The Minister asked his officials to carry out a profile analysis of grades awarded in higher education institutions and in the Leaving Certificate exams. These are the main findings.

Higher education

Grade inflation is a cause of debate in higher education systems internationally. The Minister asked his officials to take a look at the available Irish data to establish whether it gives rise to any cause for concern here. The Minister has now had an opportunity to review the findings.

Available data in respect of the Higher Education and Training Awards Council (HETAC) shows that the percentage of HETAC graduates getting first-class honours awards in Level 8 degrees increased from 11.2pc to 16.6pc between 1998 and 2008 in the institute of technology sector, excluding DIT.

A similar trend of increases in first-class honours awards is evident in the universities, too.

The percentage of university graduates getting first-class awards in honours degrees (level 8 programmes) has increased from 8.3pc in 1997 to 16.2pc in 2008.

This is an international phenomenon. By comparison, data from Britain indicates that the proportion of students achieving first-class honours increased from 8.4pc in 1999 to 13.3pc in 2008.

There are differing views on whether grade increases, of themselves, are a cause for concern. Some would argue that it is indicative of a wider relaxation of standards and points to a dilution of quality in the system. On the other hand, it can be argued that it indicates improvements in teaching, developments of assessment procedures or  better motivated and better prepared students.

Irish and international studies suggest that increased investment in teaching and learning, along with an enhanced focus on learning outcomes, has meant students are better prepared for exams.

The setting of targets and specified milestones which are then assessed against stated criteria allows students to prepare and perform better.

While it is not possible to draw definitive conclusions on the causes of grade increases, the quality of Irish graduates is strategically important in the context of building the ‘smart’ economy.

The World Economic Forum’s 2009-2010 Global Competitiveness Report ranked the quality of Ireland’s secondary and tertiary educational system, as assessed by the business community, as eight out of 133 economies.

However, a number of influential voices in the employer community have voiced their concerns to the Minister about graduate quality so the Minister considers it important to listen to those concerns.

He strongly believes that education should work in partnership with industry and that we should tailor our programmes and plans in response to their needs.

The Minister believes we must listen to industry and be responsive to boardroom demands.

In other words, our approach to developing education policy must be strategic and more aligned with industry needs.

Fundamental questions about the quality of graduates, the quality of teaching and learning, resourcing the system and responding to the needs of enterprise are at the heart of the National Strategy for Higher Education which will be published before the summer.

In relation to awards standards in higher education, the key to addressing possible grade inflation is through better internal quality assurance and external quality review.

These tasks are being undertaken by colleges themselves and HETAC, the Further Education and Training Awards Council, the National Qualifications Authority of Ireland and the Irish Universities Quality Board.   All these agencies have been subject to external review by international panels and have been adjudged to be performing these functions to relevant international standards.

But legislation is now being drafted to set up a new qualifications and quality assurance agency that will merge these bodies.

 Having a single body dealing with qualifications, external quality assurance and course approval in the further and higher education sectors fits well with the Government’s broader public sector reform agenda.

A Bill is expected to be published during the summer and we expect the new qualifications and quality assurance agency to be set up early next year.

The Bill provides that all institutions implement the recommendations of an external quality review and the new agency will be empowered to undertake reviews at a thematic or cross-institutional level. 

This could include, for example, examinations of standards across institutions in a particular subject area or a cross-institutional review of the effectiveness of external examining.

Leaving Certificate exams

The Minister asked senior Department officials and the State Examinations Commission to examine the issue of grade inflation in the Leaving Certificate exams.

An analysis of the overall grades in the Leaving Certificate between 1992 to 2009 shows that, while variations have been minor from year to year, there has been a significant increase in the proportions scoring at grade AB and ABC at higher level. For example, the proportion scoring grade AB has increased from 27pc in 1992 to 43pc this year while the proportion scoring ABC has risen from 64pc to 76pc. Most of the increase took place during the 1990s and grades have largely stabilised since the establishment of the SEC in 2003.

The SEC has an extensive range of quality assurance measures in place to ensure the validity and consistency of assessment in the exams. The quality assurance process includes:

Setting exams in the context of a published set of Principles and Protocol for Preparation of Test Items, a manual for drafters and setters of questions, and completion of assessment grids for each exam to ensure fair and balanced coverage of the syllabus;

Development of a marking scheme to ensure consistency in the marking process;

Testing of the effectiveness of each marking schemes against a sample of candidate work;

Comprehensive training of examiners and advising examiners;

Rigorous marking of a sample of all examiners’ work by advising examiners

Evaluating and reporting on marking standards;

Electronic monitoring on each phase of the marking process so that patterns can be identified and adjustments to the marking scheme made where required;

Publication of marking schemes and the chance for candidates to view their scripts to decide whether to appeal the result. Each year, about 0.7pc of grades are changed on foot of the transparent appeals process.

The Department continues the benchmark the performance of Irish students against other countries through the participation in the OECD Programme for International Student Assessment studies of 15-years-olds across 57 countries in reading, maths and science. These studies show no diminution in the performance of Irish students over the period 2000, 2003 and 2006. We await the 2009 results.

A range of issues can impact on grading in the certificate exams, including:

Curriculum reform - designed to make subjects more accessible - and there have been an extensive range of reforms over this period. The expansion of Transition Year since 1994, now available to half the student cohort, has been shown in evaluation studies to give rise to improved performance in the Leaving Certificate for students relative to their scores from the Junior Certificate;

Introduction of second assessment components which have been a  feature of recent curriculum reform;

Investment in professional development for teachers;

More exam-orientated teaching;

Better information for teachers and students in the form of published marking schemes, exemplars of standards, past exam papers, teacher guidelines, curriculum support services, educational websites and improved internet access generally. 

Our State exams system operates to a high level of transparency and accountability. Through the publication of the marking schemes and the opportunity to view their scripts, candidates can clearly trace the relationship between their responses in the exam, the criteria in the marking scheme and the grades they got.