S.09-59

OFFICE OF THE

ASSOCIATE VICE PRESIDENT ACADEMIC AND ASSOCIATE PROVOST

MEMO

ATTENTION ?

Senate

FROM ?

Bitt Krane, Chair

Senate Committee on Under

RE ?

Letters of Permission (SCUS 09-251

DATE ?

March 10, 2009

?

-

For information:

Acting under delegated authority at its meeting of March

5,

2009, SCUS

• ?

approved the following curriculum revisions:

1. Letters of Permission

That the proposed new policy replaces the current policy in the calendar,

effective September 2009.

Any Senator wishing to consult the full report of curriculum revisions

should contact Bobbie Grant, Senate Assistant at 778.782.3168 or email

bgrant@sfu.ca

.

SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY

?

THINKING OF THE WORLD

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SCUS 09-25

FACULTY OF

ARTS AND SOCIAL SCIENCES

MEMO

TO: ?

Bill Krane, Chair

Senate Committee on Undergraduate Studies

FROM: Paul Budra, Chair

Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences Curriculum Committee

RE: ?

Letters of Permission

DATE: February 19, 2009

For the past year, the Enrolment Management Coordinating Committee (EMCC) has been

working on a new policy on Letters of Permission (LOP) to replace the current policy in the

calendar. The existing policy is very lenient and allows students to obtain approval to take courses at

another institution for a number of reasons.

Some of the justifications students use in requesting a LOP include: the course being cheaper in

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college, the college being closer to home or work, the course being easier in college, or wanting to

complete courses that come with aWQB designation in college (note: the courses most frequently

taken by our students at other institutions - mostly colleges- are lower division courses that come

with aWQB designation, either because they are easier or because the course would provide the

student with 3 units of credit plus FAL or FAN). Even though the Faculties would like to deny

requests for Letters of Permission for the reasons just stated, the current policy would not back such

action.

Student Services staff, departmental advisors and Faculty advisors spend a significant amount of time

reviewing, approving and processing Letters of Permission for students who could be taking the

very same courses at SFU. To put this into a financial context, Student Services ran a report in May

2008 showing that over the 10 semesters from 1051 through to the end of 1081 the university

approved at least 5143 Letters of Permission (Out of 5908 requests). If we assume an average of 3

credits per LOP, this represents 15,429 credits. Assuming that 8% of those credits were taken by

students paying international tuition fees and 92% taken by students paying domestic fees, this is

equivalent to lost tuition revenue over these 10 semesters of $2,790,674 and a loss of more than 1,000

ETEs. We believe that by adopting the proposed new policy on Letters of Permission, we will be

able to keep our students at SFU taking our courses, thereby increasing enrolments and ensuring

that SFU students graduate with a degree that maintains a level of academic integrity.

Would you please place this item on the agenda of the next meeting of SCUS.

?

S

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9 ?

PROPOSED NEW POLICY: LETTERS OF PERMISSION

FROM:

Courses at Other Institutions

I

Letters of Permission

Simon Fraser University students who wish to complete academic work at other institutions for

undergraduate degree, diploma or certificate credit at this University must obtain permission in

advance from their department chair

(if

a major has been declared) and the Faculty dean.

Students in a non seeking degree program who wish to complete academic work at other

institutiens for credit must first obtain program approval into an undergraduate degree, diploma

or eertifieate program from the appropriale departhient and faculty. The appropriate form may be

obtained from Student Services. When approval has been granted, Student Serviees will issue a

Letter of Permission to the institution which the student plans to attend, if required by that

institution. A student en academic prebatien or RTW (required to withdraw) may not receive a

letter of permission to attend another university.

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TO:

Letters of Permission

Simon Fraser University students who wish to complete academic work at other

institutions for undergraduate degree, diploma or certificate credit at this University must obtain

permission in advance by appl

y ing for a Letter of Permission through Student Services. All

students considering requesting a Letter of Permission should consult an academic advisor. The

Facult y

advisor (and the department advisor if a program has been declared) will be contacted by

Student Services for approval. Students should allow 6 to 8 weeks for processing of their request.

Normally, a Letter of Permission will not be approved retroactively.

Students must have completed a minimum of 9 units at SFU and must be in good academic

standing at the time they submit their request for a Letter of Permission to Student Services.

Since standing is achieved once all grades for the term have been received, students may have to

wait until their third term at SFU to be eli g

ible to take a course elsewhere.

Permission to take a course at another institution will not be granted unless a valid academic

reason is provided - for example, taking a course in a discipline not offered at SFU, such as

Czech language. While an approved Letter of Permission guarantees that the credit will count

toward the overall credit requirement it does not guarantee that the credit will meet a specific

p

rogram requirement.

A Letter of Permission is automaticall

y

denied if a student's standing is On Academic Probation

(OAP). Continued Academic Probation (CAP) or Required to Withdraw (RTW). Courses taken

at another institution cannot be used to satisf

y

SFU' s minimum residency requirement and will

not be included in the calculation of the CGPA. Therefore, such courses cannot be used to raise

standing.

Students must achieve a

grade

of at least C (2.0 numeric equivalent) or 60% in order to receive

transfer credit for courses completed at other institutions. It is the student's responsibility to

ensure that an official transcript from the host institution is forwarded to Student Services at SFU

in order for transfer credit to be granted.

Students participating in formal exchan

g

e programs should see the "SPU International" section

of the calendar for more information.