According to a recent Office for Students analysis, sixth-form colleges and universities are lax with regard to marking standards. They highlighted broad lower standards of punctuation, spelling and grammar. They say this leads to artificially inflated grades, exacerbating lower standards across higher education.

The inspectors analysed a wide range of courses across multiple academic disciplines. Linguistic accuracy and effective communication were assessed broadly against a common standard.

“Inclusive Assessment” Issues to Blame

The OfS conducted an assessment policy review at five institutions. They found issues relating to marking standards, staff repeatedly permitted to ignore errors in basic communication. They warned all colleges and universities that this could lead to punishment if they continue to ignore these issues.

Susan Lapworth, Director of Regulations at OfS’, said it seems poor standards are increasingly acceptable. She insisted that things much improve.

Not the Intention of the Equality Act

The review blamed widespread “inclusive assessment,” a policy designed to help neurodiverse students; it is not intended as a blanket to help all students regardless of the presence of disability. It’s assumed universities are only taking quality of argument into account and ignoring expression.

In particular, the report came up with several common themes. Most concerning was the poor interpretation of the Equality Act which aimed to help those with learning difficulties.

The report further discovered that spelling, grammar, and punctuation accuracy was either not assessed, or in some cases not permitted for evaluation. OfS insisted that “compliance” does not in “justify removing assessment… for all students.”

Importance of Accurate Self Expression

In the modern day, it’s important that those entering the workplace learn to express themselves properly and clearly. Effective communication is seen as professional. Good command of language should ideally leave little room for misunderstanding, especially in a critical situation such as personal safety.

The review pointed to poor routines of assessment of communication as undermining broader assessment, leads to award inflation, and higher degree ratings than was previously the case. The government has long been concerned about inflated grades across education.

However, OfS admitted that further investigation was needed to gain a more accurate picture of how widespread this trend currently is.

But the Report Has Critics

Multiple critics pointed out that five educational institutions were by no means enough on which to make a broad assumption. Over four hundred institutions are currently registered with the regulator and it’s unfair to make such an assessment of widespread abuse based on such a small sample size.

Universities UK were quick to criticise, pointing out that higher education understood the need for effective communication through proficiency of language. Further, they said there was “no evidence” that such practices were normalised.