Wednesday 02-12-2020 - 16:31

Anonymous marking has been officially adopted as a university policy from next academic year following several years of lobbying from your students' union and work by current Vice-President (Education) Bee Morgan.

The change will mean that academics marking coursework and exams will not know the identity of the student who produced the work, unless part of a specific exception.

Successive Vice-Presidents for Education have pushed for the university to adopt the policy as a step towards tackling the BAME (Black, Asian, Minority Ethnic) 'Attainment' or 'Awarding' Gap by reducing the potential for unconscious bias to affect students' marks. This gap is characterised by the fact BAME students at Lancaster are currently 12% less likely to achieve a 2:1 or first than white students.

Vice-President (Education) Bee Morgan said: "I'm so pleased to have finally got this over the line as this was one of my key manifesto pledges right from the beginning. This will make such a massive difference to students across the board, but is a particular win for BAME students.

"Previous holders of my role started the conversation around this policy, and it has been a key objective for many students. Making the case for this policy has been a true group effort and it's fantastic to see that the univeristy is listening and is prepared to take action."

The university has created a task group with Bee to implement the new policy, ready for implementation at the start of next academic year.

Reps will be consulted throughout this year to gather students' thoughts on specific aspects, including impacts on Inclusive Learning Support Plans, assessments that might be complex to anonymise like presentations, and feedback methods like academic tutors.

It is hoped that the change will mean students can have increased confidence that they are getting the grade they deserve, based on their work alone. BAME students are 12% less likely to achieve a 2:1 or first than white students.

Pushing for the university to adopt the policy forms part of Bee's wider progamme of activity to address the BAME attainment gap. She has created new Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Champion positions within its team of Academic Reps this year and a paper by Bee on decolonising the curriculum was recently unanimously approved by the university's Academic Standards and Quality Committee.