Universities ‘Pad’ Up Results to gain more First Class Students- Dr Ben Ugheoke

Dr Ben Ugheoke of the University of Abuja says high turnover of first class graduates by a university is not a measure of the quality of products of such institution.
Ugheoke, who lectures at the Department of Mechanical Engineering, spoke to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Thursday in Abuja.
Ugheoke said that it was his personal view that universities padded results to notch up their graduates.
“The number of first class graduates from a university does not reflect the quality of the products of such university.
“After examination, the academic and examination boards at the departmental levels sit to moderate the result and at that level, padding may come up.
“I see it as padding what is wrong to make it seem as if it is normal; it is my personal view; they look at the result and make it look like a normal distribution.
“It has come up in out senate; and our senate rejected it that we cannot do it because other people are doing it,’’ he said.
He said, however, that there were advantages associated with such padding as it was difficult to secure employment in the Federal Civil Service without a Second Class Upper grade.
Ugheoke said that some institutions whose Second Class Lower graduates were better than Second Class Upper graduates elsewhere would put their products at disadvantage if they refused to pad them.
“It does not follow a straight line curve to say that first class is a measure of good output from a particular university,’’ he said. (NAN)