(The Lion) — The grade system at Harvard University is “failing to perform the key functions of grading” and “damaging the academic culture of the College,” according to a new 25-page internal report.

“Nearly all faculty expressed serious concern,” a faculty member wrote in the report released by the Office of Undergraduate Education last week. “They perceive there to be a misalignment between the grades awarded and the quality of student work.”

More than 60% of Harvard undergraduates today receive A’s, compared with 25% of students in the early 2000s.

Dean of Undergraduate Education Amanda Claybaugh, who wrote the report, said the rise in A-grades demands a return to the “academic culture” and integrity of the historic college, Harvard student newspaper The Crimson reports.

“Our grading is too compressed and too inflated, as nearly all faculty recognize; it is also too inconsistent, as students have observed,” she wrote. “More importantly, our grading no longer performs its primary functions and is undermining our academic mission.”

The median Harvard College GPA has been an A since the academic year 2016-17, and the number of students receiving an A has risen by 20 percentage points since 2015, according to the report.

The Class of 2015 scored a median grade point average of 3.65, while the Class of 2025 averaged a 3.83 GPA at graduation.

The report found an initial grading spike during the remote-learning period of the COVID-19 pandemic. It also measured the amount of time that students dedicated to coursework outside of class, finding the hours – between 5.5 and 6.5 – have remained consistent over the past two decades while grading standards have declined.

“Workload is notoriously difficult to measure, but our data suggest that students are working as hard as they ever have — if not more,” Claybaugh wrote.

While the amount of time may not have changed, the quality and efficiency of the work has plummeted, according to many professors. Instructors say they’ve had to “trim” or “drop” assigned readings and have switched to short stories instead of novels – and yet still receive student complaints.

Claybaugh suggested this lack of hearty work may be attributable to generational media consumption and high school curriculum.

“For the past decade or so, the College has been exhorting faculty to remember that some students arrive less prepared for college than others,” she wrote. “Unsure how best to support their students, many have simply become more lenient.”

Professor of Economics David Laibson said when students scroll on their phones, they aren’t hearing his lectures and are disengaged from any potential class discussion, according to reporting from The New York Times on a separate Harvard study regarding classroom conduct.

Claybaugh also said students likely aren’t completing more time-consuming work in areas such as history, literature and social studies.

“A fair number of students in reading-intensive courses report doing lower than the average hours of work outside of class,” she wrote.

Even worse, Laibson said students are “pretending to have done the reading,” but fail to adequately contribute to class discussion.

“Consequently, the conversation in class is much less productive than it should be,” he said in The New York Times. “It’s a poor use of everyone’s time, and often there’s one student who basically carries the day.”

The earlier report on classroom conduct, released in January, said students either skip class, are glued to their screens or hesitate to share ideas for fear of social backlash. The Classroom Social Compact Committee, composed of seven faculty members, completed the study and said grade inflation permits such absence and disengagement.

“If they can get good grades without attending class, they stop,” junior Omosefe Noruwa said.

Laibson said students who skip class miss the opportunity to learn how “to engage with challenging ideas.” The committee says such disengagement further isolates students in “ideological bubbles” because they are “unwilling or unable to engage,” the Times reports.

Additionally, Harvard’s class registration system allows students to enroll in multiple classes with conflicting times. Laibson defends this practice, saying that while in-classroom learning is optimal, Harvard’s multiplicity of classes demands double-scheduling options, according to the Times.

The solutions for a return to academic prestige and classroom engagement, while more traditional, are far from radical. Some staff members have begun taking attendance, while others encourage pen and paper notetaking to avoid “digital distractions,” the Times writes.

Claybaugh recommends in-person exams – the only option for assessments two decades ago, but now, apparently, an abnormal occurrence.

“Seated exams are prudent in this age of Generative AI,” she writes. “They are also useful for encouraging students to engage with all course materials, and they tend to produce a broader distribution of grades.”

Claybaugh also suggested adding an A+ category to distinguish the excellent students from the median A students.

The committee also is considering reporting the “median grade” for every course on students’ transcripts, and integrating consistent grading expectations across different sections of the same class, The Crimson reports.

Faculty worry lowering grades could harm their student and online reviews, which could damage future job prospects, according to The Crimson. Many students also pressure professors to artificially elevate grades, Claybaugh notes.

Students claim their extracurricular activities and athletic involvements often trump their class commitments – especially since the lectures are recorded anyway.

“What makes a Harvard student a Harvard student is their engagement in extracurriculars,” freshman Peyton White told The Crimson. “Now we have to throw that all away and pursue just academics. I believe that attacks the very notion of what Harvard is.”

While only 3% of applicants are admitted to Harvard, current students express emotional outrage at the faculty’s suggestion that grading standards could improve, grousing that such an idea is “soul-crushing.”

“The whole entire day, I was crying,” freshman Sophie Chumburidze told The Crimson. “I skipped classes on Monday, and I was just sobbing in bed because I felt like I try so hard in my classes, and my grades aren’t even the best.”

Freshman Kayta A. Aronson said raising performance expectations could harm students’ mental health.

“It makes me rethink my decision to come to the school,” she said. “I killed myself all throughout high school to try and get into this school. I was looking forward to being fulfilled by my studies now, rather than being killed by them.”