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Reports focus too much on over-giving A grades ‘when the inflation of an F to a D or a D to a C is the bigger concern,’ University of Utah professor says
Harvard’s recent grade inflation controversy has renewed concerns about how many students are receiving top marks. But some professors say the deeper problem in higher education isn’t just inflated A’s — it’s the quiet disappearance of failing grades.
Hollis Robbins, a former dean and professor of English at the University of Utah, told The College Fix the larger problem may be what happens to low grades before they ever appear on a transcript.
Robbins said she hears “from professors and lecturers across the country that they are under pressure from deans not to fail students who are at risk.”
In a post on X responding to a report about sinking academic standards, Robbins wrote that “universities will not let professors fail any students because they’ll lose tuition dollars.”
University of Utah
When she was a dean at Sonoma State University, she told The Fix that she noticed “the resources being marshaled to identify students ‘at risk of failing’ and prevent the failure.”
“While there are certainly good and socially responsible reasons for supporting students at risk of failing at public institutions, when the taxpayer is subsidizing the education, I have long seen the pressure put on faculty members not to give a student an F, even if the student deserved it,” Robbins told The Fix via email.
Her comments come amid concerns about grading standards, especially at elite universities. In November, The Fix highlighted a 25-page report from Harvard’s Office of Undergraduate Education warning that the university’s grading system is “damaging the academic culture of the College.” According to that report, 60 percent of undergraduate grades are now A’s.
Concerns about grade inflation are not limited to the Ivy League. At Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania, recently released data shows “a 0.15 point increase in the mean grade given in courses across all three of the college’s academic divisions” over the past 20 years, according to student newspaper The Phoenix.
Robbins said faculty are often nudged toward alternatives that keep failing grades off the books.
“Allow the student to ‘withdraw’ from the class instead,” she told The Fix. “Faculty are told repeatedly that the failure of a student is the faculty’s failure.”
She tied that pressure to rankings and retention.
“Universities are ranked by ‘graduation rate’ and ‘retention rate’ so every student who fails lowers the ranking of the university,” Robbins said, adding that “the pressure on faculty takes the form of constant reminders that any student failure puts the entire college or university at risk of a loss of ranking and prestige.”
Robbins also said the issue extends beyond elite grade inflation stories. “Most higher ed journalists are spending way too much time on grade inflation at the top (too many As) when the inflation of an F to a D or a D to a C is the bigger concern,” she said.
She pointed to DFW rates, or students who earn a D, an F, or withdraw.
“Universities usually flag courses with high DFW rates — students who earn a D or an F or withdraw from the course,” Robbins said. “Faculty who teach courses with high DFW rates are often brought in to an administrator’s office for a stern talking to.”
Robbins was not alone in raising that concern, as other professors and scholars on X also described administrative pressure, grading floors, or professional costs tied to giving failing grades.
However, some scholars said the opposite, including University of Washington economics Professor Jason Kerwin.
“This is overstated—I’m a college professor, and I fail students sometimes,” Kerwin wrote in a post on X responding to Robbins’ initial comment.
In an email to The College Fix, he elaborated, “I have personally given out failing grades in the past, and the university has never interfered when I have done so.”
Kerwin added, “I have always had discretion to assign grades based on my expert judgment of student performance, and never encountered any interference from campus or department administrators over the grades I assign.”
He said tenure can help protect that discretion. “An advantage of the tenure system is that it insulates faculty from this kind of pressure,” he told The Fix.
Still, he acknowledged that some pressures can shape grades indirectly. Both his and Robbins’ comments suggest the issue is less about a formal ban on failing grades than about the incentives surrounding them.
“One incentive that shapes grades is the pressure to maintain course enrollments,” he said. “If certain courses or majors develop a reputation for giving out lower grades or failing many students, their enrollments may drop as students switch to easier majors.”
Harvard’s grade inflation report attracted widespread criticism and, in February, resulted in a faculty committee proposing a 20 percent cap on A grades.
However, there has been pushback from some students, as the Wall Street Journal recently noted. And a faculty vote on the matter, initially slated for earlier this month, was postponed “to at least May to allow for extended discussion,” according to the Harvard Crimson.
The College Fix reached out to Harvard’s media relations office three times for comment over the past couple weeks, asking for more details about the grade inflation issue, including data on the number of failing grades students receive, but did not receive a response.
MORE: Study finds grade inflation is a problem in grad schools, too
