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S.00-105

SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY?

Memorandum

To: ?

From: ?

Date: ?

Subject: ?

Motion on Proposed Residency Requirements, SCUS 00-24

Action undertaken by the Senate Committee on Undergraduate Studies at a meeting held

October 24, 2000 gives rise to the following motion:

"that Senate approve the proposed residency requirements as set forth in S.00-105"

Rationale

The current regulations regarding transfer credit are problematic for a number of reasons,

in particular in those instances where the admitted student has in excess of the 60 credit

hours allowed. The issues arising from this circumstance could be better addressed by

stating our minimum requirements as residency requirements, and stipulating the

minimum lower and upper division credit hours the student would be required to

complete at SFU for each credential. This proposal would provide a unified approach

that simplifies the current transfer credit system including a prerequisite check for

registration, and makes explicit the minimum requirements for course work completion at

SFU.

See attached documentation for further details.

SCUSQO-24

•

Simon Fraser University

Dean of Student Services & Registrar

tel 291-4176; fax 291-5732; email heath@sfu.ca

Memorandum

To: ?

SCUS

From: Ron Heath

Dean of Student Services & Registrar

Subject: Residency Requirements -

REVISED

Date: February

22,

2000

The current regulations specify the amount of transfer credit that can be awarded to a

student towards the degree or credential requirements (in most cases, this is limited to a

total of 60 credit hours, including a maximum of 15 credit hours at the upper division).

The BASc (Engineering Science) and BGS are separate examples with specific other defined

limits on the amount of transfer credit earned elsewhere that can be counted towards an

SFU credential. Since the maximum amount of allowed transfer credit is stipulated, one

can then calculate what the minimum SF0 component of a degree (or credential) should

be.

This approach is problematic for a number of reasons but most particularly in those

instances where the student who is admitted has in excess of the 60 credit hours allowed.

In Admissions, an evaluation is made of the student record and 60 credit hours are

selected, usually with an attempt to correlate as much as possible the credential aspiration

with the specific credit hours selected. However, if the student decides to change that

objective, a reassessment is requested to adjust the credit hours awarded to correlate more

closely with the new objective. However, since some course equivalencies will be not

recorded as transfer credit, the student may be disadvantaged during the registration

process unless he/she visits a department to ask for a waiver of a prerequisite. This would

not be necessary if all credit equivalencies were noted on the student record and creates

extra work for department and registrar personnel.

Since the apparent effect of the limit on transfer credit at one half of the requirements for a

120

credit hour degree is to require the student to do at least 60 credit hours at SFU, the

problems outlined above could be better addressed by stating our minimum requirements

as residency requirements. A further restriction pertains to the maximum amount of

upper division transfer credit that may be awarded. Since the maximum upper division

credit that can be transferred is set at 15 credit hours and since the usual upper division

minimum required for a degree is in the order of 45

the minimum upper division credit

hours the student would be required to complete at SFU would be stipulated for each

credential. Section 1 below addresses the basic residency requirement; section

addresses

the upper division requirements for the various credentials.

•

SECTION 1— BASIC RESIDENCY REQUIREMENT-FIRST UNDERGRADUATE DEGREE

order to qualify for a credential from Simon Fraser University, the student must

complete at least 50% of the credit hour requirements for the credential through credits in

SFU courses.

It is recognized that the current requirements for the BGS and the B.Ed allow some further

amount of transfer credit under specific conditions and it is assumed that these would

continue but that they would be re-stated to conform to this new statement of principle.

The additional credit provisions approved by Senate to allow for participation in Formal

Exchange Programs would continue to apply.

This proposal does allow some additional credit to be awarded to those students who

undertake an Honors Degree from SF0. The principle suggested by the proposed wording

would require that a student complete at least 66 credit hours at SF0 in order to qualify for

an Honors Degree. Currently students in Honors Programs must complete at least 72

credit hours at SF0.

Students in the BASc program would be required to complete one half of their program

requirements at SFU and this is consistent with the current policies which stipulate that

students in the BASc program may transfer up to 80 credit hours.

