Our work on degree classification standards

In 2019, we published the UK Standing Committee for Quality Assessment (UKSCQA)'s statement of intent setting out commitments based on the principles of transparent, reliable and fair degree classification system. Each year since, we’ve had a look at the progress universities have made on protecting degree standards:

• 2021–22
• 2020–21
• 2019–20

Higher education providers in England and Wales now publish degree outcomes statements reviewing trends over recent years. The Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) have published guidance on producing a degree outcomes statement. We published a full list of these statements in 2023. For the most recent statements, please refer to universities' websites.

With Advance HE and GuildHE, we want to support more sustainable training that embeds and empowers all governors. To begin this work, we are hosting three roundtables taking place in 2023.

With GuildHE and QAA, we've developed a set of principles for effective external examining.

UUK and GuildHE committed to a series of actions in England to protect degree classification standards as we emerge from the pandemic. We took a deeper look into what this means for universities.

The Covid-19 pandemic created significant disruption across the higher education sector in the 2019–20 academic year. Our briefing examined the impact of the pandemic and how universities adapted.

In 2020, the UK Standing Committee for Quality Assessment (UKSCQA) published the first ever UK-wide set of principles for effective degree algorithm design. This followed research in 2017 and 2020.

In 2019, we published UK-wide degree classification descriptors. The document explains the skills and attributes a student will demonstrate to achieve a First, 2:1, 2:2 or Third. The descriptions sit alongside other sector-owned frameworks and, since May 2022, have a formal status as a sector-recognised standard in England.