The end of pass/fail grades?

Over the years, various grading systems have been used for university and university college exams. In 2003, a grading scale from A to F was introduced for most university disciplines in Norway, a scale which is widely used in other countries, including in medicine. In recent years, however, medical students in Oslo, Trondheim and Tromsø have only received the grades «pass» or «fail». In Oslo, these grades were introduced in 1996 along with the new study programme «Oslo 96», in which the key principles were academic integration, more in-depth learning and teaching that would promote student activity (1). In such programmes, pass/fail was considered to be the most suited grading system, emphasising insight, promoting collaboration and stimulating more informative feedback to the students (2). The students should be motivated by a desire to learn – not by the prospect of good grades at exams.