When is a First not a First?

 By Charlotte Lytton

There’s nothing quite like the sense of accomplishment upon finishing your degree: a feeling that makes all the late nights crying into your sandwiches in the library seem entirely worthwhile. But for a number of graduates, that diploma is bittersweet – because they missed out on getting a higher classification by a fraction of a mark. 

Of course, if you are a borderline candidate you can always try filing an appeal. If you're lucky, that unfortunate 2:1 may become a skin-of-your-teeth First overnight. A recent study even found universities are increasingly bending the rules to boost the number of top degrees. 

The problem, if you're a student, is that it doesn't always work. 

Nobody knows this better than Oliver Whitbread, an English literature and drama graduate who finished his degree at Bristol last year with a mark of 69.4. “On seeing my final mark, I initially felt a huge crushing sense of disappointment and frustration,” he explains. “But this quickly faded to excitement as I realised it was possible to appeal. I had incurred a late penalty earlier in the year, without which my classification would have immediately been a First, but I believed that this would be revoked in my appeal as I had missed the mark by such a tiny percentage.” 

The university, however, refused his application, meaning that he missed out on the top grade by just 0.6%. “I’m incredibly angry that handing in an essay five minutes past the deadline has stood in the way of me achieving my academic potential,” he says. “My marks clearly stated that I was capable of getting a First, and that is what I deserved.” 

Some might argue that these are simply the rules. But with so many graduates now armed with a 2:1 and a fast-track ticket to the unemployment queue, distinguishing yourself from your contemporaries has never been so crucial. And a further cause of contention amongst students hoping to have their marks rounded up to a higher degree classification is that different departments within the same institution often have different policies regarding proximity to grade boundaries. 

For instance, while students in the University of Edinburgh’s School of History, Classics and Archaeology can see their degrees upgraded by two per cent if they are considered to be on the ‘borderline,’ this is not the case for the Modern Languages department. 

Recent graduates Nikki Jackson and Chris Wildsmith Jones were both given a final mark of 69% – one that would have been rounded up to a First had they been reading different subjects. “If I'm honest, I was a bit gutted when I first found out. But a First is a First, and that boundary is 70%, not 69.5%,” says Jones. 

But one of the principal frustrations for graduates who find themselves in this position is that the 2:1 bracket fails to distinguish between someone who attained 60%, and another who achieves 69.9%. For employers keen to source the most academic and hardworking candidates for their company, it seems unfair that this lack of clarity is denigrating the achievements of a significant number. “I was upset with my mark as I had been aiming for a First,” says Jackson, “but with boundaries, there are always some who will get caught out.” 

The biggest problem with the degree rounding debacle is that there is no universal system across all universities. Scores of graduates are left worse off than their peers at other institutions which offer mark boosts at the borderline to have their grade improved. Either everyone deserves their mark increased, or nobody does – but offering one rule for some students and another for others is not only unfair, but a misrepresentation of these graduates’ abilities. 

Carol Ellis, a recent Drama graduate from the University of Surrey, knows this lack of consistent grading only too well. “Having received strong marks throughout my time at university, I was quietly confident that I’d get a First overall. But one bad module saw my mark go down to 69%, which I was then told could not be changed as several of my classmates had received the same mark, and it would ‘look bad’ for the department if they bumped us all up,” she divulges. 

“It’s a joke. A friend of mine at Leeds University got 69% and was upgraded to a First, while I can’t change my result.” 

This system of rewarding some and punishing others for narrowly missing the mark seems both unjust and arbitrary, with certain departments picking and choosing whether to offer their graduates a helping hand. Something needs to be done to reform the system, because 69% for one student simply cannot constitute a 2:1 for one person and a First for another. 

Some student names have been changed. Telegraph