Grades and Promotion Procedures

Faculty Council delegates to the CUGS Executive the function of a “grades and promotions committee” on behalf of Faculty Council. The defined membership of CUGS Executive ensures broad representation, including student participation.

1. Department Marks and Promotion Meetings

Department “marks meetings” will be scheduled as soon as possible after term grades are submitted in such a way that it is possible for all course instructors to attend. The Undergraduate Studies office will provide an advisory set of guidelines (reviewed/maintained by the CUGS Executive) for the conduct of marks meetings to each department head in advance of those meetings, together with the summary statistics for each of the past five years for all courses taken by students in that department in that semester.

1.1 Grade Distributions and Grades:

Each department will examine the grade distributions for the compulsory and technical elective courses in its major(s), identify any anomalies, note any explanations for those anomalies, and make recommendations to avoid such anomalies in the future as appropriate. This information will be forwarded to the CUGS Executive. The department will make a recommendation on acceptance of grades which it will also forward to the CUGS Executive.

1.2 Promotion Recommendations:

Each department will consider the marks for all students in its major(s), in the presence of all available instructors. The Chair should have a detailed marks breakdown from any instructor who is absent. The meeting verifies the list of students who earn clear promotion under Clause 7.3.1 and the list of students who earn probationary promotion under Clause 7.3.2. If students are close to the 60.0 average, the department should consider carefully if there is any reason to consider any revision to course grades which could affect the average to bring it in line with the promotion requirements.

For students with averages below 60% the department then recommends whichever of FRn (fail, repeat term n), FRW (fail recommended to withdraw) or FQW (fail, required to withdraw) is appropriate. It may decide that a marginal student should have an interview with the department head prior to the next academic semester. The purpose of any such interview is to check that any ongoing problems that are interfering with the student’s likelihood of success are beingaddressed. The department also needs to watch for cases falling under Clauses 7.4.4 - 7.4.7 (insufficient number of work terms to be promoted into the next academic term) and Clause 7.4.9 (no required course may be attempted more than twice).

The departments forward their promotion recommendations to the CUGS Executive.

2. CUGS Executive Marks and Promotion Meeting

A CUGS Executive ‘promotion meeting’ will be scheduled as soon as possible after the department marks meetings to consider the recommendations of the department. Each department shall be represented at the meeting (preferably by the person who presided at that department meeting). A report of the promotion meeting will be made at the next full Faculty Council meeting including the mean promotion average for each major in each term.

2.1 Grade Distributions and Grades Recommendations:

The CUGS Executive will review any recommendations from the departments regarding identified grade anomalies and it may also request explanations for any anomalies that no department has identified. The CUGS Executive will then make recommendations to the Dean on acceptance of the grades as well as issues surrounding grade anomalies.

2.2 Promotion Decisions:

The CUGS Executive then confirms and approves the lists of students who earn clear promotion under Clause 7.3.1 and the lists of students who earn probationary promotion under Clause 7.3.2 for each major. It then reviews and decides on recommendations from the departments for the various categories of denial of promotion. All of the CUGS Executive decisions are taken with the delegated authority of Faculty Council and are in effect from the end of the promotion meeting. Decisions formerly handled by Executive Action will be handled by the CUGS Executive at a secondary promotion meeting.

The CUGS Executive reports to the next meeting (regular or special) of Faculty Council the numbers of students in each major in each term who are in each of the categories:

  • Clear promotion;
  • Probationary promotion;
  • Promotion denied (repeating a term);
  • Promotion denied (recommended to withdraw);
  • Promotion denied (required to withdraw);

The CUGS Executive also reports any late decisions made after the main promotion meeting.

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Note: The Admissions Committee, acting on delegated authority from Faculty Council, makes promotion decisions from Engineering One.

Previous version approved by Faculty Council on 29-09-2010 and updated on 24-11-2014