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MEMORANDUM

ATIENTION

I:H

DATE

Jul

FROM

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PAGES

Action undertaken

by th

Senate

mmitt

Und

rgr

uat

Studies at

ting

lyS

010,

gives

rise

owi

recommendation:

Motion

That

Senate app

alteration of the

ignation

First Clas

Honours

into the

designations

with

distinction

and

first class with distinction

for

students

graduating from honours

programs, with requirement

detail

d in the

attached

table,

effective for

students enter

ing

honours program

during the 2011

Spring term,

Motion2

That Senate approve

intr

ctio

of the designations

with distinction

and

first

class with distinction

for

ents

graduating

from

non-honours

prog

ram

with

requirements as

tai

d in

the attached table,

ective

for

stude

graduating

from

the

010

all

term

ASEIl UN

VEIlS

NKI

G O

F THE

WORLD

SCUS 10-07 Revised

SFU

REGISTIl\R

STUDE~T E~ROL)'IE:--';T

Student Services

3000 Maggie Benston Centre

8888 University Drive, Burnaby, Be

Canada V5A 1 S6

MEMORANDUM

ATTENTION

FROM

RE:

Senate Committee on Undergraduate Studies

Kate Ross

Registrar

Senior Director. Student Enrolment

Degree Standing

TEL

i78.782.3108

F:\..."{

778.782.5732

students.sfu. ca

DATE

June

30,2010

PAGES 8

)<~l ~

At the February 2010 Senate meeting, a proposal to alter the University's degree standing designations for

undergraduate students was referred back to the Senate Committee

on Undergraduate Studies for re-examination.

Following additional consultations, the following revised system is proposed:

Motion #1:

that SCUS approve and recommend to Senate the alteration of the designation

First Class Honours

into the designations

with distinction

and

first class with distinction

for students graduating from

honours

programs, with requirements as detailed in the attached table. effective for students

entering honours programs during the the

2011 Spring term.

1vlotion #2:

that SCUS approve and reconunend to Senate the introduction of the designations

with distinction

and

first class with distinction

for students graduating from non-honours programs, with requirements

as detailed in the attached table. effective for students graduating from the 2010 Fall term.

Proposed System

Students graduating with a first undergraduate degree will be awarded one of the following designations based on

their overall course work (CGPA)

as well as the upper division subset of that work (UDGPA):

•

Students who have obtained 4.00 or greater on both the CGPA and UDGPA will receive the designation

first class with distinction.

•

Students who have obtained 3.50 or greater on both the CGPA and UDGPA will receive the designation

with distinction.

Degree

'and,Desh~llation

,t,

/','

, ','

Cumulative GPA

" :,"':.

Honours Degree

first class with distinction

4.00 or greater

Honours

Degree

with distinction

3.50 or greater

Honours Degree

3.00 or greater

Degree

first class with distinction

4.00 or greater

Degree

with distinction

3.50 or greater

Degree

2.00

or greater

Rationale for Timing

For students graduating from non-honours programs, the creation of the designations would be to the advantage of

the students, and the changes could be implemented as soon as possible.

SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY

THINKING OF THE WORLD

For students graduating from honours programs. we would be introducing substantial changes and in order to be fair

some lead time needs to be given prior to implementation. Some students may also be in the process of applying co

honours programs under the current system, and these students should be given the opportunity to do so.

Implementation for students who enter honours programs after the beginning of the 2011 Spring term provides

sufficient time

so that students, properly infonned, can select the appropriate system for them. All students in honours

programs prior

co 2011 Spring will be grandfathered, and awarded designations based on the existing system.

Current System

In 1967, prior to any decision being taken by Senate, the Faculry of .Arts graduated honours students as "Honors First

Class" and "Honors Second Class." The dissatisfaction expressed by students receiving "Honors Second Class" led co

discussion at Senate's meeting in December 1967, and the decision made that there be no standings recorded for

Honors students below First Class. This caused a number of degrees to be reissued with the corrected designations.

