This is an interesting read on the myths/problematic maths that underpin the ‘grade inflation’ narrative, but I want to add a further perspective on why proportions of grades are up that i think doesnt get factored in - accessibility https://wonkhe.com/blogs/grade-inflation-slows-but-what-is-really-going-on/ /1

16 years ago, during my undergrad, I had to miss most of the second semester of my second year, and my grades plummeted as a result (even though my dept kindly helped me out with letting me sit exams over the summer). I didn’t go onto campus for months. /2

I didn’t have access to lecture recordings. I didn’t have access to e-books (I didn’t actually have a computer, though that was rare in 2004). I didn’t have access to virtual learning environments, forums. Without going to uni library, I had no access to learning by myself. /3

When we look at the proportion of grades rising, I believe a large part of it is due to university teachers being better trained as teachers and responding to feedback and innovation. But it’s also because we have diversified how we teach. /4

It’s by no means the case that there was no support for students who had difficulties in past years, far from it. But over the last ten, twenty years, it has become standard to offer so much more to students and to make material accessible in multiple ways /5

It is something I am *proud of* that students who are in the same position I was 16 years ago and unable to attend my class can still access readings, listen to my lectures, read the forums and Teams threads, keep up with the module around their own needs and get great grades /6

God knows we’ve got so much more to do on this front. But for those who complain about higher percentages of people getting 2.1s and 1sts, please understand that this in no small part reflects our increasing refusal as a profession to leave people behind. /7