UWaterloo’s engineering admission tool and the issue of grade inflation: Editorial

The University of Waterloo’s Faculty of Engineering adjustment factor tool points to a broader grade inflation issue, writes Janet Hurley of the Toronto Star. Hurley writes that UWaterloo Engineering uses an “adjustment factor” as a tool to account for how students from a particular high school have historically performed in their first year at the university. The 2022 adjustment factor list, released in response to a FIPPA Request for Information, identified 62 ON high schools for being below or above the provincial average. “Students still rise to the top even if they are coming from a high-adjustment school,” commented UWaterloo Engineering Director of Admissions Bill Bishop. “We have other tools in our tool kit to select those students.” Saint Mary’s University Adjunct Professor Paul W Bennett commented that there is a “big disconnect” between student achievement and attainment levels and noted that university admissions teams have had to innovate to confront mark inflation.