Anglia may face legal action

AT LEAST 75 final year student teachers are challenging Anglia Polytechnic University over its decision to deflate their final teaching practice grades.

The students, who lodged academic appeals this week, claim the university's assessment board docked their grades by nine marks, jeopardising their final degree classifications. The final teaching practice is worth 17 per cent of the teacher training degree programme.

The students stress that their teaching performance was assessed by two independent professionals and a number were confirmed by a third external examiner.

Jo Butler, of APU's student union, said the university had released unmoderated grades to students in breach of regulations in the student handbook which states: "The assessment form should not be shown to the student, nor should marks be discussed until after the assessment board."

Ms Butler said: "The students are really angry and a number are thinking about legal action."

University spokesman Roy Newson denied that procedures had been breached.

"Grade moderation is a way of making sure standards are comparable with other universities," he said. "Students have now received their confirmed grades and any earlier grades were raw and subject to confirmation."

Mr Newson added that students appeared not to have understood that their earlier grades were unmoderated.

He said the university had received official complaints which could become the subject of academic appeals but he refused to comment on the numbers of students' grades which had been lowered.