Can professors fail an entire class (who’s fault is failing)

Can professors fail everyone?

Yes, a professor can fail an entire class if it is warranted and truly deserving. If the professor is following their grading scale, then an entire class can certainly fail. But it doesn’t mean it wouldn’t be challenged.

For example, a university professor failed his entire class because of personal reasons. He said that the students weren’t worthy of graduating and didn’t think they deserved it.

The college did say that they were reevaluating the grades and if students didn’t earn a passing grade academically then they wouldn’t pass, but if someone made the grades then they would pass.

Obviously, this is not common, and the professor just had enough with the students despite a few of them doing okay in the course.

It doesn’t make it right though. It shouldn’t be up to a professor if a student fails just because they don’t think they deserve it because of behavioral problems as it shouldn’t be entirely subjective.

If they have the grades to pass, then they should pass.

However, just know that a professor could fail their whole class if they truly failed academically.

But not just because they wanted to.

And eventually, the college is going to start looking into a professor that fails everyone because they want their students to complete their programs.

Why?

Because in some states, colleges only receive funding if the student completes the program. It isn’t enough to just have them sitting in the seat. They have to get them to graduate.

If a professor is continually failing all their students, or a large majority of their students, someone is going to start investigating because it could hurt their bottom line.

It isn’t in the college’s interest to fail students unless they are truly underperforming.

Why do professors fail students?

Professors will fail students if the student doesn’t make a passing grade based on the course’s outlined method of evaluation.

To simply put it, if a student doesn’t do the work, the professor isn’t going to pass them.

Bottom line, professors don’t fail students, students fail themselves.

Now, I can see a few instances where a student might argue that a professor is intentionally trying to fail them, and it could be true, but in most situations, students earn their grades.

Now, why does it happen?

A professor has one job to do. They must make sure students meet the course’s objectives and learning outcomes.

If students don’t do this, then the professor shouldn’t pass them.

These course objectives and learning outcomes are usually measured by assessments (i.e. tests, research papers, etc).

If a student doesn’t perform well on those assessments, they might fail.

If you want to learn more about why professors like failing students, read about that here.

Why do professors take pride in failing students?

Professors may take pride in failing college students because don’t want students to get a grade that they didn’t earn so that the college awards only highly qualified students with degrees.

A professor might be teaching students that are in a highly selective program and only the BEST are meant to survive. 

You wouldn’t want to pass students who aren’t top performers because they could end up being in a career that requires excellence. 

For example, if you were going to a dentist, you wouldn’t want to go to one who didn’t really earn their degree. If a professor passes students when they aren’t deserving, they are going to end up in a profession that they shouldn’t otherwise be in.

There must be a gatekeeper for some professions.

But I don’t believe that most professors take pride in failing students because they would rather produce successful students instead.

However, most professors have probably failed lots of students before unless they aren’t being a rigorous professor.

Do professors enjoy failing students? 

Professors might enjoy failing students if the student truly deserves to fail because why would a professor want a student who didn’t learn the material to get a passing grade?

This could really hurt the workforce later. Especially if they need the course for their career.

When I was in college, I hate to admit that I failed all my classes my first semester.

At the very end of the semester, I tried to start making things right again by asking my professors if I could make up the missing work.

They all declined my requests and despite my last-ditch efforts to pass, I failed every single course.

It was all my fault. I missed entirely too many classes.

It was a learning experience though.

After that, I never failed another class.

So, if you are in a situation where you are going to fail a class or did fail a class, just know that you can make this a positive experience. 

I am glad that my professors didn’t pass me because I didn’t learn the material and I needed to take the course again. I did not end up taking the class with the same professor though, and when I retook them, I made all As.

I don’t think my professors liked failing me, but they knew I needed to master the content and I was too far behind to do that.

When I was a professor, I always felt a little sad to see people failing my classes. I definitely assigned my fair share of Fs in my classes throughout the years. And when I did assign those bad grades, I did wonder what I could have done differently.

Sometimes there is nothing professors can do though, but we try to do better the next time to prevent students from failing our courses, if we can.

When is it the professor’s fault when students fail? 

