A scheme has been launched by an Australian institution to allow students who get 40% or above a second opportunity to finish their course.
On Wednesday, Charles Sturt University (CSU) informed employees that they would be starting a new experiment that would provide students who finish their course with a mark between 40 and 49 percent a second chance to get the grade needed to pass.
The passing percentage is 50%.
The decision, according to the School of Social Work and Art, which includes education students, gives students who barely failed an exam the chance to retake it within ten days, giving them another chance to pass.
The experiment, according to the school’s head, Sally Totman, intends to raise CSU’s retention and success rates for students.
The adjustment has angered a number of academics, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.
An scholar questioned if the decision supported intellectual potential or was merely a money grab in an email to Ms. Totman.
Does CSU aim to ensure that each graduate is capable of performing the function that their CSU degree implies they are qualified for? They wrote, “Or do we simply want to make sure they’re back on college next term, increasing their HECS debt?
When I give a pupil a failing grade, I mean it. It is not a simple task to do. The pressure to pass pupils who don’t deserve it has outlasted endurance (to the disadvantage of those who study hard and deserve the honour).
Professor of higher education at the Australian National University Andrew Norton claimed that although students who just barely missed the passing criterion of 50% were sometimes granted a second chance, exceeding that mark by 40% was considered a “severe fail.”
More individuals will get 39, as one reaction to this. Of course, academics have a lot more work to do as well,” he said.
It wasn’t too far-fetched, according to David Boud, professor and head of the Centre for Research in Assessment at Deakin University, and it partially reflected British policy, where students are sometimes permitted to retake tests at the conclusion of the summer vacation.
“They deserve another opportunity to try if they come near to the border,” he remarked.
“Almost no evaluation anybody does in higher education can be measured with any level of accuracy.”