Senate then asked the faculties and departments to examine

definitions for First Class. For much of 1968, students

appear

to have received First Class only on nomination of the department.

After discussion at the March, April, May and September 1968 meetings

of Senate, the requirements for "First Class"

for Honours students was approved by Senate in October 1968, using the standard of3.5 on either the overall

cumulative grade poine average

(GPA) or the GPA over 60 upper-division credits. At the same meeting, Senate chose

to make no distinction

in general degrees, although the minutes do not record Senate's reasoning. Further

clarification

was issued on GPA calculations by Senate in December 1968. At the time that the standard of 3.5 was

approved, SFU used a 4.0 scale grading system.

Currendy, students graduating from honours programs are eligible to receive the standing

"First Class" if they receive

a minimwn

of3.5 in 4 different GPAs - the GPA over all courses (CGPA), the GPA over

all

upper-division courses

(CUDGPA), the program GPA over

all

courses, and the program GPA over

all

upper-division courses .

Degree"and Distinction;:"

. ,

....

CumuIativeGPA

.'~

Honours Degree with First Class Honours

3.5 or greater

Honours Degree

3.0 or greater

Degree

2.0 or greater

Process

At the Deans Council meeting 0[20 l'vtay, 2009, the Registrar's Office was asked to investigate methods of

expanding the current system of degree standing to better recognize outstanding students, and specifically to look at a

system

to reward outstanding students who are not in honours programs.

After research and discussion at the Enrolment Management Coordinating Conunittee meeting

of26 November

2009

a discussion paper was presented to the Deans at the Deans Council meeting on 9 December 2009. Feedback

received at that meeting and the subsequent

EMCC meeting of 17 December 2009 led to a proposal presented to the

Senate Conunittee

on Undergraduate Studies on 7 January 2010. At Senate on 8 February 2010, the proposal was

referred back to SCUS. The chairs and directors of academic departments were consulted at their meeting on 10

March 2010.

Honours

It is important to distinguish between an SFU honours degree and the meaning of honours at many ocher institutions

in Canada and around the world. General degrees began as a three-year degree, and honours degrees were

introduced, requiring four years, to provide additional depth

of study

a particular field. Initially adopted in the

United Kingdom, this system is in use

many countries with higher education system derived from the UK system.

Within Canada, some institutions in Ontario and the Atlantic Provinces offer both three-year general and four-year

honours degrees. Many institutions require an

"honours degree" to obtain entry to graduate programs - in these

cases, it

is simply a requirement that a student have completed a four-year degree, and nearly every SFU program

will

meet that criteria.

It is worthwhile to note that SFU is alone, at least within Canada, in requiring more than 4 years of study for an

honours degree. While most instirutions require 120 credits for an honours degree, SFU's current minimum requires

132 credits.

Rationale for Designations

There is a desire for SFU to recognize outstanding students, regardless of whether or not they choose

complete an

honours program. It was also impcrtant

proposing a solution that, in the imerests of darity, systems for honours

students and non-honours students were in alignment, and preferably used the same language.

The systems used across Canada fall into three broad categories - Latin honours, derived from the system popularized

in the United States; class honours, in part derived from the system used \videly in the United Kingdom and some

Commonwealth countries; and distinction honours, which

uses language such as "with distinction" to mark success.

A survey of the systems used at different Canadian institutions is included as an appendi'(, but it is important to nOte

that some institutions mix systems - some use one for honours students and one for non-honours srudents, while

ochers mix them within the same group.

From the survey it becomes clear that there

is no accepted standard on degree recognition within Canada. While

there are few

urllversities using Latin honours, there are a large number of institutions that use class and distinction

honours.

