(1) | Weighting of Term Work and Final Examinations: In each course in which a final examination is held, a weight of not less than 30 percent and not more than 70 percent will be assigned to the final examination, except where a departure from this arrangement has been authorized by the council of the Faculty in which the department offering the course is situated. The remaining weight for the course will be assigned to term work.
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(2) | Course Requirements, Evaluation Procedures and Grading: The policies set out below are intended to provide instructors and their students with general course information. GFC, in approving these guidelines, expected that there would be a common sense approach to their application and understood that circumstances might develop, during a term, where a change to the course outline, as set out in §23.4(2)a., made sense to all concerned. Such changes shall only occur with fair warning or general class consent.
 Students concerned about the application of these guidelines should consult, in turn, the instructor, the chair of the department by which the course is offered, and the dean of the faculty in which the course is offered.
a. | At the beginning of each course, instructors are required by GFC to provide a course outline which must include the following:
i. | a statement of the course objectives and general content
| ii. | a list of the required textbooks and other major course materials
| iii. | a list of any other course fees as described in the 'Student Instructional Support Fees Policy' and their associated costs
| iv. | an indication of how and when students have access to the instructor
| v. | the distribution of weight between term work and final examination
| vi. | identification of all course activities worth 10% or more of the overall course mark
| vii. | whether marks are given for class participation and other in-class activities as well as the weight of such participation
| viii. | dates of any examination and course assignments with a weight of 10% or more of the overall course mark
| ix. | the manner in which the official University grading system is to be implemented in that particular course or section, i.e., whether a particular distribution is to be used to determine grades, or whether there are absolute measures or marks which will determine them, or whether a combination of the two will be used. Instructors should refer to the University of Alberta Marking and Grading Guidelines.
| x. | an indication of how students will be given access to past or representative evaluative course material.
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| b. | Every course outline should contain the following statement: "Policy about course outlines can be found in §23.4(2) of the University Calendar."
| c. | Every course outline should contain the following statement: "The University of Alberta is committed to the highest standards of academic integrity and honesty. Students are expected to be familiar with these standards regarding academic honesty and to uphold the policies of the University in this respect. Students are particularly urged to familiarize themselves with the provisions of the Code of Student Behaviour (online at www.governance.ualberta.ca) and avoid any behaviour which could potentially result in suspicions of cheating, plagiarism, misrepresentation of facts and/or participation in an offence. Academic dishonesty is a serious offence and can result in suspension or expulsion from the University."
| d. | Nothing in any course outline, syllabus or course web-site may override or contravene any Calendar regulation or GFC policy. In resolving any discrepancy, GFC policy and Calendar regulations will take precedence.
| e. | Instructors may indicate in the course outline the date, time and place on which the deferred examination for the course will occur, should one be required. See §23.5.6.
| f. | Instructors should discuss with the class their expectations with respect to academic honesty issues and outline both permitted and prohibited behaviour.
| g. | Instructors must follow copyright regulations as established by the University from time to time in the duplication of course material.
| h. | Instructors should allow students a reasonable time in which to complete an assignment, bearing in mind its weight.
| i. | Instructors should mark and return to students with reasonable dispatch all term examinations and, provided the students submit them by the due date, all course projects, assignments, essays, etc.
| j. | All projects, assignments, essays, etc., should be returned on or by the last day of classes in the course, with the exception of a final major assignment (which may be due on the last day of classes), which should be returned by the date of the scheduled final examination or, in non-examination courses, by the last day of the examination period.
| k. | Upon request, instructors are required to provide the method which was used to translate final and, where appropriate, term marks into grades.
