Pressure to crack down on grade inflation is set to continue
More than a decade ago, a parliamentary committee put the following question to Janet Beer, who was then vice-chancellor of Oxford Brookes University: “Is your 2:1 in history equivalent to Oxford University’s 2:1 in history?” To which she replied: “It depends what you mean by equivalent.”
The question, she added, was weighted with too many social complexities, but “in terms of the way in which quality and standards are managed in the university, I have every confidence that a 2:1 in history from Oxford Brookes is of a nationally recognised standard”.