Do students have the right to see how their papers were graded?

Question

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I read Academia varies more than you think it does, but in any school or university I've been to or heard of, students can always see how they were graded for any assignment. Or, at least, if the school won't let them keep it, but they will at least let the students view it (usually final exams).

I believe it's every student's right to know how e was graded on, well, a graded requirement. (see Dan Fox and David Hill's answers) The only exception I can think of is Educational Testing Service, which administers the TOEFL and GRE, but it's not really a school or anything.

Recently, my sibling was a little surprised with a grade on a paper and wants to know about how their particular paper was graded. But when my sibling tried to ask to view the marking of the paper, this was the reply:

Are you an exchange student? [University] does not provide marks to students after the examination. The only thing that can be released is the Grade or Pass/Fail. Giving you the marks would be a violation of the regulations. In fact, all such information will be destroyed after a period of time. You can try asking other teachers about marks, they will also tell you the same.

(My sibling is not an exchange student.)

Main question: Do/Should (see here also) students have the right to see their how exams were graded?

Some guide questions for the main question:

1. Is this policy unconventional or unethical or unfair? Based on Corvus' answer to this question or Dan Fox's answer to this question, I kind of think my sibling's university's policy is unconventional or something.

2. How will any student get feedback on their communication or their mistakes if they do not see any of the marking of their work?

3. Is it unconventional, unethical or unfair to tell them to ask other teachers rather than point to the specific university regulations?

4. Is it unconventional, unethical or unfair to not have specific university regulations on this matter?

Answer 1

My answer is specific to India. This question was the subject of litigation which went all the way upto the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court ruled (1 2) that the examinees have a right, under the Right to Information Act 2005, to obtain xerox copy of their evaluated answer sheets. This judgment is binding upon all institutions which fall under the purview of the RTI Act.

Even independently of the RTI Act, there is a general duty on administrative bodies to disclose reasons for their administrative/quasi-judicial/judicial acts. See para 51 of this Supreme Court judgment https://indiankanoon.org/doc/1304475/ which is a beautiful exposition of this principle. I would submit that this principle requires that students be given the opportunity of viewing their answer-books.

The above is from a legal point of view. But even from a general point of view, my view is that students must be shown their graded answer-books. There are multiple advantages for this : (1) Students get feedback on their understanding (2) If there is any inadvertent mistake in evaluation (e.g. marks totalling mistake, answer left unevaluated etc.) students can point out the error and get it rectified, (3) Transparency builds trust. Conversely, distrust breeds in opacity. It is not only important to have fairness in the system, but equally important for the system to be seen as being fair, and finally : (4) The academic institutions and systems exist for the students. The student is the one whose future shall be affected by the grades. It would be very unfair if the student is not even given the opportunity to see how he/she has been evaluated.

In my view, the student should not only have the right to view graded answerbooks, but must also have the right to appeal against the grades.

Disclaimer : I am not a lawyer, and this is not legal advice. Views entirely personal.

Answer 2

I doubt that this is a case of a student "offending" an individual professor and more one of rules in place that may not make sense and that you may not approve of, but still, rules.

I don't like, personally, such rules. I think they are wrong, but an individual professor has little actual control over rule making. They may not be willing to break the rules, especially if they are a junior faculty member.

Personally, I probably wouldn't give back final exams, though I did give back all others. But I would certainly let a student look over the grading. But I was bound by no such rules.

And, note that, depending on the scale of the institution, it might be very difficult to permit students access to final exams. When I was a TA, we graded Calculus finals as a group, with each TA grading only one problem. So, a student's grade was an amalgam of judgements. We were guided by a rubric, of course. But the professor didn't grade the finals and so might find it difficult to respond to exactly why a point (or ten) was lost. Smaller institutions can "afford" a more personal touch and usually strive to do so. It should be (perfect world) possible for larger ones to do so also, but often don't. And if there were a few hundred students, it is difficult to respond to individuals, just for the time it takes. Ideal? No.

Intermediate exams are a different matter, in my view, since they can and should be used to guide the student's learning. But, Rules.

And usually, by enrolling in a university, the student makes an implicit (at least) agreement to abide by the rules in place.

Answer 3

It depends on the country and university regulations. At some universities in Canada where I was, students could see how they mid-term exams were graded, but they had to ask to see the final exam through a formal procedure (which they rarely did perhaps because the semester had ended and students had left). But students would often ask about their homework grades to try to get additional points. All exams would be kept safely for a few years. Now, at some university in Asia, I have never seen a student asking to see their grades of the final exam (probably based on the regulation) and very rarely seen a student asking to revise to get more points for a homework (perhaps based on the culture). However, all final exams are also kept in a secure room in case someone would want to check again.

For the question (it is unconventional, unethical unfair or do students have the right?), I think it depends. It may be unusual in some countries but not in others. In fact, this is more of a university-level regulation than country-level or professor-level decision. Would it be beneficial for students to see their copies? I think it could indeed let student learn from their mistakes. But on the other hand, it could further delay the publication of final grades at the end of the semester and increase the workload of professors (as they may not use TAs to grade the exams) etc., so someone could also argue that there are some practical reasons for not allowing it.

Answer 4

Phil's answer is aligned with what I believe is true: Countries (and certainly states or territories) could have regulations in place to indicate how this is done. Universities might have their own if the government doesn't impose any guidelines. And even professors might have their own set of rules.

I taught part-time at a university in Fort Worth, Texas for 8 years. I don't recall any bylaws given to me by my department or the school with regards to this topic. In my case, my syllabus was the law. In the syllabus, I indicated things like grade scale, whether or not a curve was applied during grading (I never used a curve). And more importantly, I ALWAYS gave graded papers back to my students. But that was my own personal policy to ensure transparency in order to preserve fairness. Doing so, I never had a complaint from a student that I was being unfair in grading. I did that because I didn't want to deal with the drama of students trying to protest a grade in order to gain that extra point that will give him or her the next letter grade. And even after all that, I had a time or two when I had to engage with students that will complaint about their grades. In the end, I always advice them to compare with other students to determine how "unfair" I was.

Also, in the syllabus, the school required all professors to include verbiage (or a link) to let students know about formal appeal process. And so, my syllabus always contained this information.

For me, the bottom line wasn't so much about fairness, it was a lot more to do with making my own life easier; especially since I was a part-time professor. I had another, full-time job that require more of my time and I didn't want to take away from that to deal with all the drama as I mentioned before.