Inflated grades: ‘Our priority was to protect students’

The department for education has defended the teacher-assessed grades system put in place during the pandemic that left many higher education institutions under-subscribed.

Susan Acland-Hood, the permanent secretary at the DfE, said said ‘it would have been hard to stop’ students going to their first-choice institutions, despite high grade inflation at the A and B classifications.

“That was what drove the pattern where we saw more offers and acceptances at high tariff institutions”, Acland-Hood added.

The DfE permanent secretary stated: “Our priority was making sure that we were doing the right thing for students.”