Using more rigorous external examiners would help rein in grade inflation

There is no technical solution to the problem of grade inflation because it is a structural effect of marketisation. All of this tinkering will just be yet another bureaucratic waste of time and resources. https://medium.com/@drleejones/marketisation-is-destroying-academic-standards-through-rampant-grade-inflation-cac573f42d0f

One thing that is rarely mentioned in this debate is the way universities have made it easier to get a higher classification not by markers giving higher grades but by adjusting the rules of how degree classifications are calculated. The problem is classification inflation rather then grade inflation. I have worked as a lecturer for 18 years and do not routinely give higher marks than I did 18 years ago but we hand out more Firsts now than ever. Most of that is due to greater leniency in the internal rules of the calculations. A very easy way to stop this is to fix across the sector how such calculations happen. At the moment there is wide discrepancy between, for example, the number of passed credits required for an honours degree, the condonement of module marks below 40, the discounting of the lowest module mark from calculations, the lowest point of the boundary at which upgrade is considered and the rules / guidelines upon which upgrades are based. What has happened is that all of these factors have been softened in the students' favour over recent years and this is a major contribution to classification inflation (but note, not grade inflation)