A new marking system was introduced during semester one of this academic year, following a decision by the school last summer. The system has been described by students as a “quick fix”.

Students have also noted that they were not officially told about the changed scheme and were only made aware through word of mouth. This would breach the terms of the Act, which stipulates that any changes to programme with enrolled learners must inform the learners within 14 days of the decision.

The scheme was introduced to combat a high amount of A grades in certain modules, which was an issue noted by the school as early as March 2016.

Dr. Pádraig Cunningham, Head of the School of Computer science explained: “We had a list in [a] semester of modules, that had an anomalous number of A pluses on them and there was an attendant anomalous number of As as well.” He noted that a number of modules had up to 43% or 67% A grades.

However, the move has received criticism for not including students during the decision making process. The system has also been introduced across the school, affecting students from first year through to fourth year.

UCD Students’ Union Education Officer Lexi Kilmartin commented that “we had asked what kind of student input and things they had on it, which didn’t seem like much to be honest and we had expressed concerns about it not being flagged to students before the start of the semester. And the way that was responded to was ‘it’s done now so.”

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