OFS - The Beginning, up to now!

Hi Reps!

This blog post has the background and what's been done so far to do with the OFS discounting report.  

Contains the OfS info from emails from 10/12/2025 & 25/11/25

Who is the OfS 

The OfS is the Office for students and it is government ran.

They have recently put out a report which asks universities to get rid of discounting, or to keep it but to a calibration exercise which is expensive.

The reasoning the OfS gave for this, is that the act of discounting grades infringes on the B4 condition which in summary means academic regulations are designed to ensure that awards are credible.

Discounting is the act of removing CAT’s. ¼ of the sector uses this practice.

How does this affect UoG students - Facts

At UoG each year students do 120 CATS, only the top 90 CATS count towards students’ final grades each year.

This allows for students to have a 30 CAT leeway every year.

If the OfS forces UoG to get rid of discounting all 120 CATS will count each year. Removing the leeway.

Why keeping discounting at UoG is important:

Discounting recognises that students cannot be perfect all the time. It acknowledges that life happens, and one difficult module should not define a student’s overall performance.

In the current economic climate, many students cannot dedicate all their time to study. Rising living costs mean that a significant number of students must work alongside their course just to afford basic needs. While students put their full effort into their assignments, expecting consistently high performance across all 120 CATS is unrealistic and increases stress, worsens mental health, and may contribute to students withdrawing from university.

A substantial proportion of UoG students face additional challenges. Around 20% of our students are disabled, whether that be a hidden disability or not and we have many mature students, student parents, student carers, and students working 20–30 hours per week. In addition, removing the 30-Credits unfair impact on neurodivergent students. The 30-credit flexibility offers these students essential breathing room and helps create a fairer, more inclusive assessment experience. 

What we plan on doing

1. Have a united front with the university, which at Academic Board, the university agrees that discounting grades should not be gotten rid off
2. Have the relevant SU members research how to start a petition.
3. Have the Education and Community Officer, School reps and Course reps write the petition.
4. Have the relevant SU members gather sabbatical officers from other universities to communicate on this issue to see if they would support the petition.
5. Have the relevant SU members reach out to local MPs to try get their support on this matter and bring it to parliament.
6. Have the relevant SU members gather a set of data that supports what the union believes.
7. The relevant SU member and/or Education and Community officer will do an education piece which aims to spread awareness on what discounting is, how it works at UoG, what the Ofs report means and how will the Ofs report effect UoG students. School reps will do the same within their schools. SU will lobby to make this information widespread through use of MyGlos and staff net for lecturers to be aware 

This means we can now start our process of petitioning writing letters and campaigning against the OFS and what they’re doing to discounting not only the app but what they’re doing to post 92 institution like ours across the sector.