It also becomes clear that even where the same language is used - First Class, for example - the standard

used can be very different. First Class, First Division and similar accolades can begin at

GPAs of3.25 (4.0 scale), 3.5

(4.0 scale), 3.6 (4.0 or 4.30 scale), 3.67 (4.33 scale), 3.80 (4.5 scale), 3.83 (4.33 scale) or an average of 80%, and in

one case (the University of Northem Britjsh Columbia) isn't even the hlghest designation available.

The principles we used when looking at possible systems were:

•

That ouc intention is to celebrate outstanding student success, and not to de-value student accomplislunents;

•

That any system should extend to all students regardless of the route taken to a degree, whether it be

honours,

majoc, joint honours or major, two minors, or a general degree;

•

That any system should be clear and concise; and

•

That any system should not place additional administrative burden on faculties, departments, faculty or staff

at a time of budget constraints.

SFU's traditions and hlstory contain very litde, if any, latin - even our motto is French. Combined with the

relatively small amount

of usage that the Latin honours system sees in Canada, it does not seem to be the appropriate

choice for

SFU.

One element of the feedback we received from the Deans was that the range of 3.5 to 4.33 - that currently used for

First Class Honours - would be too wide for a single designation if it were to be expanded to non-honours programs.

This group accounted for 19.7%

all

graduands in the 2009 calendar year (Fall 2008 to Sununer 2009 graduands).

By using multiple designations, this group could be split into two, providing better recognition

of our top students

while still recognizing students that do very well

in their studies.

Given that

SFU's present system only allows for a single level of recognition, and the feedback received at the Chairs

Directors meeting did not support the use of "Second Class" - the logical extension if the current system was to be

divided into two levels - we felt that a variation on the Distinction system would be best system to use at SFU.

Additional feedback from the academic chairs and directors was that using two separate words was more difficult to

interpret, and that linking the wording used was preferable. First Class is also part of our history at SFU, and has long

been used, and finding use for it in the proposed language would keep ties to our current system. Based on this, this

proposal is suggesting the use of

with distinction

and

first class with distinction.

A suggestion received was that we should look at using the English equivalent of the latin

cum laude.

For degree

standing,

cum laude

is usually translated as "with honour." This would lead to SFU degrees with "Honours with

honour," a scenario felt to be less than ideal. The other common translation used outside academia is "with praise,"

though we feel that this doesn't convey the proper meaning, either. Distinction was felt to be a close translation while

retaining the correct meaning for degrees.

Another concern expressed was around second degree programs. These programs typically only require the

completion

of 45 credits of coursework, as opposed to the standard 120 credits for a first degree. In some programs, as

few as 15 credits of this coursework are graded on the full scale, with the remaining 30 credits completed on a

pass/fail basis - essentially basing a designation decision on

as litde as one term of coursework. In 2009, 14.3% of

students receiving a first degree had GPAs of 3.5 or above, while 57.7% of second degree students achieved chis

standard. Based on this information, this group of students is sufficiently different that they should not use the same

system of recognitions.

Program Grade Point Average

In order for a srudent to be awarded either Honours or First Class Honours, they muse meet certain program GPA

requirements when they graduate. Currently, calculation of program GPA is a manual process. The calendar states:

In addition, program

GP~O\S

are the required minimum to satisfy the requirements of an honors,

major, extended minor or minor program. In each

case, the program GPA must be obtained both

on the overall course work (CGPA) as well as on the upper division subset ofthae work (UDGPA)

in the program area.

This definition

is so vague that departments apply different standards based on their own experience. Some

departments ignore the program GPA when doing graduation requirements checks, while some calculate it based on

courses used to

satisfy degree requirements, and others use

all

courses taken within their specific subject code. Based

on those differences, it seems nearly impossible to use the program GPA to fairly and consistently assess all students.

Currently there

no approved definition for program GP A. If we were to continue to use trus as a criterion, it

would require defining program

GP A so students are treated consistently and fairly in its calculation. This option will

require agreement on a definition and then modifications to SIMS to implement.

