Harvard University faculty members voted to impose a cap on A grades in undergraduate courses beginning in the fall of 2027.
The new policy at one of America’s most prestigious colleges will limit A grades to 20 per cent of the letter grades awarded in a course, with the allowance of four additional A grades, and go into effect for the academic year for 2027-28, a Harvard spokesperson confirmed to Global News on Wednesday.
Voting members answered “yes” or “no” on three separate questions related to the proposed undergraduate grading reform.
The first question involved instructors in letter-graded courses with undergraduate enrolment awarding A grades to, at most, 20 per cent of the final undergraduate course enrolment plus four, with other letter grades, including A-, not subject to a limit, with a total of 458 in favour against 201 votes.
The second question involved Harvard using an average percentile rank (APR) rather than average grade (GPA) for quantitative comparison of student performance to determine internal awards and honours. The vote passed with 498 in favour and 157 votes rejecting the idea.
The faculty rejected the third proposal, which would have allowed courses to petition the office of undergraduate education or its designee committee to opt out of the limit on A grades. It did not pass with a vote of 292 to 364.
Amanda Claybaugh, the dean of undergraduate education, said in a statement to Global News that she is “incredibly grateful to the members of the grading subcommittee for their extraordinary work.”
“For nearly a year, they dug deeply into a complex and thorny issue—grappling with a problem that many people have recognized, but no one has solved,” Claybaugh said. “The committee did not shy away from controversy, nor content themselves with half measures.”
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“Instead, they drew deep on their experience as teachers and their expertise as researchers to develop a proposal equal to the gravity of the challenge and the ambition of this institution,” Claybaugh continued.
“The faculty as a whole considered the proposal with the seriousness it deserved. Over three months, they debated premises, re-analyzed data, and considered alternatives, before determining that this was the right approach.”
Claybaugh said that she believes the vote will “strengthen the academic culture of Harvard.”
“It will also, I hope, encourage other institutions to confront similar questions with the same level of rigor and courage,” she added.
“This vote is an important step toward ensuring that our grading system better serves its central purposes: giving students meaningful feedback, recognizing genuine distinction, and sustaining the academic mission of the College.”
Members of the grading subcommittee which put forth the grading reform proposal said that the Harvard faculty voted to “make their grades mean what they say they mean.”
“For decades, grade inflation has been a collective-action problem: everyone saw it, but no one faculty member could fix it alone. The faculty have now taken a major step to fix it together,” members of the grading subcommittee said in a statement.
The subcommittee said that the approved proposal “matters to our students above all.”
“A Harvard A grade will now tell them, as well as employers and graduate schools, something real about what a student has achieved,” the subcommittee said.
“An A will once again be what Harvard’s guidelines have long said it is: a mark of extraordinary distinction. And an A- need no longer be a source of anxiety, encouraging students to explore new subjects and take intellectual risks.”
After the first three years of the implementation of the approved policies, the office of undergraduate education will present a review of the new policy to the faculty. Harvard says that the three-year review should not be taken to mean a “pilot phase.”
Any changes to the grading policy after the three years would happen through the faculty legislative process.
The move comes after a report last year warned the college’s evaluation system was “failing to perform the key functions of grading,” according to The Harvard Crimson.
The 25-page report, released by the office of undergraduate education in October 2025, found that more than 60 per cent of grades awarded to Harvard undergraduates were As, compared to only a quarter of grades two decades ago, the Crimson reports.
The report claimed that Harvard’s grading system was “damaging the academic culture of the college.”
Harvard is not the first elite university to confront grade inflation. Princeton University adopted a policy in 2004 to limit A-range grades to 35 per cent of those awarded, though it abandoned the system a decade later after criticism that it disadvantaged students in competition for jobs and graduate school admission.
In February 2026, Princeton University said that it would not alter its current grading policy despite increases in A-range grades, according to Michael Gordin, the dean of the college.
Last year, Harvard announced that it would offer free tuition to undergraduate students whose families make US$200,000 or less per year.
Free tuition for the families that qualify began in the 2025-26 academic year in a move Harvard said was to “ensure that admitted students can afford their Harvard education.”
Families that make $100,000 or less per year also qualify for free housing, food, health services and travel costs in addition to the tuition.
Each student will also receive a $2,000 startup grant in their first year, which will help pay for everyday expenses. They will also receive a $2,000 launch grant during their junior year to help support the transition beyond Harvard, helping pay for graduate school test prep or travel to job interviews.
—with a file from The Associated Press
