Further teaching reforms mooted

Jo Johnson has some more ideas, writes Alison Goddard.

Grade inflation within universities is risking the good reputation of British higher education, the universities and science minister said yesterday. Jo Johnson told vice-chancellors that undergraduates should receive a grade-point average mark instead of a degree class, reports the Financial Times. The newspaper says that the number of people awarded a first-class or upper second-class degree rose by 7 percentage points over the past five years. Numeracy is clearly not a strong point for The Guardian, which reports a 7 per cent increase in its coverage of Mr Johnson’s speech. The Daily Telegraph says that degree classes will become obsolete. The Times latches onto his comments that broad degree classes allow some students to coast and still get an upper second: it reports that the government intends to publish data which will reveal those institutions with weak teaching. We have a complete account of the minister’s speech, which contains more thought than Greg Clark ever put into higher education when he was the universities minister and reveals Jo Johnson to be more like David Willetts than his immediate predecessor.

Our coverage of how universities can best protect their students from being drawn into violent extremism continues.