When we met with the Deans, we asked whether any proposal should include program GP A. The feedback we

received was that they felt it

was more important to recognize overall success in courses, rather than courses within a

specific area - we were recognizing the

credential, not the subject area. Based on what we heard from the Deans and

the issues around program GP A, this proposal is not including it as a requirement.

Note that this proposal would not change the program GP A requirement for Honours, only for the designation.

Appendix: Survey of Systems in Use at Canadian Universities

While not all Canadian universities have been surveyed below, an attempt has been made to SUl\'ey those similar to

SFU. Institutions that do not award degree standing are not listed; in cases wht!re the insdtutions allow faculties to set

their own policies, the focus is on the faculties with programs similar to those available at SFU. Only standings

available

to those that have completed a four-year degree are listed.

University oj Victoria

• Honours

Non-Honours Programs

c With Distinction (6.5 or above, 9.0 scale, roughly equivalent to 3.5 on a 4.33 scale)

University of British Columbia

• Honours & Non-Honours Programs

o First

Class (80% or higher, roughly equivalent to 3.67 or higher)

Second Class (65% to 79%, about 2.35-3.67)

Pass (50% to 64%, abom 1.00-2.35)

University

Northern British Columbia

• Honours

Non-Honours Programs

With Distinction (4.00 or above, 4.33 scale)

o First Class Honours (3.67-4.00)

Upper Second Class Honours (3.50-3.67)

Second Class Honours (3.00-3.67)

University

Alberta

•

Honours Programs

o First

Class Honors (3.50 or above, 4.00 scale)

•

Non-Honours Programs

o With Distinction

(3.50 or above)

University

Calgary

• Honours & Non-Honours Programs

o With Distinction (3.60 or above on final 15 full-course equivalents, about 3

years of coursework,

4.00 scale)

University

Lethbridge

• Honours

Non-Honours Programs

o With Great Distinction (3.75 or above,

3.80 in Education)

o With Distinction (3.50-3.74, 3.60-3.79

in Education)

University

Regina

•

Honours Programs

o With High Honours

(85% or above)

•

Non-Honours Programs

o With Great Distinction

(85% or above)

o With Distinction (80%-84.9%)

University

Saskatchewan

•

Honours Programs

o With High Honours

(75% or above overall, 80% or above in program area)

o With Honours (70% or above)

•

Non-Honours Programs

o With Great Distinction

(80% or above)

o With Distinction (75%-79.9%)

University

Manitoba

•

Honours Programs

o First Class Honours (3.80 or above, 4.5 scale)

•

Non-Honours Programs

o With Distinction

(3.80 or above)

Broc.~

University

•

Honours Program

o First-class Honours (80% or above in major. 70% or above in other courses)

o Second-class Honours

(70% or above

major, 60% or above in other courses)

•

Non-Honours Program

o With Distinction

(80% or abov'e)

Carleton

University

•

Honours Programs

o With Highest Honours

(S.O or above overall. 10.0 or above in program. on a 12.0 scale)

o With High Honours (7.0 or above overall. 9.0 or above in program)

•

Non-Honours Programs

o With High Distinction

(9.5 or above overall. Faculty of Engineering

Design only)

o With Distinction

(S.O or above)

University

Guelph

• Honours

Non-Honours Programs

o With Distinction (SO% or above, roughly equivalent to 3.67-4.33)

o With Honours (70%-79.9%. about 2.67-3.67)

o With Standing (less than 70%)

LAkehead

University

• Honours

Non-Honours Programs

First Class Standing (SO% or above)

Second Class Standing (70-79.9%)

NfClVlaster

University

• Honours

Non-Honours Programs

o With Distinction (9.S or above, on a 12.0 scale, roughly equivalent to 3.5 on a 4.33 scale)

Queen's

University

•

Honours & Non-Honours Programs

o With Distinction (SO% or above, no failed courses)

