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ATIENTION
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PAGES
Action undertaken
by th
e
Senate
Co
mmitt
ee
on
Und
e
rgr
ad
uat
e
Studies at
i
t
s
me
e
ting
of
Ju
lyS
,
2
010,
gives
rise
to
th
e
f
o
ll
owi
ng
recommendation:
Motion
1:
That
Senate app
ro
ve
th
e
alteration of the
d
es
ignation
First Clas
s
Honours
into the
designations
with
distinction
and
first class with distinction
for
students
graduating from honours
programs, with requirement
s
as
detail
e
d in the
attached
table,
effective for
students enter
ing
honours program
s
during the 2011
Spring term,
Motion2
:
That Senate approve
th
e
intr
od
u
ctio
n
of the designations
with distinction
and
first
class with distinction
for
st
ud
ents
graduating
from
non-honours
prog
ram
s
,
with
requirements as
d
e
tai
le
d in
the attached table,
e
ff
ective
for
stude
nt
s
graduating
from
the
2
010
F
all
term
,
S
IM
ON
l
'
Il
ASEIl UN
I
VEIlS
IT
Y
TH
I
NKI
N
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
/J
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
"
" :,"':.
,
c
,'
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
t
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
in
a particular field. Initially adopted in the
United Kingdom, this system is in use
in
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.
3
Rationale for Designations
There is a desire for SFU to recognize outstanding students, regardless of whether or not they choose
to
complete an
honours program. It was also impcrtant
in
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%
of
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
is
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)
o
Second Class (65% to 79%, about 2.35-3.67)
o
Pass (50% to 64%, abom 1.00-2.35)
University
oj
Northern British Columbia
• Honours
&
Non-Honours Programs
o
With Distinction (4.00 or above, 4.33 scale)
o First Class Honours (3.67-4.00)
o
Upper Second Class Honours (3.50-3.67)
o
Second Class Honours (3.00-3.67)
University
of
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
oj
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
of
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
of
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
of
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
oj
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
in
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
of
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
o
First Class Standing (SO% or above)
o
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
o
With Honours (3.50 or above, 4.33 scale)
University
of
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
oj
Windsor
• Honours
&
Non-Honours Programs
o
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
o
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)
o
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
o
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)
o
With Distinction (next 15% of faculty's graduating students)
Mount
Allison
University
• Honours
&
Non-Honours Programs
o
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
of
Prince Edward Island
• Honours
&
Non-Honours Programs
o
First-class
Standing (80% or higher)
o
Second-class Standing
(70%-79.9%)
o
Pass Standing (50-69.9%)
Acadia
University
• Honours
&
Non-Honours Programs
o
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
o
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
s
University
• Honours
&
Non-Honours Programs
o
Summa cum laude
(4.00 or above, 4.30 scale)
c
wlagna cum latlde
(3.85-3.99)
o
Cllm laude (3.70-3.85)
J~Iet11orial
University
of
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)