Sir, – The issue raised concerning grades versus percentage ranking is an important one (Brian O’Brien, Letters, August 27th).
Grade inflation applies not just to Leaving Cert results but also to many programmes across the university sector.
In writing references for students applying for postgraduate programmes over many years, the information required related always to where a student came in the class, usually in terms say of top 1 per cent, top 5 per cent, and so on, never to the grade. Grades in many ways are meaningless, unless accompanied by say that 10 per cent of students got an A grade.
But even percentage rank in a year can be very limited if comparing graduates across different universities. How do you, for example, compare a top 5 per cent grade in a programme which has a 625-point entry requirement in one university to one requiring, say, 400 points in another?
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Much more difficult is comparing across countries with totally different systems of grading.
This has necessitated the introduction in most universities, especially in the US, of a graduate records examination (GRE), usually a lengthy multiple-choice exercise, a good position in which is essential for acceptance to a graduate programme, the definition of “good” depending on to which university students are applying. A similar and even more striking example in relation to doctor recruitment in the US was mentioned in the letter.
Because of major grade inflation, a first-class honour in a university degree today in most cases conveys very limited information, unless we know what percentage of students got a first. But with 40 per cent now gaining a first in some university programmes, we need to go further and know where a student comes overall in a year, by broad percentage category.
A serious debate on grade inflation in universities is due, and the role of percentage rank versus grade should at least be given a fair hearing. – Yours, etc,
JOHN O’HAGAN,
Department of Economics,
Trinity College Dublin,
Dublin 2.