Grade inflation at English universities has fallen for the first time in a decade, but half of the top degrees awarded to students last year cannot be explained by their prior attainment or choice of subject, according to the UK’s higher education regulator.
In a report published on Thursday, the Office for Students (OfS) said that 32.8 percent of students across 144 institutions were awarded a first class degree in 2021–2022.
It represented a drop of 4.6 percent from the previous year, when it stood at 37.4 percent.
It marks the first time that the OfS has observed a fall in the number of first class degrees since 2010–2011 and comes after universities in England pledged last July to reverse degree inflation….