It might be the professor’s fault when students fail if the professor failed to assess their knowledge with effective measurements or didn’t teach well.

Let’s be honest, some professors aren’t good teachers. They may pull in grants for their university and be amazing researchers, but they can’t get a point across.

For example, I had a professor in undergrad who talk all about their research and specifically talked about one project he worked on in another country.

He talked about it so much that he neglected all the material. And then he would put videos on and leave the classroom.

And then when the test would come around, the class knew none of the material on the exam because he didn’t teach it.

It was unfair grading because how can students prepare for the assessments if the professor literally never teaches anything that is going to be on the exam.

I made a C in the class, and I am not sure how I pulled it off.

So, in this uncommon instance, this professor was responsible for the students’ performance.

In most other situations, the blame is on the student.

Another instance when professors could hold some responsibility for students failing their course is when they don’t make good assessments.

Professors aren’t always great at making their assessments match the material either. A lot of professors use publisher materials to assess their students’ performance instead of making their own.

And if they don’t go off the book, then the student might not be prepared for the tests.

Either way, blame can certainly go in both directions and professors can be responsible for their students failing.

And if the professor is failing students for personal reasons, the college may take a better look.

What happens if an entire class fails?

If an entire class fails, students would likely challenge their grades and the university will investigate the legitimacy of the failures.

If the investigation doesn’t reveal anything mischievous, then everybody just moves on and students will have to retake the course.

What do professors think when students fail?

When I was a professor, when students failed, I would typically think that the student wasn’t prepared for college, or they had a lot of personal struggles happening.

I also thought that some students just didn’t really care.

A lot of failures in my course happened because people didn’t turn in all their assignments. I would think that these students either weren’t ready for college or didn’t care enough. 

Occasionally I would understand their situation because they would communicate to me why they were failing but the majority of students did not talk to me about failing, which isn’t ideal.

But overall, I didn’t really think much when students failed because the semesters go by so quick and the next thing you knew, we were with brand new students in a new semester.

I didn’t have a lot of time to reflect on students who failed because it was onto the next group of students without much of a break.

However, if I saw a lot of students failing, and it was unusual, I would take a deeper look into what went wrong that semester. 

• Did I not cover a topic well enough?

• Did I grade too harshly?

• Should I have given exam reviews?

This is a time when reading my course evaluations were helpful to see where I could improve.

Do professors get in trouble if students fails? 

No, professors do not get in trouble if students fail unless they aren’t awarding grades based on academic achievement and are arbitrarily assigning grades.

Professors aren’t going to get fired if students fail.

I have never seen professors get investigated for students failing. As long as the professor is sticking to their syllabus, most colleges won’t care.

However, some universities, especially in the United States, will need to maintain their accreditation. And part of this process is ensuring improvement.

The accrediting agency is going to want to know how students are performing and if the college is helping students reach those goals.

And if they continually fall short, the administration might question to effectiveness of the professor.

Why do some professors fail a lot of students?

Some professors might fail a lot of students because they are a tough grader or have high expectations for their students. Also, the course may be difficult or they could be a bad teacher.

I always like to think that professors don’t fail students, students fail themselves.  But there might be some blame placed on the professor.

A lot of professors learn their teaching ideologies from professors they had in college.

And a student might truly have that one professor who sucks at teaching, which can obviously play a huge role in student success.

But don’t jump to conclusions and always think that a professor is the culprit here.

Professors might also fail more students than their colleagues because they teach a tough course or have a lot of freshmen in an entry level course.

These classes might just have higher failure rates than most.

As you can see, it really depends on a lot of factors.

If students are afraid to fail, they need to talk to their professors ASAP. It isn’t enough to go to tutoring or study more. The professors can really help students who aren’t doing well in the course because they probably see it all the time.

They will know how to help you start passing your class. I have an entire article that outlines what to do when you are failing.

And definitely don’t make any drastic decisions on failing or withdrawing, until you read this helpful article too.

If you want to know how to deal with a professor who is trying to fail you or did intentionally fail you, you can find out how to deal with it here as I give you realistic solutions based on REAL experience.

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