Coronavirus Australia: University students demand overhaul of grading system

Coronavirus has changed the way schools and universities are taught. And these students have a radical idea.

Australian university students are calling for a “pass or fail” grading system as pressures from the coronavirus pandemic mount on them.

Aussie students want to follow in America’s footsteps where some Ivy League colleges overhauled the grading system in response to the coronavirus ravaging the US.

It comes as universities all over Australia have gone virtual, conducting classes via video calls.

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University of Technology Sydney students are among those calling for the change. Picture: John Feder/The Australian

Some US colleges have already replaced their grading system with a simple “pass or fail” to help relieve stress, including Ivy League schools Harvard and Stanford.

Essentially, gone are the credits, distinctions and high distinctions. A student either passes or they don’t.

For instance, at America’s Cornell Law School, which was the first university to make the move on March 16, students are graded simple as either “satisfactory” or “unsatisfactory”.

Now some Aussie students want their universities to do the same.

“There's no denying it: studying during the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic is hard,” a petition at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) reads.

“Some of us are worrying about how we'll pay rent, others are high-risk and stressed about our own health or the health of those around us.

“Even the most stable of us may struggle with mental health issues during this prolonged period of reduced human contact.

“Why should we have to be stressed about readings, too?”

University of Sydney has a similar petition with more than 4000 signatures so far.

These petitions call for an easier grading system for the remainder of this semester and float the option of continuing the radical grading system until the end of the year.

The UTS petitioner explained how universities were “in completely uncharted territories in terms of online teaching” and said it would be fairer if the gradings changed accordingly.

“How can we be expected to produce our best work in these circumstances?” the petition went on.

“It is for these reasons that we respectfully request that our university, the University of Technology Sydney, moves to a pass/fail grading system for the remainder of the Autumn session, and perhaps into the Spring session, if relevant.”

The UTS campus in shutdown. Picture: John Feder/The Australian

Calls for the change have already resulted in the University of NSW moving their engineering faculty into a pass or fail system.

An email circulated to UNSW students cited “the high level of disruption to teaching, the high levels of anxiety caused by the COVID-19 and the lack of integrity of online quizzes” as the major reasons for the move.

UNSW engineering students can now receive either a SY (success) or FL (failure) at the end of the semester.

Third-year UTS student Annie Walker said the virus had impacted her ability to study.

“This is a really stressful time – only two weeks into the transition to online learning I’m already feeling the effect that this is having on the quality of work I’m able to produce,” Miss Walker said.

“These circumstances are unprecedented – under normal circumstances I really appreciate the standard grading system; however, at this time with uncertain family, income, health and education circumstances, I think that it’s best that we adopt a pass/fail system.”