In the last 2013 parliamentary audit for Ministry of Education(MOE), Kim Hee-jung, who is the lawmaker of Saenuri Party, requested each universities’ data about grade management. After her request, the controversy about grade inflation arose again. MOE and Korean Council for University Education sent an official notice to all universities, and the content of the notice was a request for restrictions of systems, such as the Grade Abandonment System, which possibly inflates students’ grades. According to the announcement by MOE, Chungbuk National University(CBNU) determined to abolish the Grade Abandonment System, which was implemented in 2011, and it is going to remove it after this semester.
 
CBNU’s grade policies
  CBNU’s grade evaluation system was revised in 2011, and CBNU still follows it. According to the revised system, student evaluations are being adjusted on a relative evaluation system, and major and liberal arts subjects’ grade point averages must be within 0.3 of 3.0. At the time the system was implemented, the Dean of Academic Affairs, Prof. Kim Kwi-yong, said about the implementation of the relative evaluation system, “When students graduate from CBNU, ‘University which implements a relative evaluation system’ will be marked on their grade report. Therefore, implementation of relative evaluation is not a disadvantage to students.” However, at that time, students started to worry about their lower grades in comparison with other universities’ students and whether it would have an influence on getting a job.
  A year later, ‘Re-completion Gap System’ was implemented. ‘Re-completion Gap System’ is where the grade for reapplying for re-completion must be below C+, and the highest grade for taking re-completion must be B+ or below. The objective of the system was good because it was possible to protect students who took the class only once from the students who reapplied. However, students had anxiety because of the low maximum grade B+.
  According to the vanishing of the systems that can make students’ grades higher, General Student Association(GSA) suggested to the CBNU administration another way to make students’ grades higher. The PLUS, 2011 GSA, suggested the implementation of ‘Grade Abandonment’, which is going to be removed after this semester, to the CBNU administration and it was passed. Response 3057, 2013 GSA, also suggested a policy to increase the ratio of A grades to make students’ grades higher to the CBNU administration, but it didn’t pass..
  The phenomenon, where students want to raise their grades but MOE wants to prevent grade laundering for fair completion, is nothing new. However, the tough policy by MOE about the phenomenon can be understood according to data by the Center for Higher Education in Korea Information Disclosure. According to the data, the grade distribution of national university graduates in 2013 showed that 90% of graduates took between A+(4.5) and B-(2.7). In the case of CBNU graduates, 92.7% of students took grades between A+ and B0.
  In terms of CBNU’s determination and students’ increasing nervousness about their grades, Lee Sun-ho(Officer of Academic Affairs) said, “Of course, we can understand students’ nervousness, but CBNU should follow the announcement by a higher institution. If CBNU continuously implements those systems, it makes it hard to receive financial subsidies and support for student financial aid from the government. Finally, not following the government’s announcement has a negative impact on enrolled students.”
  In the MOE’s Reform Plan, the increasing influence rate of academic affairs and curriculum from 10% to 12.5% now makes the administration of grades, which is in academic affairs, more important. The percentage of administration of grades is 50% in academic affairs. In this situation, MOE is going to give lower points according to the Reform Plan to the universities which give good grades easily to students. Therefore, the more students receive good grades, which is from A to C, the lower points CBNU will receive from MOE.
 
Employment experts’ viewpoints about grades
  In spite of knowing CBNU’s stance, students are still worried about the influence of lowering grades on getting a job. About the correlation between the chances of getting a job and higher grades, Ahn Byung-jin, who is an employment counselor in the Human Resource Development Center, said, “On the side of companies, grades are just a small standard, which just say ‘I studied that much’. It’s not true that companies only hire students with good grades. Grades are just a basic standard for companies, so students should make their own special careers rather than obsess about higher grades.” Also, Rhee Hyo-sang, now the president of Dream&Creation Inc. and a former human resources manager in a big company, said, “Many companies already know how many universities try to give good grades to their students to raise their ratios of employment. Therefore, grades are not a good standard for employment.” Students’ complaints about lowering grades are inevitable in university because now the standard of good universities depends on the ratio of employment. However, CBNU needs a sturdy educational philosophy and shouldn’t be swayed by outside pressure.
 

By Kang Ill-gu

ig33@cbnu.ac.kr