What does an ombudsman for grading issues do?

At the end of the 1900s, there was a discussion as to whether it should be possible to appeal grades. The issue was investigated by, amongst others, the former National Agency for Higher Education. Ultimately, the result of all the fuss was that no right to appeal grades was introduced, which disappointed the students and student unions. But Uppsala University management was willing to meet them halfway, and the Vice-Chancellor ended up appointing two ombudsmen for grading issues.

“The ombudsmen for grading issues must be teachers with extensive experience in examinations. It is not an assignment you apply for; you must be asked. Students and teachers who want to gain perspective on examinations or need support and advice can turn to us. Students who have more serious complaints can submit a request to us to have the matter investigated,” says Maja Elmgren.

According to the regulations, only students can send in requests for investigation. Sometimes, several students send in requests together, but it is most common to receive requests from individual students. When a case comes in, we initiate an investigation of the examination process.

“We contact the examiner, and sometimes several people at the department, to get their views on the matter. We then contact the student again to get as well-round a picture of what happened as possible. The case ends with us writing a statement, where we state the grounds for the investigation request, describe the examination process and the various views, and give our opinion. The statement is addressed to the student and examiner, and is also sent to quite a few people, such as the vice-chancellor, the dean, the head of department, and the student representative,” says Sverker Scheutz.

Many also contact the ombudsmen for grading issues to discuss examinations and grading, regardless of whether they are considering submitting an investigation request or not.

“We can often help by clarifying what options are available, point to which people can be good to discuss the issue with, state appropriate rules to base things on, or formulate questions that can be asked the examiner or others,” says Sverker Scheutz.

Teachers can also contact the ombudsmen for grading issues. This may be for more general questions about examinations, or if they understand that something wrong was done in connection with the examination and they would like advice on the best way to remedy the situation.

A case can take up to a couple of months. They answer simple questions without discussing them together, but many cases are complex and require careful investigation and analysis. At such time, both review all of the material and discuss the matter with each other.

“There is so much work that it would be difficult for one person, who at the same time is an active university teacher, to be responsible for all of the cases. They are growing in number each year, from 6 investigation requests in 2015 to 51 requests in 2020. We can see that digitisation last year played a role. The pandemic caused a rapid change in examination forms, which is the cause to some of the cases, but there was increasing trend even before that,” says Sverker Scheutz.

Something they often point to is that the ombudsmen for grading issues do not review grades. Most grade discussions take place completely without their involvement. They have neither the expertise nor the capacity to make qualified assessments in all of the University’s subjects, and grades can only be changed by the examiner.

“However, it is positive that we come from different disciplines right from the start, and that we have interdisciplinary involvement. That we have exchanged thoughts and ideas with teachers from all of the University's faculties through extensive development and teaching of courses in leadership and university teaching and learning,” says Maja Elmgren.

There are many interesting questions to discuss in relation to examinations, in relation to both legal compliance and what makes for a good examination from a broad perspective.

“In seminars and the like, we have talked about problems related to the examination process that we find particularly interesting, and we have given examples of questions that come across our desks frequently. The fact that one of us is a lawyer can also be an advantage, as many questions require insight into and interpretations of laws and regulations as well as local guidelines,” says Maja Elmgren.