Grade inflation hits UK universities

ALMOST two thirds of British university undergraduates were awarded a first class or upper second degree after five years of annual increases, new figures show.
Universities awarded 53,125 first class degrees last year, 14 per cent more than the previous year. They awarded a further 166,100 upper second degrees, 6 per cent more than a year earlier.
Degrees with a 2:1 or first accounted for 65 per cent of those awarded to full-time undergraduates in 2010-11. Five years ago the figure was 60 per cent.
The totals are likely to trigger renewed claims of “grade inflation” for degrees, particularly as most universities both mark and award their own degrees. In the past five years there has been an overall increase in university admissions that might have been expected to have a net effect of lowering standards slightly.
The proportion of good honours degrees in 2007 was 60 per cent, and it has risen by one or twp per centage points in each of the past five years.
The latest figures confirm past trends that women are significantly more likely to get a good honours degree: 68 per cent of full-time women undergraduates were awarded a first or upper second, and 62 per cent of men.