Grading the philosophy students at K U Leuven

Last night we attended the deliberation BBQ at the philosophy institute. There were a lot of people we know; a lot of friends and acquaintances to talk to, and I was also approached by a young man who introduced himself as follows “Hello, I’m smiling J. - your husband gave me a really hard time last semester in his class on Berkeley.” Through the crowd somebody piped in “yeah, he put me through hell as well.” Whereupon the Husband remarked “smiling J., I thought you did really well! I gave you a 13.”

The grading system here is to say the least, unbalanced: a grade ranges from 0-20, where anything below 10 is a fail, and anything above 16 puts you in the top 5%. People rarely get an 18, and there’s a very small handful of students who ever received a 20. But 13 would probably not be considered a particularly high grade. Indeed the Husband has prospects of becoming an excellent professor here at K U Leuven; arduous and frugal when it comes to grading.

By Lovain