Ryerson

University

• Honours

Non-Honours Programs

With Honours (3.50 or above, 4.33 scale)

University

Toronto

• Honours

Non-Honours Programs

o With High Distinction

(3.50 or above, 4.00 scale)

o With Distinction (3.20-3.49)

University of Western Ontario

• Honours

Non-Honours Programs

o With Distinction (SO% or above. no grade below 70%, no failed courses)

Wilfrid

LAurier

University

• Honours

Non-Honours Programs

o With High Distinction (11.00 or above, 12.0 scale, roughly equivalent to 4.00 on a 4.33 scale)

o With Distinction (10.00-10.99, roughly equivalent to 3.67-4.00 on a 4.33 scale)

University

Windsor

• Honours

Non-Honours Programs

With Great Distinction (12.0 or above, 13.0 scale, roughly equivalent to 4.00 on a 4.33 scale)

o With Distinction (11.00-11.99. roughly equivalent to 3.67-4.00)

York University

• Honours

Non-Honours Programs

Faculty

of Liberal Arts

Professional Studies and Faculty of Health

•

Summa cum laude

(8.00 or above, 9.00 scale, roughly equivalent to 4.00 on a 4.33 scale)

•

iVIagna cum laude

(7.80-7.99, roughly equivalent to 3.93-4.00)

•

Cum

laude

(7.5-7.79, roughly equivalent co 3.83-3.93)

•

Dean's Honour Roll (7.00-7.50, roughly equivalent co 3.67-3.83)

Faculty of Science

Engineering

•

First class with distinction (8.00 or above, roughly equivalent to 4.00 on a 4.33 scale)

•

First class (7.50-8.00, roughly equivalent to 3.83-4.00)

Bishop's

University

• Honours

Non-Honours Programs

With Distinction (80% or above)

McGill

University

•

Honours Programs

o First-Class Honours (3.50

or above. 4.00 scale)

• Honours

Non-Honours Programs

o Dean's

Honour List (top 10% of faculty'S graduating students, based on CGPA)

With Distinction (next 15% of faculty's graduating students)

Mount

Allison

University

• Honours

Non-Honours Programs

With Distinction (3.7 or above, 4.3 scale)

University of New Brnnswick

•

Honours Programs

o First-class Honours (3.60 or above, 4.30 scale)

•

Non-Honours Programs

o Distinction

(3.75 over final 60 credits; no grade less than C over final 90 credits)

o First Division

(3.5 or above)

o Second Division

(2.5-3.5)

o Third Division (Less than 2.5)

University

Prince Edward Island

• Honours

Non-Honours Programs

First-class

Standing (80% or higher)

Second-class Standing

(70%-79.9%)

Pass Standing (50-69.9%)

Acadia

University

• Honours

Non-Honours Programs

University Scholar (3.5 or above, 4.0 scale, minimum 90 credits at Acadia, no mark below B-)

Cape Breton University

•

Honours Programs

o First Class Honours

(80% over final two years in program courses)

Dalhousie

University

• Honours & Non-Honours Programs

o Distinction

(3.70 or above, 4.30 scale, at least 50% of classes completed at Dalhousie)

St. Francis Xavier University

•

Honours Programs

First Class Honours

(80% over final 3 years, 80% in program courses in final 3 years)

•

Non-Honours Programs

o Distinction

(80% over final 3 years)

Saint

lvIaryJ

University

• Honours

Non-Honours Programs

Summa cum laude

(4.00 or above, 4.30 scale)

wlagna cum latlde

(3.85-3.99)

Cllm laude (3.70-3.85)

J~Iet11orial

University

Neufoundland

•

Honours Programs

o First Class Standing (3.25

or above, 4.00 scale, 3.50 or above in subject area)

o Second Class Standing (2.75 or above)

•

Non-Honours Programs

o First Class Standing

(3.50 or above)

o Second Class Standing (2.75-3.50)

o Third Class Standing (2.00-2.75)