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Grade inflation happens when teachers knowingly give a student a mark higher than deserved. It can also happen indirectly, when the level of difficulty of a course is deliberately lowered so students achieve higher grades.<\/p>\n
The practice\u00a0threatens to undermine<\/a>\u00a0the quality of a university degree and\u00a0the prestige of higher education<\/a>.<\/p>\n Is it happening in Australia and if so, why?<\/p>\n To better understand grade inflation, we sought the opinions of those closest to the phenomenon: university teachers. The findings of our\u00a0survey<\/a>\u00a0were recently published in the Journal of Academic Ethics.<\/p>\n Over the past 50 years,\u00a0many countries have reported<\/a>\u00a0an increase in higher university grades. This includes the United States, United Kingdom, Germany and Australia.<\/p>\n For example, a 2024\u00a0Australian report<\/a>\u00a0found a 234% increase in the number of distinction grades awarded to students at the University of Sydney between 2011 and 2021.<\/p>\n But are grades improving\u00a0due to changes in teaching<\/a>\u00a0and student performance, or rather is marking generally more lenient to keep students happy?<\/p>\n To investigate the causes of grade inflation in Australian universities, we surveyed lecturers and tutors who have direct contact with students, teaching them and marking their work.<\/p>\n Our main question was:<\/p>\n [What is] your opinion regarding grade inflation? Does it occur, and if yes, why, and how does it impact the student, profession, institutional reputation, society, and yourself?<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n In July 2024, we sent the survey to the deans (heads) of research at all Australian universities, asking them to distribute it to their academics. Academics then had two months to answer the questions.<\/p>\n In total, we had 110 respondents, of which 88 answered all the questions of the survey. The majority were aged 31-55 (55%), women (56%), born in Australia (about 70%), with more than five years in academia (more than 80%). There were more respondents from regional Australia (44%) than from urban locations (24.5%). About 30% had experience in both types of locations.<\/p>\n The disciplines most represented were legal studies (37%), education (21%), science, nursing and psychology (each around 7%).<\/p>\n The majority (73%) said they had seen grade inflation in their universities.<\/p>\n Academics\u2019 dominant feelings about grade inflation were frustration (50% of respondents), powerlessness (44%) and dissatisfaction (31%).<\/p>\n Of those surveyed, about 11% were indifferent and 7% were satisfied with the situation they experienced around grade inflation.<\/p>\n The fact that many academics surveyed felt frustrated and powerlessness indicates they do not inflate grades willingly. Previous studies have\u00a0suggested<\/a>\u00a0university management encourages grade inflation as students are seen as clients and they want to keep the client happy.<\/p>\n Our respondents supported this idea. Most said grade inflation was due to student evaluations \u2013 and the role they play in management decisions about staff.<\/p>\n Student evaluations are anonymous questionnaires completed by students after the course about their teachers\u2019 performance. Studies,\u00a0including those in Australia<\/a>, have shown the results can be insulting and even abusive, often a \u201cpunishment\u201d of unpopular teachers. These studies also question students\u2019 capacity to objectively assess the quality of their educators.<\/p>\nIncreases in grades<\/strong><\/h4>\n
Our study<\/strong><\/h4>\n
Overall opinions<\/strong><\/h4>\n
Pressure from university administration<\/strong><\/h4>\n