Enforcing the use of “mixed ability” groups for assignment work is supposedly geared towards getting the “lower end” of the group to learn from the “higher end”, while the “higher end” consolidate their and reinforce their learning by teaching the “lower end”. In theory, different people are good at different things, which should result in the whole situation evening out over the course of the academic year.

In my (admittedly limited) experience, the higher end tend to work hard at home and/or have a natural affinity for the subject, whereas the lower end tend to be there because they either don’t turn up, or they struggle in general – which tends to lead to the same students populating the same ends of the groups in most modules. This then starts to feel unfair, as the higher end, who are there through hard work and talent – end up doing all of the giving, and the lower end keep doing all of the taking. Those in the lower end who lack dedication to the course, soon realise this – and drop even further behind as they know that they’ll be “carried”, due to the higher end not wanting to lose marks.

While it is often stated that if one person puts in more or less effort than the rest of the group, then the grades will be adjusted accordingly – this contradicts the advice simultaneously given, that there are marks allocated for the demonstration that groups successfully work as a team. Higher end students then feel obliged to “fill in” for the lower end, and end up forging the paperwork to show equal contribution. Again, in my limited experience, if a higher end student submits their work to be judged on its own merits, leaving the lower end student to submit what they will – we have tended to find that the group assignment is capped at the lower end student’s grade, due to the lack of coherence as a team.
Such situations may finally result in a higher end person putting in hours and hours of work – to end up essentially getting two Cs (and personal credit for only one) rather than the one A their time and effort should have earned them.

With the cost of tuition fees ever rising, is this fair? Do you have examples of other courses or organisations which have a more transparent policy on group work? Are you a lecturer who has to deal with this from the other side? I would love to hear other opinions on this!