No marks for Royal Welsh College students to ease stress

Students at Cardiff's Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama are not being given their first year academic marks in a bid to reduce stress.

The idea is to help boost students' wellbeing as they transition into higher education on courses for acting and design for performance.

Bosses said past groups had focused on where marks placed them, rather than developing themselves and their skills.

It will be reviewed later this year and could be rolled out to other courses.

However, marks are still available to students who want to receive them.

Student experience director Brian Weir said: "The feedback has been very positive so far.

"We have already found that removing the grading makes the student much more receptive to concentrating on their personal progress.

"We wanted to ease that transition from school to higher education, and work with the students in partnership, while encouraging them to take responsibility for their own progress."

Student union president Lloyd Pearce said the decision was taken following feedback from tutors and students and was in keeping with the college's efforts to help students develop emotional resilience as they study.

"It could be seen that students were focusing on the figures and where it put them compared to others in their cohort, rather than the qualitative feedback which is geared towards their personal development," he said.

He added the college runs a "Healthy Artist" scheme providing access to performance-related health support and psychological help through counselling services and mentors.