COVID-19 has imposed extreme difficulties on learning and assessments for virtually every single course at all universities.

Internationals take exams at 3 in the morning. Labs and facilities are barred to cross-zone students. Cheating and "in-class" discussion are rampant in every exam. Both professors and students feel little to no learning is taking place.

The disease has eliminated almost every link between grades and actual effort or merit this semester. Scoring in exams has become a contest of who has the best cheating network rather than who has best learned the material. Students who try to play by the rules face ridiculous odds and disadvantages: Last year's top scores under proper exam conditions are below average today. If you don't cheat, the others will.

For any student who cares about their grades, the incentive to cheat is almost overwhelming. It follows insisting on strict letter grades this semester is an insult to learning and meritocratic principles.

Other universities know this. From Stanford University to Hong Kong University, colleges in both the East and West have concluded it's necessary to allow non-letter grading this semester and even for the full academic year. The incentives and disadvantages with strict online exams are just too strong to overcome.

Because of this, it's only fair to the students trying to be honest, and the professors trying to grade by effort and learning, to remove or provide the option to remove letter grades this semester or academic year. The alternative is we encourage students to cheat and professors to be indifferent to such dishonesty.

To clarify, we mean no disrespect to the institution. We appreciate its efforts to convert courses to online and hybrid formats, and we recognise the university could not have anticipated all the problems in the current semester (we certainly didn't). We're open to alternatives should the university suggest them.