A grades are now only a few years away from becoming the most common grade awarded at New Zealand universities.

The research note, ‘Fifty Shades of Grades: Grade Compression at New Zealand Universities’, builds on the Initiative's August report, ‘Amazing Grades’, which identified a substantial rise in A grades as well as rising pass rates. This new analysis examines what has happened to all grades – not just As – revealing how the entire grading scale is shifting.

Drawing on official university records from 2006 to 2024, the analysis shows that A grades have expanded substantially while virtually every other grade has contracted. A grades temporarily overtook Bs during COVID-19 and are on track to do so permanently within the next few years.

“In August, we could show that A grades were rising,” said Dr James Kierstead, Research Fellow at the Initiative and author of the research note. “What we could not see then was what was happening across the entire grading scale. Now we know it is only A grades that are expanding. Bs and Cs are declining. That is classic grade compression.”

Key findings include:

• A grades have increased from 22% to 36% of all grades since 2006, a 64% rise
• B grades have fallen from 47% to 38%, while C grades have dropped from 20% to 17%
• New Zealand follows American trends, where A grades became the most common grade in the late 1990s, rather than the UK pattern, where the two top degree classes expanded together

“If something is not done to curb grade inflation at our universities within the next few years, As will soon be the most common grade," Dr Kierstead said. “This will put our universities in the same position as universities in the US, where rampant grade inflation has long undermined public trust in higher education. So hopefully this serves as a wake-up call for New Zealand universities.”