Analysis of two decades of student data at a large U.S. university suggests that grade inflation exists in graduate education. Vivien Lee and colleagues at the University of Minnesota, U.S., present these findings in the open-access journal PLOS One on March 25, 2026.
Grade inflation is a phenomenon in which grades for academic courses increase for reasons other than improved student ability or work quality, resulting in higher GPAs and higher proportions of top grades. Numerous factors may contribute to grade inflation, such as pressure on instructors to keep students happy or grading policies to attract students to certain fields. Grade inflation has been detected and studied in many high school and undergraduate settings around the world. However, few studies have investigated grade inflation at the graduate level.
To address that gap, Lee and colleagues analyzed data on students admitted to graduate programs at a large U.S. Midwestern university from 1999 to 2022, covering 40,516 students across 75 different master’s and 78 doctoral programs. The researchers used students’ scores on the GRE—a standardized test for graduate admissions—to statistically account for any grade increases that could be explained by changes in admitted students’ abilities.
The analysis revealed grade inflation in both master’s and doctoral programs, even after accounting for students’ GRE scores, sex, and ethnicity. Importantly, the trend of grade inflation appeared to be non-linear and the magnitude of grade inflation was significantly different across academic programs. Grade inflation was stronger on average in master’s versus doctoral programs.
Grade inflation was especially pronounced among students admitted to graduate programs in nearly all fields between 2017 and 2020, possibly due to changes in grading and instruction that occurred during the Covid-19 pandemic. However, between 1999 and 2016, grades actually trended downwards in certain fields, bucking the overall trend. No overall difference in grade inflation trends was seen for STEM versus non-STEM programs, at either the master’s or doctoral level.
These findings could have implications for employment, admissions, and merit-based funding decisions that depend on graduate student grades. The authors note that this study is preliminary, and further research is needed to clarify the extent and drivers of graduate grade inflation.
The authors add: "We know a lot about grade inflation at the undergraduate level but know little about the graduate level. We obtained a large and rare database: information on over 40,000 graduate students across a 23-year time period. Our core finding is that grade inflation is present at the graduate level and thus is not a phenomenon limited to undergraduate education."
In your coverage, please use this URL to provide access to the freely available article in PLOS One : https://plos.io/4lrhHqo
Citation: Lee V, Kuncel NR, Sackett PR (2026) Graduate grade inflation at a U.S. research-intensive university: A 22-year longitudinal analysis. PLoS One 21(3): e0341315. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0341315
Author countries: U.S.
Funding: This research was supported by a grant from the Institute of Mental Chronometry to the University of Minnesota, PRS and NRK principal investigators. The funding agency had no role in study design, data collection, analysis, preparation of the manuscript, or decision to publish.
PLOS One
Observational study
People
Graduate grade inflation at a U.S. research-intensive university: A 22-year longitudinal analysis
25-Mar-2026
The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.