SECTION

2—

BASIC RESIDENCY REQUIREMENT-SECOND OR SUBSEQUENT

UNDERGRADUATE DEGREE

Under the current regulations, students who already hold one degree and wish to earn a

second undergraduate degree normally are required to complete a minimum of 60 credit

hours for the general degree and 72 hours for an honors degree. In other words, they are

'given credit' for up to 60 credit hours towards the second degree, similar to the maximum

transfer credit allowed for first-degree students.

Under this proposal, the student who already holds a first undergraduate degree and who

wishes to qualify for a second undergraduate degree would be required to complete at SRi

a minimum of 50% of the total stipulated requirements for the degree being sought as a

second degree: specifically;

•

a student pursuing a degree that requires a minimum of 120 credit hours would be

required to complete a minimum of 60 credit hours at SFU;

•

a student pursuing an honors degree that requires a minimum of 132 credit hours

would be required to complete a minimum of 66 credit hours at SF0;

• a student intending to complete a BASc degree as the second degree would be

required to complete a minimum of 80 credit hours at SFU.

The upper division requirements set out below would also apply.

The minimum is stated since an individual student may require more than the minimum

in order to satisfy the required and prerequisite courses for the second credential.

SECTION 3—

BASIC RESIDENCY REQUIREMENT-CERTIFICATES

Student wishing to qualify for a certificate normally would be required to complete at least

one half of the requirements for the credential through study at SFU; the requirements for

certificates may vary but the principle of 50% to be completed at SFU would apply for each

certificate. In special circumstances, a certificate may be proposed that allows for fewer or

more that the 50% minimum; such proposals would require approval by

SCUS, and the

Senate.

SECTION 4— BASIC RESIDENCY REQUIREMENT-POST BACCALAUREATE DIPLOMA

The

Post Baccalaureate Diploma is regarded as an exception since the majority, if not all, of

the course requirements are at the Upper Division/ graduate level. Consequently, in order

to qualify for a Post Baccalaureate Diploma, the student normally would be required to

complete two-thirds of the requirements for this credential at SFU. (See the note below

referring to the requirements at the Upper Division for the PBD.) Any course that has

been used in the qualification for another credential cannot be used for credit towards a

Post Baccalaureate Diploma.

SECTION 5—

UPPER DIVISION REQUIREMENTS

Four Year Degrees including the BGS and the B.Ed

At least two-thirds

the upper division credit hours required for the degree must be

completed through study at SF11. (This does

ZLQI

remove or alter the overall number

upper division credit hours required for the degree.)

Honors Degree

At least two-thirds of

the upper division credit hours required for the degree must, be

completed through study at SF11. (This does not remove or alter the overall number of

upper division credit hours required for the degree.) A program may stipulate that under

normal conditions, the specific 'honors' courses/credit hours are to be completed at SF11

BASc Degree

At least two-thirds of

the upper division credit hours required for the degree must be

completed through study at SF11. . (This does not remove or alter the overall number

upper division credit hours required for the degree

Post Baccalaureate Diplomas

At least two-thirds

the upper division credit hours required for the Post Baccalaureate

Diploma must be completed through study at SF11.

Since most general degrees (except the BASc) require in the order of 45 upper division

credit hours, the proposed regulation would require that the student complete a

minimum of thirty credit hours at the upper division at SFU; the 36 credit hour

requirement at the upper division sets a similar proportion for honors degrees. This is

consistent with the current regulation which stipulates that the maximum amount of

upper division credit is 15 credit hours. The additional upper division credit provisions

approved by Senate to allow for participation in Formal Exchange Programs would

continue to apply.

REPORTING CREDENTIAL PROGRESS AND QUALIFICATION

If the above recommendations are approved, the unofficial student record summaries

would be revised to reflect the new requirements. In the case of first degree transfer

students, all transfer credits would be recorded. Recording all transfer credits will facilitate

the prerequisite check in the registration process. A new section pertaining to the

minimum requirement that must be completed at SFU would be included in the

summary.

The summary of credits that currently appears on the unofficial student record might be

amended as follows:

UNDERGRADUATE ONLY

a)Total Lower Division Transfer Credit

b)Total Upper Division Transfer Credit =

c)Total Lower Division SFU Hours passed

d)Total Upper Division SFU Hours passed

e)Total Upper Division Credit Hours

= ?

f))Total SFU Credit Hours