Grade Secrecy in Business School
December 24th, 2005 • Business, Education
I haven’t talked about grades in business school before but this article presents a perfect opportunity to discuss. I’ve long thought that having a non-disclosure policy for an academic program made no sense. A lack of accountability in one’s performance has led to issues in the professional realm and you can’t believe that the same wouldn’t be true in an academic environment. In fact, this article states:
At the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, faculty members have complained that grade nondisclosure has not only decreased competition but encouraged laziness, even causing some star faculty members to avoid teaching MBAs. In the Apr. 18 edition of Wharton’s weekly newspaper, the Wharton Journal, Vice-Dean Anjani Jain blamed nondisclosure for a gradual shift away from academic rigor.
While on the other hand, according to the article current Harvard students reacted in this way:
About six weeks ago, the HBS administration announced to students that it was considering the new policy. The HBS Student Assn. quickly polled 1,559 of the nearly 1,800 full-time MBA students and found that 87% said they were against the change, 6% were in favor, and 7% were indifferent. With such an overwhelming majority opposing the measure, the Student Assn. lobbied key administrators in opposition to it.
As I’ve talked about before, I wonder what the professional background of business school students is. Especially those who are opposing a policy like this. Clearly, when you join the professional world, you will be accountable for your performance and the results that you drive. Those results won’t be secret and will be well known to your superiors, peers, and even underlings.
One thing I will say from this is that I’m proud to say that my school, Goizueta Business School, does not have a grade non-disclosure policy and, as far as I am aware, never has. Goizueta focuses heavily on leadership and one of the core values of the school is accountability. Granted many students opt to take a simple passing (PS) grade and skip final exams, there are some (like myself) who take all exams, optional or required, because we believe in another core value - rigor.
So in conclusion, congratulations to the administrators who are attempting to remove this veil of grade secrecy from their schools. This will only improve the quality of students who graduate and are hired from these business schools.