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(3) | Procedures for Registering Complaints about Marking, Grading, and Related Issues:
a. | Where the above guidelines have not been followed or where students have concerns about the instructor’s teaching, the student should make the concern known to the appropriate individual in the following sequence:
i. | Instructor
| ii. | Chair of the department in which the course is taught
| iii. | Dean of the Faculty in which the course is taught (some Faculties have delegated this authority to departments)
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| b. | A student needing advice on these matters should see the student advisors in the Office of the Dean of Students.
| c. | These procedures do not constitute a mechanism for appeals and grievances regarding the academic standing or individual grades of a student. Appeals and grievances of that nature are dealt with in §23.8 of the Calendar.
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(4) | Assigning Grades: Grades reflect judgements of student achievement made by instructors. These judgements are based on a combination of absolute achievement and relative performance in a class. The instructor should mark in terms of raw scores, rank the assignments in order of merit, and, with due attention to the verbal descriptions of the various grades, assign an appropriate letter grade to each assignment.
Course Grades Obtained by Undergraduate Students:
| Descriptor
| Letter Grade
| Grade Point Value
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| A+
| 4.0
| Excellent
| A
| 4.0
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| A-
| 3.7
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| B+
| 3.3
| Good
| B
| 3.0
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| B-
| 2.7
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| C+
| 2.3
| Satisfactory
| C
| 2.0
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| C-
| 1.7
| Poor
| D+
| 1.3
| Minimal Pass
| D
| 1.0
| Failure
| F or F4
| 0.0
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Note: F4 denotes eligibility of a student to apply for a reexamination of a course.
Course Grades Obtained by Graduate Students:
| Descriptor
| Letter Grade
| Grade Point Value
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| A+
| 4.0
| Excellent
| A
| 4.0
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| A-
| 3.7
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| B+
| 3.3
| Good
| B
| 3.0
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| B-
| 2.7
| Satisfactory
| C+
| 2.3
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| C
| 2.0
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| C-
| 1.7
| Failure
| D+
| 1.3
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| D
| 1.0
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| F
| 0.0
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(5) | In addition to the grades described above, the University of Alberta currently records the following grades and remarks:
Final Grades
| AE
| aegrotat standing
| AU
| registered as an auditor
| AW
| registered as an auditor and withdrew
| CR
| completed requirements, no grade point value assigned
| EX
| exempt
| IN
| incomplete
| IP
| course in progress
| IP*
| withdrew from or failed course in progress
| NC
| failure, no grade point value assigned
| W
| withdrew with permission
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Remarks
| 1 | grade includes a mark of ‘0’ for final examination missed, or for term work missed, or both
| 2 | grade includes a mark of ‘0’ for final examination missed, or for term work missed, or both, and deferred final examination granted
| 3 | credit withheld
| 4 | reexamination granted
| 5 | failure (assigned to failing Graduate Student grades only)
| 6 | failure, grade includes a mark of ‘0’ for final examination missed, or for term work missed, or both (assigned to failing Graduate Student grades only)
| 7 | failure, grade includes a mark of ‘0’ for final examination missed, or for term work missed, or both, and deferred final examination granted (assigned to failing Graduate Student grades only)
| 8 | disciplinary sanction for serious instances of inappropriate academic behavior
| 9 | failure, disciplinary sanction for serious instances of inappropriate academic behavior (assigned in the same circumstances as the remark of 8 but to failing Graduate Student grades only)
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(6) | Grade Point Average (GPA): All courses have been assigned an appropriate weighting factor, which along with a student’s grade point values, enables the Registrar’s Office or the Dean’s office to compute the Grade Point Average.
The Grade Point Average (GPA) is a measure of a student’s weighted average, obtained by dividing the total number of grade points earned by the total units of course weight attempted.
