How capped grading policy which takes place in some British universities can undermine your graduation grade & what I wish I knew before applying to study at City University of London.

Going to study in another country is never easy as it involves traveling abroad, living in a place you may have never lived before, socializing with people from other cultures and other nationalities & expanding your knowledge and experiences.

When I first enrolled in my first bachelor's degree in University of Piraeus I had a high intention & motivation to maintain an above average academic grade. Fortunately enough the Greek system which applies in University of Piraeus gives you the chance to do this. By which I mean you are able to set a specific grade for example 7/10 which if you don't accomplish you don't pass the module, so you can study harder and resit it and pass it the next time with the grade you want (or at least with the minimum grade you want).

That helps the student to be able to maintain a high average of all grades so to later be accepted in another academic program like MSc in Greece, UK, Netherlands or even USA. Here to mention that this comes with a cost for a student, more resits and possible later graduation date.

To my surprise when I joined City University of London for my MSc in Maritime Operations and Management I became aware of a university’s policy (capped grading system) which actually sabotages the students (customers) of the university. By this system if you don't manage to pass a module the first time you get examined on it, the 2nd time you get maximum 50% even if your academic performance deserves a 100% grade. That system I believe is totally unhelpful towards the students and undermines the City University of London’s students potential but also the City University’s of London reputation as its students do not have the flexibility to resit modules with uncapped marking system so their potential in getting accepted in other academic programs later gets diminished.

This is something I wish I knew before applying to City University of London (now City Saint George's University of London) for an MSc degree & it's a policy that I have repeatedly questioned and expressed concerns about its impact, while I have suggested to be removed.

This capped grading system means that if a student for some reason doesn't pass the exam in the first try, his academic average gets a "hit". Even if there is an appeal system process at the City Saint George's University of London, a process of which I very much doubt the integrity and efficiency including the just handling of appeals as you will see below an appeal that I submitted to City University of London and which was rejected!!!

If the appeal is rejected, the student effectively has no option to find justice, as the only external option is the Office of the Independent Adjudicator (OIA), where the student can file a complaint, but this office does not assess academic judgment and only assesses procedures. In other words, if the procedures are correct but the academic judgment is incorrect, the OIA can do nothing.

After getting advice by 2 separate lawyers I was informed about the below processes.

So, in case you believe that you got an unjust grade you have 3 escalation steps:

1. Firstly you can appeal the grade at the internal university appeal process. If the appeal outcome is fine, all good for you, you won and your module grade will be corrected (as happened to me once).

2. If the appeal outcome is not favorable and you believe the decision is wrong (as in the case I have attached the appeal below) you can submit a complaint to the OIA (although as I mentioned OIA will check only that the processes have been followed and will not interfere with the academic judgement and if that was correct). You have 12 months from the appeal decision to submit the complaint to OIA. If the OIA decision is favorable to you, you won.

3. If the OIA decision is not favorable to you, the last resort is to request Judicial Review in the High Court of England & Wales, within 3 months of the time you received the OIA final response.

Although, even if you reach the step 3 you need to know that mostly those courts assess if the procedures were followed and as I was advised do not get in to academic judgement review.