Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences voted to curb grade inflation by limiting the number of A grades that can be awarded in undergraduate letter-graded courses, a change set to take effect in fall 2027. Harvard’s faculty cited that more than 60% of grades were in the A range in recent years and said the reform aims to make “a Harvard A grade” more meaningful to students, employers, and graduate schools. Under the approved policy, instructors will be allowed to award A grades to no more than 20% of students in a class, plus four additional A grades. Other letter grades, such as A-minus, are not subject to the cap, and faculty also approved switching internal honors and awards comparisons from GPA to average percentile rank. The decision reflects a broader elite-university pushback against grade inflation, after earlier approaches at institutions like Princeton faced criticism. Harvard’s move is also notable for its internal governance path: the vote was carried by faculty deliberation after months of debate tied to dean-level analysis of grade trends. In the near term, the policy is likely to reshape course-level incentives and student expectations about GPA outcomes as the 2027 implementation date approaches, while keeping the institution’s grading system aligned with its own stated standards.