A new report into university marking predicts 'A's will soon be the most common grade awarded. Photo: luckybusiness / 123RF
Authors of a new report into university marking predict 'A's will soon be the most common grade awarded.
Think-tank, The New Zealand Initiative, analysed grade data from the country's eight universities between 2006 and 2024.
Senior research fellow, Dr James Kierstead said the results showed that while 'A' grades had risen, 'B' and 'C' grades had shrunk and that the most common grade - 'B' - could soon be eclipsed.
But Universities New Zealand (UNZ) said the report reflects 20 years of deliberate work to improve the quality of teaching and qualification at universities.
'A's on track to be the most common grade - report
Kierstead said the 'A's were "catching up with the 'B's".
"The Bs are going down and the As are going up as a proportion of all grades awarded.
"If current trends continue, I wouldn't be surprised if actually this year 'A' was the most common grade at New Zealand Universities."
According to the report, 'Fifty Shades of Grades: Grade Compression', 'A's had risen from 22 percent of all grades in 2006, to 36 percent in 2024 - an increase of 64 percent.
It said the expansion of 'A's had crowded out other grades, resulting in a decline in the variety of grades awarded.
Kierstead said the study built on one published in August that focused just on 'A' grades and pass rates.
He said factors that could contribute to higher marks had been ruled out, including more women (who tended to achieve higher grades), the ratio of staff to students, and smarter highschoolers.
He said it was also unlikely that better teachers were responsible for the current trend.
"The teaching would have to get a lot better because students are performing worse by international benchmarks at secondary school.
"So the teaching would have to be so good that not only is it making up for that ... It's taking worse students and taking them to a level that's better than before."
Kierstead said while it was unlikely to be intentional, academics had strong incentives to grade higher and believed the trend was in response to two main pressures that should be mitigated - class size and funding, and student feedback on teachers.
"If they don't give out good grades there's a risk that their student numbers will fall, and the main component of funding at New Zealand universities is the number of students you have in your class."
He said student feedback forms had also become an important factor in assessing promotions, and during job cuts.
Kierstead said no one benefitted from a system where grades weren't a reliable indicator of performance - it didn't motivate students to work hard, and "shortchanged" those who did.
He said he'd also spoken to employers who had stopped relying on the university transcript to assess candidates, and were now conducting their own tests.
"They get all these job applications with students with stellar grades and then they start interviewing people, and some are good and a lot of them aren't very impressive at all."
Kierstead said if nothing was done to curb 'grade inflation,' New Zealand would find itself in the same position as universities in the United States, where 'A' grades became dominant in the 90s and there was a perception that grades were given out "too cheaply".
He said the rise in 'A' grades in the US undermined public trust in higher education.
"What we're trying to say with this research is: Beware, pay attention, wake-up New Zealand universities ... this is about to be you."
Rising grades the result of decades of improvement - UNZ
UNZ chief executive Christopher Whelan disputed the conclusions drawn by the NZ Initiative and said rising grades reflected deliberate work to improve teaching quality and qualifications.
"Grades have been increasing but we have not seen any evidence that this is the result of funding pressures and students putting pressure on teachers.
"We believe grades are rising as the result of decades of work to improve the quality of teaching, better curriculum design, better assessment design, and better support around our learners."
Whelan told Midday Report there were checks and balances in place to ensure marking was fair and consistent across the university system.
"Every university has examination panels that look for discrepancies - so for people that are marking overly harshly or overly generously.
"All departments use external examiners - these are academics at other universities - who mark a percentage of papers and provide a grade without actually seeing the original grade.
"And again, discrepancies are acted on," he said.
Fundamentally, Whelan believed the trend in rising grades could be attributed to the system being redesigned, specifically different methods of assessment.
"There are a lot more ways that students are now assessed than simply just writing an essay or turning up to a three hour exam.
"We get a much better sense of our students now, but at the same time our student population is changing."
Whelan said he was struck by one university whose postgraduates students increased from 20 percent of the student body in 2010, to 50 percent today.
"That's kind of inline with a lot more people now getting postgraduate qualifications - where entry into undergraduate is having a 'C' average from school, entry into postgraduate is having a 'B' average.
"So these are students you'd be expecting to get higher grades, anyway."
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