Rules for Computing the GPA
a. | The GPA for any period is based on the final grades, including failing grades in all courses taken during a specified period.
| b. | GPAs are calculated according to the following formula: GPA = sum of [grade point value x units of course weight] sum of units of course weight
GPA = sum of [grade point value x units of course weight]
sum of units of course weight
| c. | A reexamination mark or a deferred examination mark replaces the original final examination mark. The revised final grade is included in the computation of the GPA.
| d. | When a student has a deferred, incomplete or a missing grade, the GPA is not computed until a final grade is reported.
| e. | Grades of IN5 are counted as numeric grades of 0.00 in the computation of any GPA.
| f. | Grades of W (withdrew) are excluded from the computation of the GPA.
| g. | Grades of CR and NC are not included in the computation of any GPA.
| h. | Any GPA is rounded to the nearest decimal place using standard rounding rules – that is it is rounded up with a value of 5 or greater in the first nonsignificant place and rounded down with a value of 4 or less in the first nonsignificant place
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Types of Grade Point Averages: Faculties may use different averages for various decisions regarding academic standing, promotions, and graduation, as long as these have been approved by General Faculties Council. Such averages are descriptively labelled.
a. | Admission Grade Point Averages (AGPA) see §14.2.1.
| b. | Fall/Winter and/or Spring/Summer Grade Point Averages are reported on transcripts and is used by most Faculties to determine academic standing.
| c. | Term Grade Point Average may be calculated at the end of Fall, Winter, Spring or Summer, and used to determine eligibility for reexamination (see §23.5.5).
| d. | Promotion and Graduation Grade Point Averages are Faculty specific and are defined in the Faculty sections of the Calendar.
| e. | Faculty Grade Point Average (FGPA): The Faculty Grade Point Average (FGPA) is a cumulative measure of a student’s grade points obtained while registered in a Faculty in all years and terms, including Spring/Summer. FGPA is a weighted average obtained by dividing the total grade points earned by the total units of course weight attempted. The FGPA is currently used by the Faculty of Arts.
Rules for Computing the FGPA
| i. | The rules related to calculation of GPA [see §23.4(6)] also apply to the calculation of FGPA.
| ii. | The initial assessment and any subsequent reassessment of academic standing using FGPA is based on a student’s performance in a minimum of nine units of course weight ( 9). If, at the time of review, the student has attempted less than 9 since the last assessment while registered in the Faculty, the assessment will be deferred until the next assessment period.
| iii. | Assessments are performed at the end of a student’s registration in Fall/Winter (or at the end of a student’s program) and are based upon the final grades in all courses taken in that and prior periods while registered in the Faculty. At the discretion of the faculty an assessment may also be performed at the end of a student’s registration in Spring/Summer.
| iv. | If a student is required to withdraw and subsequently allowed to continue (after a successful appeal or after successfully completing required work at another institution) the FGPA will be calculated from the term in which readmission or continuation is granted, not from the time of first admission into the Faculty. Such a restart of FGPA will be allowed only once for any student in a Faculty.
| v. | Students continuing in a Faculty following a restarted FGPA as described above must thereafter maintain a minimum FGPA of 2.0.
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(7) | Aegrotat Standing: Aegrotat standing may be granted, in special circumstances, on the grounds of illness to deserving students who have completed at least one year at the University of Alberta in the Faculty in which they are currently registered. Any student wishing to take advantage of this privilege should apply without delay to the dean of the Faculty concerned. Any other student absent from a final examination because of illness may apply for permission to write the regular deferred examination.
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(8) | Competence in Written Work: General Faculties Council urges all instructors of University undergraduate courses to provide that suitable portions of course testing or other course work should be in the form of written essay responses and to emphasize to students that competence in written work is integral to competence in a subject and will constitute part of the basis on which the student’s course grade is determined.
All instructors should make clear at the outset of each course their expectations in regard to the standard and importance of writing in assignments and examinations. Refer to §24.16 for information on Effective Writing Resources.
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(9) | Official Grades: Student grades are unofficial until they have been approved by the appropriate Faculty Council at the end of Fall/Winter or Spring/Summer. Prior to approval by Faculty Council, unofficial grades are reported on transcripts and so noted. Students can generally expect that official grades will be available in early June for Fall/Winter, and early September for Spring/Summer. Students obtain their Statement of Results on Bear Tracks (https://www.beartracks.ualberta.ca) following the approval of grades.
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