Is the inclusion of first-year assessment in the calculation of GPA deleterious to students from a widening participation background?

Abstract

ABSTRACT The use of grade point average (GPA) as a means to summarise learning is a novel practice in the UK. The aim of this study was to determine if the inclusion of assessment results from student’s first-year of study in the calculation of GPA is deleterious to students from a widening participation (WP) background. Assessment marks of full-time undergraduate students were investigated using statistical modelling. The inclusion of the assessment outcomes from the first-year of studies in the calculation of GPA was significantly beneficial to Black, Asian and minority ethnic and mature students on their overall GPA. It was also not disadvantageous to any group of WP students. Our analysis highlighted how the traditional UK degree classification system, as used by Oxford Brookes University, tends to magnify the presentation of the difference in learning achieved by different groups of students when compared to that shown by the GPA or raw marks.