IN UCD's Smurfit Business School, concern about the lack of uniformity in grading structures across MBS courses has led the department to normalise the distribution of marks.

"This arises from the fact that, in some subjects, an unusually high proportion of first honours results have been given, thus distorting final degree results (correspondingly [sic] some subjects have returned distributions of marks with unusually low means, and these, too, may need attention)," reads a memorandum sent by the programme director to all MBS lecturers last October.

But what determines whether results are unusually high? And what is meant by distorting final degree results?

The memo asks lecturers not to give students information on their projected results since this may be inaccurate in the right of exam board decisions.

In the UK research has found enormous differences in the grades awarded in different institutions. In one college 60 per cent of maths students obtained firsts, compared to under 20 per cent in most others. In accountancy, another college awarded firsts to three quarters of students while another gives them to just a quarter.

The research carried out on behalf of the Higher Education Quality Council also finds that the proportion of students getting first class degrees has soared.

In physics, nearly one in four gets a first against one in eight 20 years ago. In maths, 20 per cent get a first and an upper second has become so common that a lower second is considered valueless.

Even in Cambridge, in the UK, there have been complaints from students that some colleges are selling courses with "sloppy standards" and vague marking schemes, the Times Higher Education Supplement reported recently.

In response to these trends, some British academics have called for the introduction of a simple pass/fail system, with a distinction for exceptional students.

Anecdotes about the vagaries of the exam system are rife. Medical students sometimes claim the reason for the low grades in their area is that their professors want to stave off competition for their consultancies for as long as possible.

Sometimes, the pressures at work can operate to the benefit of students. For example, one lecturer told E & L he was told by the college authorities he had failed too many students, even though he insisted his class was not up to scratch and deserved the marks they got.