribute to the family coffers. In the early 1960s, less than 5 per cent of 18-year-olds went on to higher education. Today, that has increased more than tenfold, with over 60 per cent now proceeding to higher education. Entry to virtually all university courses in the early 1960s was open to all who had matriculated, i.e. who had passed the Matriculation examination or the Leaving Certificate. Of the males who were admitted to medicine in the NUI colleges in 1963, over 70 per cent had achieved less than three honours in the Leaving Certificate, i.e. they had the equivalent of less than 300 points by today's calculations.
(Interestingly, the achievement level of girls was higher, with more than 50 per cent at that level - indicating that better academic performance by females is not a new phenomenon). Similarly, 80 per cent of males were accepted to study law with less than 300 points, and over 70 per cent were admitted to commerce.
The completion rate for most courses was low, but many of those who would nowadays be regarded as "low-points" students graduated successfully, and many are now eminent medical consultants or members of the bar or judges - proving a point that students do not need the extraordinarily high points required today in some professional courses to graduate successfully. However, international research shows that academic achievement in secondary school is a reliable predictor of future performance at university. Consequently, it is not surprising that the proportion of students achieving an honours degree is higher today than it was in the 1960s, as very few university courses now accept students with less than 300 points.
However, this is only part of the explanation for the higher grades achieved by today's university students. A relatively recent re-calibration of the marking scheme for all degree courses within the NUI universities has led to a situation where examiners now use the full range of 100 marks. In the past, following the tradition of the Oxbridge universities, there was a marked reluctance in the "older" Irish universities (i.e. the NUI universities and Trinity College) to use the full range of marks, especially in the upper range. Students almost never got a mark above 75 per cent on any examination paper or assignment, especially in arts, humanities, social science and business courses or in professional courses such as law, medicine and dentistry. This put NUI graduates at a disadvantage when competing for a postgraduate place or for a job with graduates from universities whose students had been marked out of the full 100-mark range.
With the introduction of the new NUI marking system some years ago, the criteria for the various grades were made available to students, somewhat akin to the practice of the State Examinations Commission, which makes available on its website the marking schemes for the various subjects of the Junior Certificate and the Leaving Certificate examinations.
Developments arising from the EU Bologna agreement will bring this transparency and visibility a step further. All EU universities are asked to redefine their courses in terms of student learning outcomes or to make explicit what their students are expected to know, understand and be able to do. The assessment criteria will be clearly defined and consistent with the learning outcomes of the course.
For those who believe that examinations should provide an opportunity for students to demonstrate what they know, understand and can do, this is a positive development. Those who prefer to think of examinations as obstacle races, designed to trap students, are less happy about this development. Like so many issues in education, one's view of student assessment is coloured by one's philosophy and values.
Dr Áine Hyland is a former professor of education and is the current vice-president of University College Cork
Dr Garret FitzGerald warned in an article in The Irish Timesin February 2004 of the dangers of Ireland following ". . . Britain's disastrous mistake in 'dumbing down' higher education by diluting standards". Later that year, in a submission to the Your Education System review of Irish education, Forfás, the national advisory board for enterprise, said: "There is a significant body of opinion, both in the enterprise community and among academics, that standards have declined in the Irish education system over the past decade, both at second and third level."
These concerns are well-founded. Extensive research I have conducted with Brendan Guilfoyle and Simon Quinn has established that between 1994 and 2005 the proportion of first-class honours in the universities jumped from 7 per cent to 17 per cent, an increase of 140 per cent. If grades continue to increase at these levels, every university student will receive a "first" within 30 years. In the institutes of technology there was a 78 per cent increase in the proportion of first-class honours degrees awarded between 1994 and 2004. The proportion of distinctions awarded in national diplomas increased by 46 per cent.
Is this evidence of dramatically-improved student learning or have standards dropped at third level? Our research points to the latter: there is nothing to justify the dramatic climb in grades and no evidence of improved learning. Due to increased participation rates, the percentage of weaker students entering third level has increased considerably. This is most striking in the institutes of technology, where the standard of entry has fallen steeply as the institutes struggle to fill places in a greatly-expanded sector. When weaker students are awarded higher grades, the process is known as "grade inflation".
While the points required for entry to universities may not have fallen, this is as a result of similar grade inflation in the Leaving Certificate, with more and more high grades being awarded each year. If Leaving Certificate grades had held faith with the past, the universities would also have had to drop their entry points.
Why are standards being allowed to decline? Third-level institutions have prioritised their own growth at the expense of educational standards. The only way for the colleges to increase student intake and have more graduates is to drop standards. Lecturers, who also act as examiners, are under great pressure not to fail students, no matter how poor their performance. To maintain some semblance of relative standards, they find that they must then award first-class honours to more graduates.
The phenomenon of grade inflation is well recognised internationally. In the UK and the US, the expansion of third-level education, which occurred earlier than in Ireland, was accompanied by a serious decline in standards. Unlike in Ireland, there is a continuing and extensive debate on grade inflation in these countries.
Three years ago, in Princeton, a prestigious US university, a policy of capping the proportion of higher grades was adopted. At the introduction of this policy, college dean Nancy Weiss Malkiel said: "We are asking faculty to enter into a social contract to bring grade inflation back under control."
Why did a university like Princeton, which attracts many of the most talented students in the US, feel the need to take such a stance?
The answer lies in the insidious nature of grade inflation. International experience indicates that it has a self-sustaining dynamic that results in a race to the bottom. As lecturers lower their standards, students lower their efforts, leading to a further decline in standards to prevent an increase in failure rates. The delivery of quality education is undermined.
What are the damaging consequences? Grades become progressively more dislocated from actual student performance. Great disparities emerge in the grades awarded between colleges and even between faculties and examiners within the same college.
For example, in 2004 the rate of first-class honours degrees at Dublin City University was almost double that of the University of Limerick. Our research has shown that these differences are widespread within higher education in Ireland and have little to do with student ability or performance. This presents difficulties for employers, who must differentiate between those whose qualifications and grades reflect their efforts and the many whose grades are deeply misleading.
It would be tragic if we allowed the fine educational standards which brought Ireland to where it is today to be frittered away through grade inflation. What needs to be done? Firstly, third-level institutions must restore priority to the maintenance of educational standards and, secondly, individual academics must shoulder their professional responsibilities to resist the pressures that seek to erode the quality of academic awards.
Martin O'Grady is a lecturer in psychology at the Institute of Technology, Tralee, and is a founder of the Network for Irish Educational Standards.