Student: You need to give me a better grade!

Increasingly I come across hostile messages from students, especially when they fail an exam. It is not uncommon for educators to receive emails ranging from "your grading is too harsh" to "you need to regrade my exam" and even "I will wait patiently while you change my grade, but if you don't do it soon, I will go to the dean."

There are a million reasons why students should not send emails like that, and only two why they do. They either genuinely believe they deserve a better grade, or they don't, but want one anyway. The latter happens when they need a certain GPA to be accepted to a follow-up programme, they wish to graduate on time, or they’re terrified of what their friends and family might say if they drop out.

These are all valid motivations, but students are simply not entitled to good grades. They are entitled to an opportunity to be assessed in a valid, reliable, and transparent manner. Here is how I like to explain it to students:

Me: I am sorry, but I can't let you pass the course unless you deserve to. Because students are a bit like avocados.

Students: 🧐

Me: Imagine you want to make guacamole tonight but forgot to buy avocados. You go to a supermarket and stand at the avocado section. Which ones are you going to pick?

Students: They need to be soft, so we should go for the ripe ones.

Me: And how do you know which ones are ripe?

Students: It says "ripe" or "ready to eat" on the packaging. Duh.

Me: Exactly. You don't have to go and touch each piece of fruit to see if they’re soft (because that's low-key gross), the avocado supplier has done the work for you and labelled them accordingly.

Students: Kay.

Me: Now imagine you brought the avocados home, cut them open, and discovered they were not ripe at all. How would you feel?

Students: Upset. Cheated.

Me: Why?

Students: Because what's the point of the label if they just put it on all the avocados? It doesn't help you pick the ones you want! I would never buy from that brand again.

Me: Fantastic. To understand why I’m telling you all this, swap avocados for students, shoppers for employers, and avocado suppliers for higher education institutions. This is how higher education works: universities train students (grow avocados), check for "ripeness" (put them through exams), label students accordingly (award diplomas to students who pass all exams), and supply them to the labour market (supermarket). Employers hiring a knowledge worker (shopping for ripe avocados) make sense of the job applicant pool (all avocados) using diplomas ( "ripe" stickers).

Me: In other words, employers rely on higher education institutions to help them choose a good employee. And just like you with avocados, they would not be happy if the label was misleading. Our diplomas would lose their value and they would no longer consider our graduates. That’s why we are strict about who passes a course and who doesn't. If I let you pass the course when you don’t deserve to , I would compromise the value of not only your diploma, but everybody else’s, too - alumni, your peers, and future students. And nobody wants that, which is why I won't do it.