Don’t blame good results on grade inflation. Blame the teaching

I was delighted to read that my university is apparently over-generous when it comes to awarding top degree classes.

Oxford is among 21 universities accused of grade inflation after a Higher Education Funding Council study found ‘significant unexplained variation’ in students’ likelihood of getting a First or Upper-Second.

Alongside fellow culprits including Exeter, Brunel, Warwick and Newcastle, Oxford hands out more good degrees than A-Level grades and the university’s entry standards would lead you to predict.

So am I on track to an effort-free First? Sadly not. No one would ever accuse a primary school of grade inflation if their cohort of socio-economically disadvantaged five-year-olds went on to receive top marks in their SATs – instead, we’d celebrate the evidently excellent teaching and bump the school to the top of value-added league tables.

The same is clearly true of universities. You can’t take a student whose father earns £40,000 a year and who got AAB at A-Level and assume they’ll get a 2:1 – it all depends on their potential, how hard they work and the quality of the teaching they receive.