Harvard University’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences has moved to curb grade inflation by voting to make it “harder” for undergraduates to earn A grades, the university announced Wednesday. The change, which the Faculty of Arts and Sciences said was approved by a faculty vote earlier this month, is set to be implemented in the academic year beginning in 2027.
In the announcement, the faculty said it adopted the cap because top grades had become so common that they no longer reliably distinguished exceptional work. The faculty also cited university data showing that more than 60% of all grades awarded to undergraduates in recent years were in the A range, according to the faculty members who supported the measure.
Joshua Greene, a Harvard psychology professor who served on the faculty subcommittee that developed the proposal, said the reform is aimed at reducing what he called “the tyranny of the perfect transcript.” Greene said that if straight A’s become less common, students may feel freer to take risks and focus on learning rather than preserving a perfect record.
Alisha Holland, a Harvard government professor and co-chair of the faculty subcommittee, said the policy is designed to narrow the cap to A grades rather than A-minuses, in an effort to avoid a significant impact on students’ GPAs. Holland also described the change as a “pro-student reform” intended to restore meaning to Harvard transcripts, and said the decision carries broader significance as universities face growing scrutiny.
The university’s announcement included a statement from members of the faculty subcommittee proposing the changes, saying, “The Harvard faculty voted to make their grades mean what they say they mean.” The statement added that the reform would ensure that “a Harvard A grade will now tell students, as well as employers and graduate schools, something real about what a student has achieved.”
Under the approved grading policy, instructors in letter-graded courses at Harvard College will be allowed to award A grades to no more than 20% of students in a class, plus four additional students, beginning in fall 2027. Faculty also approved a separate proposal to use average percentile rank rather than GPA when comparing students for honors, prizes and awards.
A proposal that would have allowed courses to opt out of the A-grade cap by switching to a satisfactory/unsatisfactory system with a new SAT+ designation for exceptional performance failed, according to the announcement. The university said the new policies will be reviewed after three years.
Harvard’s dean of undergraduate education, Amanda Claybaugh, called grade inflation a “complex and thorny issue” and a “problem that many people have recognized, but no one has solved” in a statement Wednesday. Steven Pinker, a cognitive scientist and Harvard psychology professor who has long criticized grade inflation, said in an email to The Associated Press that he was “delighted” by the outcome, adding that professors with high standards were being punished when students and enrollments shifted away.
Critics of the change also cited concern about how student input was handled. In an emailed statement Wednesday, Harvard Undergraduate Association co-presidents Zach Berg and Daniel Zhao said they recognized concerns with the current grading system but were disappointed that student voices “have not been centered throughout the decision-making process.” They pointed to a February survey conducted by the association in which nearly 85% of roughly 800 responding undergraduates opposed the proposal to limit the share of A-range grades awarded in Harvard courses.
Outside Harvard, Northeastern University political science professor Max Abrahms applauded the decision, and former Duke University professor Stuart Rojstaczer, who has tracked grade inflation, said the change represented “a real cultural shift,” while noting it remained unclear whether other universities would adopt the policy and keep it in place long term.