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It was already fairly clear by then that major employers require a 2:1.

Can someone explain what that means to me? Is this a kind of grade?

British final undergraduate degree grades are first class honours (1st), upper second class honours (2:1), lower second class honours (2:2), third class honours (3rd), or ordinary degree.

That's what you put on job application forms. We don't use a GPA.

A 1st is good. A 2:1 is fine. A 2:2 is a problem. A 3rd is a failure.

Some people use cockney rhyming slang - a 2:2 is a 'Desmond' (Desmond Tutu, two-two).

In some cases you can get a double 1st, or triple 1st, but these are very specific to your university and are about what courses you took.

And, critically, the variance varies by discipline: science subjects hand out more firsts and thirds, while humanities subjects might give two-thirds of their students two-ones. So, as a single grade it's not particularly meaningful even within a given university. There's some cross-university moderation (there are external examiners for each course from somewhere else) but that only goes so far.

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