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Nine years ago I chaired an inquiry into honours degree classifications, the system whereby UK students are awarded a first, a 2:1, a 2:2 or a third class degree, according to how they perform. We soon came to the conclusion that this 200-year-old system had outlived its usefulness and was no longer fit for purpose – and most of the higher education sector agreed with that statement. We can and need to do better for our students.
Although the UK honours degree is a robust and valued qualification, it was clear to us that the degree classification system needed updating and replacing. The favoured system was a grade point average (GPA) assessment system. But the inquiry recommended a phased approach should be taken, starting with the introduction of the higher education achievement report (HEAR): transcripts of achievement that give a full record of what students achieve while at university or college.
Now that the HEAR has begun implementation, universities minister David Willets is supporting a pilot of the GPA system. Around 20 universities, further education colleges and private providers are involved in this pilot to run alongside, or ultimately replace, the current classification system. I am chairing the national advisory group that is overseeing the pilot, which is being supervised by the Higher Education Academy.
Our aim is to test how a grade point average system can work in the UK. We plan to translate last summer's degree results at the 20 pilot universities into a GPA. In addition, we would like to convert the first-year marks of the students graduating last year into a GPA score at those same institutions. This will help us to see which formula is most favoured by employers and students; what, if any, problems there are; and which GPA system would be best suited to the UK higher education landscape.
The traditional degree classification system was established some 200 years ago at the University of Oxford when there were tiny numbers of students. In recent years it has been criticised by a wide range of stakeholders, including students and employers, for being too crude and too much of a blunt instrument.
Employers say that it is very difficult to differentiate between students. The 2:1 degree classification, for example, fails to distinguish between someone who attained 60%, and another who achieved 69.9%. In a competitive jobs market, employers want more information about the candidates they are considering for jobs. This means knowing whether candidates came at the low or high end of a classification. Moving to a grade point average would give that extra detail, showing students' average grade to two decimal points as they proceed through their degree.
Students themselves say that the traditional classification system is unfair. Different departments in the same university often have differing policies regarding grade boundaries. Students in one department can see their marks upgraded by 2% if they are considered to be on the borderline of a 2.1 and a first. Students in another department do not receive such a benefit and could find that this can have an impact on their employment chances.
The current classification system essentially divides the student world into two groups – those with a 2:1 and above and those with a 2:2 and below. If you talk to students in the latter category, many feel they have failed. While we need accurate assessments, the very sharp divide that has developed between the classes is not helpful.
One of the advantages of the GPA system is that it avoids these "cliff edges" between degree classifications, offering a smoother and more continuous scale. Another benefit is that it increases the transparency of the final degree score.
Grade point averages are also used widely around the world – including in the USA, Canada and Asia – so reform in the UK would provide greater international comparability of degree results.
It would give students more incentive to keep working to influence their final marks. And it would enable universities to resist pressures towards grade inflation and give them the opportunity to look hard at their practices of teaching, learning and assessment. I also hope that a new GPA system can be agreed across the sector that will work in tandem with the HEAR so students can add to their transcripts of achievement, which include their extracurricula activities with a broader range of marks.
Ideally, change will take place in a trickle-down process, starting with a small number of institutions running the current degree classification system alongside GPA in the summer of 2014. Our advisory group will then make our recommendations to the sector based on the pilot and, if the pilot is successful, reform should have gathered momentum by the summer of 2015. While I envisage the current system running alongside GPA for several years, it is my hope that by 2020 we will have moved to a system based wholly on grade point average.
Bob Burgess is vice-chancellor of the University of Leicester and chair of the GPA Pilot national advisory board.
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