University of Michigan to HIDE grades from students and scrub them from transcripts due to a 'mental health crisis'

The University of Michigan's College of Literature, Science and the Arts (LSA) is set to hide grades to 'curb the mental health crisis unfolding among college-aged individuals'.

Incoming freshman students in their first semester will instead have a pass/no credit system for what the LSA, the largest of the university's 19 colleges, said would help 'establish early momentum'.

Under the new grading system beginning in fall of 2027, Michigan university freshman will continue receiving grades and feedback from their classes and assignments, but final letter grades will remain scrubbed from their external transcripts. 

The pilot program would also exclude those first-semester grades from the student's grade point average (GPA), the university announced. 

LSA's change to its grading system is in an attempt to help 'foster an environment where college students can acclimate to the demands of a University of Michigan education and pursue new academic challenges,' the university said. 

'Helping all students establish early momentum has been recognized as the most important element in U-M’s campus-wide Student Success Initiative,' LSA said. 

'We believe that covering grades will help students start strong and curb the mental health crisis unfolding among college-aged individuals.'

The program hopes to help incoming students 'acclimate to the demands of college and allow intrinsic motivations to guide personally meaningful academic journeys,' according to LSA. 

'LSA is investing in students’ well-being and growth by fostering a culture of connection and collaboration - rather than competition,' the university said. 

According to the release, the university will continue to retain internal records of grades for 'compliance, academic advising, potential academic awards and scholarships' and for students to use when applying for internships, majors outside of LSA and other professional or academic opportunities. 

'Beginning in their second semester, LSA students’ grades will be recorded in their transcripts and reflected in their GPAs for all subsequent semesters they are enrolled at U-M,' the university added. 

LSA sees more than 18,000 students enrolled in some of the university's largest majors, including economics and computer science  

The program was also adopted by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1968 and has since been implemented at the California Institute of Technology, Swarthmore College and Wellesley College. 

MIT claimed that the grading system 'is designed to ease your transition to MIT by giving you time to adjust to factors like increased workloads and variations in academic preparation and teaching methods,' the university's registrar's office said. 

The Daily Mail reached out to the University of Michigan LSA for comment.