Grade inflation, what students value, and the necessity of suffering

Abstract

This paper questions whether there is a conflict between the academic and business interests of a university in combating grade inflation. A survey of online Master's degree students in Computing at a British university was carried out. It examined variations in the perceived value of a degree or the university's perceived reputation as a result of a number of possible changes aimed at reducing the sacrifices involved in gaining a degree; making it less likely that students would fail modules or their degree; and reducing the degree dropout rate to almost zero. The conclusion is that students saw such changes as reducing the value of their degree. The research suggests that in certain circumstances, academic and business interests can be aligned in opposing grade inflation.

Business and Academic Interests in the Maintenance of Standards in Online Higher Education

“…A subset of the data from the survey described in this article, namely those records relating to students of computing, was previously the subject of a short conference paper (Sharon & Kingsley, 2012).…”