Policy Statement

The grade inflation/deflation policy aims to ensure the appropriateness and fairness of grading students' assessments (e.g., coursework and final exams).

Scope and Purpose

The main purpose of the policy is to provides information about the academic progress of students to the course instructors the university administration and shows the student’s area of strength or areas that should be improved.

Definitions

• Grade Inflation: a rise in the average grade assigned to students
• Grade Deflation: a decrease in the average grade assigned to students

Criteria for Grade Inflation:

The criteria for grade inflation are as follows:

1. If there are more than 10 students registered in a section and the percentage of students earning a grade of (A), (A+), or (B+) is more than 50%.
2. If there are 10 students (or less) registered in a section and the percentage of students earning a grade of (A), (A+) or (B+) is more than 70%

Criteria for Grade Deflation:

3. If there are more than 10 students registered in a section and the percentage of students earning a grade of (F) or (D) is more than 50%
4. If there are 10 students (or less) registered in a section and the percentage of students earning a grade of (F) or (D) is more than 70%.

Procedure for reflecting on grade inflation

1. Suppose a course is taught by the same instructors and has grade inflation consecutively for at least three academic semesters. In that case, the department should consider the difficulty level of assessment and the grading criteria. The grades for the courses taught by the same instructor should also be compared.
2. Suppose a course taught by different instructors has grade inflation consecutively for at least three academic semesters. In that case, the department should consider the difficulty level of assessment and the grading criteria. In addition, the department council should change the course's grading policy. Points 1 and 2 will ensure whether the grade inflation/deflation is because of the nature of a course or whether the instructor has a trend of having grade inflation/deflation in other courses.
3. Cross-grading should be made necessary for assignments and research projects based on rubrics, which can be done by the other course instructors teaching the same course or the course leaders/coordinators. See QA0009-Independent Verification of Student Achievement Policy for its detailed procedures.
4. In case of grade inflation or deflation, the course instructor should write a report containing a concrete justification for having a grade inflation/deflation.
5. In courses with more than one section taught by the same instructor, inflation/deflation should be justified for every course section.
6. Grade inflation report should be added in section D-Grade Distribution of the course report individually for the section and the combined course report for the overall grade inflation-deflation.
7. The department chair is responsible for monitoring and approving the grade inflation/deflation reports in all courses offered in a program and preparing the following report for the College Dean / Vice-Dean. This justification is also mentioned in section D of the Annual Program Report.
8. The College Quality Committee is responsible for preparing an aggregate report on grade inflation for the college and submitting it to the Quality Assurance Centre (QAC).
9. An executive summary of the grade inflation report program and college and campus-wide will be prepared by the Quality Assurance Centre (QAC) at the end of every academic semester. This report will be submitted by the Deanship of Quality Assurance & Development (DQAD) to the Vice President of Academic Affairs.  

References

See Appendix-A