The role of grades in university education

By Mark Mercer. It is curious, and depressing, that in the 32 pages of the arbitrator’s award on the dismissal of Denis Rancourt, there is no discussion of the role final course grades play in education. When administrators are quoted on the value of final grades, they talk about their usefulness to graduate schools and employers, not about their value in teaching or learning.
Rancourt was a professor of physics at the University of Ottawa until March 2009, when the university formally dismissed him. Rancourt grieved that dismissal through his union. The arbitrator in the case, Claude H. Foisy, recently found the dismissal to be justified and denied the grievance. More...