Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of a nation-wide accreditation scheme for university grades.

The government has set a clear expectation that universities must use their awarding powers responsibly and must not inflate grades for their own reputation or league table ranking. It is vital that students, graduates and the public are confident in the value of a university degree.

UK higher education providers with degree-awarding powers are responsible for the academic standards of their awards. Providers are held to account through the UK Quality Code for Higher Education which requires providers to use external expertise, assessment and classification processes that are reliable, fair, and transparent.

The sector has agreed to recognise new standards for all degree classifications. These set out what criteria students need to meet in order to achieve each level of classification of Bachelor’s degree with honours qualifications, helping to ensure degree standards are reliable and reflect the level of a student’s achievements.