John Moores has highest upper class degree increase across UK

Clever John Moores has had the highest increase in Firsts or 2:1s awarded since the introduction of tuition fees.

Grades have risen by 83 per cent since the £9,000-a-year tuition fees were introduced, prompting allegations of grade inflation.

A Sunday Times Good University guide survey compared the proportions of first class degrees in 1998 with those awarded last year and found that 55 universities had increased the number of top degrees awarded by more than 30 per cent.

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The proportion of Firsts and 2:1s have increased by 40.9 per cent in 1998 to 74.9 per cent in 2014, with an overall rise of 83.2 per cent.

With Bournemouth having an increase of 68.5 per cent and Coventry having an increase of 62.7 per cent, John Moores has the highest percentage increase in proportion of Firsts and 2:1s from 1988 to 2014.

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Since the introduction of the £9,000 a-year tuition fees was announced in 2010, 15 universities have increased by 25 per cent or more.

Fewer than one in five of us also leave university with a 2:2, which was once considered a respectable degree, employers are now having to raise the bar in terms of university awarded grades.

The latest degree pass rates will be listed in the 2015 edition of The Sunday Times Good University Guide, to be published on September 20.