A Harvard degree may mean more with a `B': university adopts new grade system - Update

University Business, June, 2002 by Tim Goral

Harvard University hopes to let the air out of grade inflation charges with a new grading scale and tougher requirements for honors.

Last fall, the school revealed that a record 91 percent of its students graduated with some form of honors. Critics claimed that awarding so many honors detracted from the value of a Harvard degree. So university faculty unanimously adopted a new 40 grading system in May, which will dramatically reduce the number of honors awarded.

Under the new plan, to go into effect with the class of 2005, a cum laude recognition will require a grade between B-plus and A-minus, instead of the B-minus now required.

Dean of Undergraduate Education Susan Pedersen estimates that five times the students will graduate without honors, once the change takes effect--and, ultimately, that may be a good thing.

"A Harvard degree is a good degree, but it's better if a plain degree, without honors, is seen as a significant category in itself," she told the Boston Globe.