Without anonymous grading, we simply can’t expect to receive fair grades, according to political science student Euclid Dochery. He started an initiative to get the political science department of the UvA to recognize this, but is yet to find success.
“It’s not like this is a debatable right or wrong. The fact is that biases exist, irregardless of how socially aware or how conscious we are, these things are inevitable so what we should do is try to eradicate them as much as possible by having forms such as blind grading.”
In this year’s spring, his initiative got rejected by the programme committee and the examinations board, as at that time, they did not find it to be significant enough of a concern. Citing an already heavy workload for their teachers and a decreased ability to keep track of their student’s progress, “they did not think it was that important of an issue” says Euclid.
However, he’s not convinced. “If students want extra feedback they can come to the teacher and then the relationship can still be intact.” On top of that, “your essay should be marked [on the basis of] your current essay, not the fact that you have progressed overall.”
This time around, Euclid can find allegiance with representative Alicia Vignali from student political party 020 – the party that made a similar attempt previous to him. Party member Pablo Mustienes is quite optimistic, as he got the impression that “the programme committee were quite favourable towards the idea in general. (…) We just really need to build the argument that even if there is a small additional workload, the benefits [of] having this grading system will be far greater than the costs.”
By better illustrating student demand for this policy and by approaching the UvA at a time when the teachers have adjusted to remote teaching, they’re quite hopeful to find success with a new try. Whether or not they actually will, however, is an entirely different story.
This article is edited and now includes the examaniation board and 020 representative Alicia Vignali.