Grading international vs non-international

Hi,

I'm a non-international university student and most of my friends are international. Whenever we submit coursework assessments they always seem to get higher than me, even though their work is substantially less sophisticated than mine. This is not a subjective opinion but an objective one (You would know if you read their work).

Nonetheless, they always get higher than me and I find it so unfair. I feel as if my university has a preconceived bias to make sure to give international students better grades?

I know a lot of UK universities favour international students when giving them a space in university, even if their grades do not meet the requirements, but has anyone else noticed this with grading?

It could just be that they get nicer markers then I do but this specific coursework has made this theory of mine so much more compelling. There is no way this person should have got the grade that they did.

I don't mean to be rude and I hope it doesn't come across that way but it is really disheartening.

Reply 1

mnot

Universities Forum Helper

20

Highly unlikely,

Most assignments are assessed based on defined marking rubrics and its a case of identifying where submissions sit in relative to this. If it was consistently happening this also means it’s happening across the assessed opinion of many different academics. Additionally most assignments are marked blindly and they often have hundreds of exams or submissions to review.

Is it possible they are either raising their standards for their submissions, or your ability to to identify what to include and not include in assignments are not as strong as you think it is. Perhaps being more self-critical of your submissions would allow you to perform better.

Reply 2

Anonymous #1

OP

Original post by mnot

Highly unlikely,

Most assignments are assessed based on defined marking rubrics and its a case of identifying where submissions sit in relative to this. If it was consistently happening this also means it’s happening across the assessed opinion of many different academics. Additionally most assignments are marked blindly and they often have hundreds of exams or submissions to review.

Is it possible they are either raising their standards for their submissions, or your ability to to identify what to include and not include in assignments are not as strong as you think it is. Perhaps being more self-critical of your submissions would allow you to perform better.

This isn't just me reading these submissions, a lot of my other peers within the module have said the same thing about this. Furthermore, we had a cover sheet where you could discuss certain things and this person included that they were in fact an international student. It is also not hard to just search for a student via their ID number, which we put on our submissions.

Speaking on this, It also feels as if those with white names get higher grades than ethnic ones. Moreover, in this module I noticed a very stark segregation of white names vs ethnic names in our seminar groups. It isn't fair and I should not be feeling this way.

Reply 3

mnot

Universities Forum Helper

20

Original post by Anonymous

This isn't just me reading these submissions, a lot of my other peers within the module have said the same thing about this. Furthermore, we had a cover sheet where you could discuss certain things and this person included that they were in fact an international student. It is also not hard to just search for a student via their ID number, which we put on our submissions.

Speaking on this, It also feels as if those with white names get higher grades than ethnic ones. Moreover, in this module I noticed a very stark segregation of white names vs ethnic names in our seminar groups. It isn't fair and I should not be feeling this way.

Whats more likely an institutional wide conspiracy including likely a highly diverse group of staff, which will be dynamic with regular staff turnover whose marking will be internally moderated regularly and at every exam board include external moderation, as well as requiring the same staff to go to extensive & (illegally) more effort to check exactly which student did what (especially annoying when most exams are marked question by question not script by script). All to favor students who have already made the decision to enroll at the university.

Or you aren’t capable of an honest self-appraisal.

Reply 4

Muttley79

20

Original post by Anonymous

This isn't just me reading these submissions, a lot of my other peers within the module have said the same thing about this. Furthermore, we had a cover sheet where you could discuss certain things and this person included that they were in fact an international student. It is also not hard to just search for a student via their ID number, which we put on our submissions.

Speaking on this, It also feels as if those with white names get higher grades than ethnic ones. Moreover, in this module I noticed a very stark segregation of white names vs ethnic names in our seminar groups. It isn't fair and I should not be feeling this way.

Why are you reading other students work?

Reply 5

De Montfort University

Official Rep

16

Original post by Anonymous

Hi,

I'm a non-international university student and most of my friends are international. Whenever we submit coursework assessments they always seem to get higher than me, even though their work is substantially less sophisticated than mine. This is not a subjective opinion but an objective one (You would know if you read their work).

Nonetheless, they always get higher than me and I find it so unfair. I feel as if my university has a preconceived bias to make sure to give international students better grades?

I know a lot of UK universities favour international students when giving them a space in university, even if their grades do not meet the requirements, but has anyone else noticed this with grading?

It could just be that they get nicer markers then I do but this specific coursework has made this theory of mine so much more compelling. There is no way this person should have got the grade that they did.

I don't mean to be rude and I hope it doesn't come across that way but it is really disheartening.

Hey,

As an international student, I would ike to share some of my experience and knwoledge with you :smile:

First of all, most of the assessments are done blindly, as already was mentioned above. It means that even when you submit your work with the cover sheet and your student number, it is rarely shown to the academics. Moreover, there are always some pre defined criteria given to explain students what they are going to be assessed on. And the final mark is also transparent and depended on some predefined criteria.

Secondly, if you feel that you are being treated unfair, the first person to speak to is your personal tutor or module leader. You may ask for some more detailed evaluation of your work.

Thirdly, as an international student I had first completed international year zero before starting a degree itself. During the foundation year, we were taught a lot about academic skills, time-management skills and learnt a lot about how the university works in a nutshell. Therefore, when our first year came, we were already sufficiently prepared and ready. We had knowledge about what is expected from us and how to do it the way it is expected. :rolleyes:

So, my advice is to focus more on self evaluation and development, since it is an absolute key to success. Sometimes, it is just hard to catch the full extend of work another person does, and therefore it is easy to start thinking that something is unfair :h: