Entrance Grade Inflation and Its Effect on the First Year Syllabus

1 Robin Bradbeer, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong. [email protected] Abstract _There is mounting evidence that grade inflation has been taking place at all levels of education over the past decade or more. This has usually been denied by the authorities conducting the assessments. During the past six years the first year students taking Basic Electronic Engineering on both a 3_year Mechatronic Engineering and 3_year Manufacturing Engineering bachelor degrees have been closely monitored. As part of that monitoring students are given a pre_test at the start of their first semester to determine their ‘pre_knowledge‘ of the syllabus. Although the entrance grades of the students have been rising, the scores on this pre_test have been falling. This paper considers the causes of this discrepancy and attempts to determine the effects that this has had on the way that the courses are being taught.