Educational quality is NOT protected by examination hurdle

This paper discusses the quality control role attributed to examination hurdles. An examination hurdle is usually defined along these lines: to be eligible to pass a subject, a student needs to obtain at least 50% of the marks available in the semester and to perform to a set level on the end-ofsemester examination. Preliminary discussions with academics appear to indicate that examination hurdles largely are seen as a quality control mechanism to counter widespread distrust of the authenticity of marks awarded to students in non-invigilated assessment items and activities, especially group work activities.