Expectations Core practices

Standards

The provider ensures the value of qualifications

awarded to students at the point of qualification

and over time, in line with sector recognised

standards.

The provider delivers courses that match the

academic standards as they are described in

the relevant national qualifications framework.

Students achieve the threshold academic

standards set out in the qualifications framework.

Students achieve standards beyond the

threshold level that are reasonably comparable

with those achieved in other UK providers.

Providers with degree awarding powers secure

the standards of all of their awards, irrespective

of where or how these are delivered or who

delivers them.

Providers use assessment and classification

processes that are reliable, fair and transparent.

Quality Code Consultation

Quality

The provider delivers well-designed courses

that provide a high-quality academic

experience and enable a student’s

achievement to be reliably assessed.

The provider supports students, including

through the admissions system, to

successfully complete and benefit from a high-

quality academic experience.

The provider designs and delivers high-quality

courses.

The provider has sufficient appropriately

qualified and experienced staff to deliver a

high-quality academic experience for all

students.

The provider has sufficient facilities and

learning resources to deliver a high-quality

academic experience for all students.

Views and feedback from students are

regularly sought and acted on and providers

offer feedback in return.

Students understand how to make academic

appeals and complaints, providers deal with

these in a fair and timely manner and use the

outcomes of these as a source for

improvement.

Assessment: Hot Topics

Grade Inflation

• ‘Grade inflation is tearing through English Higher Education. On the face of it, the facts are shocking. The challenge then is clear: we need to stop grade inflation’.

• ‘Unchecked, grade inflation will undermine the reputation of the entire UK HE sector, creating a dangerous impression of slipping standards, undermining the efforts of those who work hard for their qualifications and poorly serving the needs of employers’.

• ‘I made similar observations over two years ago, in my first speech to UUK, and I am disappointed that the sector seems to have made so little progress in tackling this urgent and continuing problem’.

• TEF (September 2017): A new supplementary metric on grade inflation will be linked to the existing

criterion on ‘Rigour and Stretch’ to aid assessors in making judgement in this area

and allow providers that are taking genuine steps to tackle grade inflation to be

recognised for doing so.

Contract Cheating

• ‘This form of cheating is unacceptable and every university should have strong policies and sanctions in place to detect and deal with it’.

• ‘Essay mill websites threaten to undermine the high quality reputation of a UK degree so it is vital that the sector works together to address this in a consistent and robust way’.

• ‘Cheating of any kind is totally unacceptable and plagiarism is a scourge on our higher education system’.

Sector’s Response

• Degree Algorithms

Understanding Degree Algorithms (UUK/GuildHE)

October 2017

• Combatting Contract Cheating

How to Address Contract Cheating, the Use of Third-Party Services and Essay Mills (QAA)

October 2017

Assessment: Hot Topics

• AsPG: significant involvement in both pieces of work and very close working relationships established with QAA and UUK staff.

• Next Assessment Practitioner Group meeting: Friday 17 November (LSE)

• Degree Algorithms: Sam Roseveare, UUK• Combatting Contract Cheating: Simon Bullock, QAA

• Today - opportunity for the wider ARC community to consider some of the issues raised and to contribute to comments and questions to be put to QAA and UUK on Friday.

Degree Algorithms:Recommendations

To maintain confidence in the design of degree algorithms, this report recommends that:

a. higher education providers should ensure that their degree algorithms are transparent and accessible for students, staff and external stakeholders

b. the process and rationale for making changes to degree algorithms should be transparent and led by robust academic governance arrangements

c. principles of good practice for the design, development and review of degree algorithms should be considered for inclusion in a revised Quality Code to guide institutional decision-making

d. institutions should ensure that the rules governing the assessment of borderline cases do not have the inadvertent effect of effectively lowering the threshold for degree classifications across the student population

e. more work needs to be done to understand the long-term drivers of grade improvement and inflation and develop sustainable measures that can mitigate sector-wide grade improvement

Degree Algorithms:Recommendations

Table work:

Observations, identification of any challenges and collation of questions for UUK?

Degree Algorithms:Recommendations

To maintain confidence in the design of degree algorithms, this report recommends that:

a. higher education providers should ensure that their degree algorithms are transparent and accessible for students, staff and external stakeholders

b. the process and rationale for making changes to degree algorithms should be transparent and led by robust academic governance arrangements

c. principles of good practice for the design, development and review of degree algorithms should be considered for inclusion in a revised Quality Code to guide institutional decision-making

d. institutions should ensure that the rules governing the assessment of borderline cases do not have the inadvertent effect of effectively lowering the threshold for degree classifications across the student population

e. more work needs to be done to understand the long-term drivers of grade improvement and inflation and develop sustainable measures that can mitigate sector-wide grade improvement

and…

• In this context, the report focuses on areas that may undermine confidence in practice, particularly around borderline cases given the impact on individual students. Where specific rules are used for borderline cases these should not be used to effectively lower the threshold for classifications. Furthermore, where institutions discount lowest grades, particularly in the initial classification and for borderline cases, upper marks should also be discounted.

Combatting Contract Cheating• Education - Information and support for students

• Use information and support for students to place a positive focus on academic integrity. Early, written information to students is crucial.

• Provide support for students that enables them to develop skills in studying, academic writing, the use of academic sources, paraphrasing and research. Think about how essay mills find their customers, and how students find them.

• Education - Training and information for staff • Ensure that staff are kept up to date with academic regulations on assessment, and

their responsibility to uphold academic standards and integrity. Ensure that staff are familiar with the concept of contract cheating, and the procedures to be followed when it is suspected.

Combatting Contract Cheating• Prevention

• Consider 'authentic assessment', with a mixture of assessment methods where possible. Think about how to limit cheating opportunities when designing and reviewing courses and setting assignments.

• Consider blocking essay mill websites from your IT equipment. Be alert to advertising methods such as posters, flyers and social media, and take steps to minimise/counter them when detected.

• Detection • Consider organisation-wide detection methods. Consider linguistic analysis tools to

complement text-matching software. Get to know your students' styles and capabilities, and be alert to unexpected peaks in a student's assessment performance.

• Consider formal processes for alerting PSRBs of misconduct by students where programmes are part of, or are likely to lead to, professional qualification.

Combatting Contract CheatingRegulations and policies

• A strong commitment to academic integrity can be signalled through institutional values or mission statement.

• Make regulations and guidance as clear as possible, available in a range of formats and languages. Have an explicit procedure to follow to report a suspicion of academic misconduct, determining who to report to and how to report it.

• Designated and specially trained academic conduct officers may adjudicate on routine matters. Use a panel to adjudicate on serious and/or complex allegations of academic misconduct, and appeals, with members supported and trained appropriately. Record statistics for cheating cases in sufficient detail to allow effective analysis.

Questions

• All questions emailed to helen.smallbone@edgehill.ac.uk by close of business on Thursday 16th November will be put forward to UUK/QAA