Sir

As your Editorial notes (Nature 431, 723; 200410.1038/431723b), grade inflation is indeed real in the United States, and not only at private institutions. The evidence isn't anecdotal: the data (see http://www.gradeinflation.com) show that grade inflation is omnipresent at community colleges and at both public and private four-year schools.

Your solutions to this problem could be easily implemented. However, getting things turned around would require university leaders willing to buck the ‘keep the customer happy’ ethos on US campuses. Unfortunately, such leaders are few and far between. Grade inflation is a symptom of an overarching problem in higher education: a failure of university leadership to have the courage to preserve the integrity of US higher education.