First-class or first too many? UK universities face scrutiny as top grades surge

The first-class degree was the reserve of the very great and is quickly becoming rare. Universities are achieving the best classifications in the UK at levels never witnessed in the history of modern-day academics, leading the regulators, the employers, and the educators to wonder whether academic excellence is being watered down by design.

The latest figures indicate that in 2024-25 almost 30 percent of all students were granted a first-class degree, which is a drastic change compared to less than 13 percent in 2006-07, according to an analysis reported by The Daily Mail.

The integrity of the academic standards is not the only thing that is at stake here, but the mechanics of grading. While the figure is lower than the pandemic-era peak of 36 percent, it remains far above pre-COVID norms. To place the shift in perspective, in the early 1990s, only around 8 percent of graduates achieved the highest classification.

A historic shift in grading standards

The scale of change has now triggered regulatory intervention. The Office for Students (OfS) has asked universities to reassess the algorithms and assessment frameworks used to calculate final grades, amid growing concern that systemic inflation may be embedded in institutional processes.

What began as a pandemic-era anomaly now appears to have hardened into a structural feature of British higher education, raising uncomfortable questions about how academic merit is measured, and marketed.

Elite universities lead the surge

Some of the UK’s most prestigious institutions are at the forefront of the trend. Imperial College London, ranked first in Europe and second globally in the QS World University Rankings, awarded firsts to 53 percent of its graduates, the highest proportion among Russell Group universities. That figure has climbed sharply from 31 per cent in 2010, HESA data shows. Imperial is followed by University College London, where 41 per cent of students secured top honours.

Elsewhere, first-class degrees accounted for 40 percent of classifications at Durham University, 38 percent at the University of Manchester, and 37 percent at the University of Leeds. At all three institutions, the share of firsts has roughly doubled between 2010–11 and 2023–24.

Notably, this expansion has not come at the expense of upper second-class degrees. Over the same period, the proportion of students receiving a 2:1 has remained broadly stable, edging up only from 47 percent to 48 percent.

Even Oxford and Cambridge—long viewed as bastions of rigorous assessment- now award firsts to more than a third of their cohorts, at 34 per cent and 33 per cent, respectively.

Why are more students getting firsts?

Universities point to several structural factors. One is the growing share of students enrolled in STEM disciplines, science, technology, engineering and mathematics, where assessment models often yield clearer right-or-wrong outcomes and historically higher proportions of top grades. By contrast, in subjects such as English or history, where evaluation is more interpretive, achieving a first can be more elusive.

Rising tuition fees have also entered the debate. With students investing heavily in their education, institutions face mounting pressure to ensure strong graduate outcomes, an environment that critics argue may subtly influence grading practices.

Adding further complexity, universities apply different thresholds for awarding firsts. While a score of 70 out of 100 is typically required, some institutions confer the top classification on students achieving 68 and above, blurring national consistency.

Employers sound the alarm

For recruiters, the implications are already being felt. James Reed, chief executive of Britain’s largest recruitment firm, Reed, warned that degree classifications are losing their signalling power. Speaking to The Sunday Times, he said: “First-class degrees were meant to be the exception, but the number getting them suggests that’s not the case any more.

“If we want to restore their standing, I would suggest that only the top 10 per cent should get them.

“So many people now come out of university with firsts or 2:1s that the class has almost become irrelevant for employers.”

His comments reflect a wider industry concern: When excellence becomes commonplace, employers are forced to rely on alternative indicators, internships, extracurricular achievements, aptitude tests, and institutional reputation, to distinguish candidates.

A reckoning for higher education

The OfS review marks a critical moment for UK higher education. At stake is not merely the mechanics of grading but the credibility of academic standards themselves.

The advocates of the existing system claim that the current students are better equipped and more skilled in terms of ability, and they have better teaching techniques. Opponents respond that unrestrained grade inflation would lead to the undermining of confidence in higher education qualifications and harm future generations whose accomplishments would be regarded with suspicion.

With regulators demanding more transparency and regularity, universities are now in a tricky balancing act to acknowledge real student performance in addition to regaining the trust in the real meaning of a first-class degree.

The issue that British higher education now faces is no longer about increasing grades but about the meaning of excellence. Will it be able to endure the increase?
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