Almost 60 per cent of students at two UK universities graduated with a first last year while only a fifth scored top honours at others as different uses of ¡°no detriment¡± marking policies led to wide disparities in degree classifications, new figures have revealed.

According to data on degree classifications?, more than 20 large institutions had a share of firsts above 40 per cent last year, compared with just two the year before.

Sector-wide figures had already shown that?35 per cent of bachelor¡¯s degree graduates?achieved a first last year, up 7 percentage points on 2018-19, largely?as a result of no detriment policies such as allowing final marks to be based on the grading of a smaller number of credits due to the impact of the pandemic.

The highest shares of top honours at universities where more than 500 classified degrees were awarded in 2019-20 were at UCL and Imperial College London, where 59 per cent of students achieved a first.

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Imperial also had?one of the highest shares of firsts in the sector in 2018-19, with 53 per cent, but UCL¡¯s figure for graduates in 2019-20 represented an 18.5 percentage point rise on the year before.

One of the main elements of UCL¡¯s no detriment policy was a ¡°safety net measure¡± to base final degree classifications on the best 50 per cent of marks achieved by students.

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A UCL spokeswoman said that the graduating cohort of 2019-20 had also ¡°achieved slightly better module marks than previously ¨C even before the emergency classification algorithms were applied¡±.

¡°This meant that when we did apply these blanket safety net measures, the result was an over-correction and an increased number of firsts were awarded last year which were well above UCL¡¯s normal rates,¡± she said.

However, UCL¡¯s year-on-year increase was not the highest among large universities. At the University of Plymouth, the share of firsts rose around 22 percentage points to 47?per cent.

A spokesman said it had introduced a ¡°fair¡± and ¡°proportionate¡± policy with ¡°appropriate quality control measures in place to support our students in fulfilling their true potential in unprecedented times¡±.

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He added that the university watched outcomes ¡°very closely to guard against grade inflation¡± and last year¡¯s results should be seen in the overall context of grade increases since 2014-15 being ¡°much more moderate¡±.

Elsewhere, the share of students achieving top honours rose only slightly or, at a few institutions, even fell.

At the University of Bedfordshire, which did not have a blanket policy to adjust degree classification algorithms last year, the share of firsts dropped to 21 per cent from 24 per cent in 2018-19.

A spokeswoman said students had been supported ¡°with a no-disadvantage policy which included the option to defer assessments and broadened the criteria for mitigation¡± while some grades were reviewed ¡°if they were seen to have been impacted by the pandemic¡±.

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The large spread in the outcomes from the use of no detriment policies could increase pressure on universities to bring in extra measures to help students this year or agree a common approach.

Many students?have been campaigning?for universities to use similar policies to 2019-20, although the Russell Group has been among those saying measures would not need to be as drastic given that universities have had time to adapt to online study.

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simon.baker@timeshighereducation.com