EDITORS' CORNER
Two thirds of faculty vote to approve cap on A grades for undergrads
Harvard University faculty gave an emphatic “yes” to capping A grades in a vote Wednesday amid concerns about grade inflation and academic rigor at the prestigious institution.
Approximately 70 percent voted to approve the 20-percent cap on As in undergraduate courses, The Crimson, Harvard’s student newspaper, reports. Nearly 700 professors participated in the vote. The measure will go into effect in the fall of 2027.
Harvard psychology Professor Steven Pinker praised the decision in an X post Wednesday, calling it “a big step in combatting the grade inflation that has been dumbing down our courses, conveying the wrong message to students, and making universities a national laughingstock.”
Another professor, political scientist Max Abrams at Northeastern University noted the impact of the decision on other higher education institutions.
Other scholars called for their Ivy League institutions to follow Harvard’s lead.
Along with limiting As, the faculty also approved a measure by a large majority “to use average percentile rankings, rather than GPA, to determine internal awards and honors,” according to The Crimson.
A third measure within the proposal did not pass. It would have allowed professors “to petition to opt out of the A cap” if the grading for their course is on an “unsatisfactory, satisfactory, and satisfactory-plus basis,” the report states:
When the proposal was first introduced in February, its architects pitched the A cap and percentile-ranking system as paired reforms: the ranking system would prevent students from avoiding larger or more difficult courses in search of better grades under the cap.
After pushback, the subcommittee separated the measures into distinct votes, delayed implementation by a year to fall 2027, and added a “satisfactory-plus” designation for courses that chose to opt out of the system.
In the weeks before the vote, some faculty also pushed for a more complicated alternative to the“20 percent plus four” formula that would have tightened limits in smaller courses. But that amendment failed to make it onto the final ballot after faculty favored the original formula in a preliminary poll.
All three proposals came from a Harvard faculty committee in response to a report that found 60 percent of all undergraduate grades are now As – a 35 percent increase compared to 20 years ago.
In a statement after the vote Wednesday, the committee said the change will help restore integrity to the institution.
“This matters for our students above all,” they stated. “A Harvard A grade will now tell them, as well as employers and graduate schools, something real about what a student has achieved. An A will once again be what Harvard’s guidelines have long said it is: a mark of extraordinary distinction.”
Despite widespread concerns about grade inflation, Harvard students overwhelmingly opposed the cap, American Council of Trustees and Alumni fellow Steve McGuire pointed out on X.
One petition launched by a freshman claimed that the grading reforms would be “racially harmful,” The College Fix reported in April.
Concerns about grade inflation have arisen at other institutions as well, including Yale and Columbia universities and Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania. Additionally, some professors say they are under pressure not to fail students.
MORE: It’s ‘racially harmful’ to reform grade inflation at Harvard, student petition argues
