Correcting, reviewing and changing of grades

To summarise

• Grading matters must be handled with the utmost care and attention.
• All changes and corrections to grading decisions may be made before a student is informed of the grading decision.
• Corrections of obvious inaccuracy on account of a clerical error, arithmetical error or similar oversight may be made by both raising and lowering the grade.
• Grading decisions must be reviewed in the event of obvious errors, in which case the grade can only be raised, provided that it can be done quickly and easily.
• Changing of grading decisions by raising the grade may be done if new circumstances have arisen that require the grade to be raised. In some cases, the change may involve lowering the grade, for example if the student has attempted to deceive.
• The provisions of the Higher Education Ordinance on corrections and reviews take precedence over the provisions of the Administrative Procedure Act on changes.

Actions before the student has been notified of the grading decision

The examiner may always alter a grading decision before the student has been notified. This also applies if other employees than the examiner for some reason have written down or entered an incorrect grade but have not had time to notify the student. How a student is notified of a grading decision may differ from case to case, but some examples are through Ladok, e-mail, grading lists or by phone. If a grading decision needs to be altered after the student has been notified, this requires legal support in the Higher Education Ordinance, the Administrative Procedure Act or case law.

Actions after the student has been notified of the grading decision

Correction - both raising and lowering - Chapter 6, Section 23 of the Higher Education Ordinance (1993:100)

Examiners may correct incorrect grades due to obvious clerical errors, arithmetical errors or similar oversights. However, it follows from the case law that a correction which is disadvantageous to a student should be made with great caution and the error must be obvious. The student must to a reasonable extent realise that the grade is wrong. Corrections may be made even after the student has been notified of the grading decision. This applies regardless of whether the decision is advantageous or disadvantageous to the student. In most cases, a correct grading decision has been made but has been reproduced incorrectly by mistake. Clerical errors mainly refer to a grading decision that has been incorrectly reproduced in writing. Arithmetical errors refer, for example, to situations where the number of marks in an exam has been wrongly calculated. Other oversight errors refer, for example, to mistaken identity or to a student receiving a grade in a course that the student has not taken. Students who have received two grades by mistake can have one (incorrect) grade removed under the correction procedure.

Before a decision on correction is made, the student should normally be given the opportunity to comment on what has happened. The easiest way to do this for the University is to write to the student and describe what has happened and give the student the opportunity to comment within a specified time limit.

Review - raising only - Chapter 6, Section 24 of the Higher Education Ordinance (1993:100)

The examiner is obliged to review a grading decision if new circumstances have arisen and the grading decision is obviously incorrect. A prerequisite for this is that the change can be made quickly and easily and does not mean that the grade is lowered. The requirement that the decision is obviously incorrect means that it must be an error that is easy for the authority to ascertain. An example of when a grading decision could be reviewed is when a student in a written exam has written part of the answer on documents that the examiner has not seen. The underlying reason for the decision being obviously incorrect is irrelevant.

Changing grading decisions - raising and in some cases lowering - Section 37 of the Administrative Procedure Act (2017:900)

The examiner has another general possibility of raising grades on the basis of Section 37 of the Administrative Procedure Act. This is not an obligation, like the review, but a possibility. Such a change does not require that the grade is obviously incorrect or that the change can be made quickly and easily. However, a change that involves raising a grade, pursuant to the Administrative Procedure Act, requires that new circumstances have arisen that cause the increase.

Furthermore, the examiner has the possibility to lower grades in certain specific cases. This is primarily the case if a student has provided false or misleading information, such as in the case of cheating.