LANDON: Pakistani student Rehab Asad Shaikh has taken legal action against the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), alleging that a mistake in her final graduation marks denied her the opportunity to pursue an MPhil degree at the University of Cambridge.

Rehab Asad Shaikh hails from Khairpur Gambat, in Sindh Province. Rehab has completed her undergraduate studies in Policy Studies at LSE in 2023. She was a student at a time when the UK witnessed a Marking and Assessment Boycott. This resulted in altering the marking process of the final dissertation of each student from twice-marking to a single marking.

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Rehab Asad Shaikh felt that being exempt from the required standard of assessment made her disadvantaged compared with the rest of the students whose work had the advantage of being double-marked. Shaikh showed her willingness to combat the unjust system in place by using all the available avenues for her case. These include the appeal process, the complaint process, to finally resort to the office of the Independent Adjudicator that handles any kind of grievances related to institutions for higher learning in the UK

The task took her more than two years to convince LSE to re-score her dissertation. In the end, they did agree, and her work received a new score. This gave her immediate feedback regarding how her results had changed because her new score had improved by 15 points to 72 from 57.

Shaikh states that the original mark had a great impact on her life. Being given a lower grade on her transcript meant that Shaikh was unable to apply to the University of Cambridge to do an MPhil, which was a route that Shaikh had long mapped out. Rather, Shaikh decided to apply to the University of Oxford to do a Master’s degree in Modern South Asian Studies.

Currently, Shaikh holds a senior position in the UK government ministry. Nevertheless, she claims that her path in her academic and professional life might have turned out completely different if the grading problem was tackled the right way from the very start.

“Her legal case against LSE also involves broader issues of accountability, standards in assessment during industrial action, and the future consequences of grading outcomes for students.”