The Credit/No Credit policy was amended over the summer to allow students to apply the option to 2.0 credits instead of the original 1.0.
At the Academic Affairs Committee meeting of February 28, the registrar, Diane Crocker, presented two modifications concerning the CR/NCR policy for approval.
The first modification was the increase to two FCEs, which was approved. The second was to extend the deadline to mark a course as CR/NCR. Previously, students had to choose no later than the last day to enroll in the course in question. After some debate, the deadline was moved to the last day to drop a course without academic penalty. Once the option has been chosen, a student cannot under any circumstances reverse the decision.
In order for a student to achieve a “credit” status, they must achieve a final mark of at least 50%. Courses that have achieved the “credit” status will be counted as degree credits, but will not appear on students’ academic records or affect GPA. Courses with a final status of “no credit” will not count as degree credits, and will not count as failures or affect GPA.
When a student chooses to enroll using this option, it will not be disclosed to the instructor of the course.
While it is available for elective courses and distribution requirements, the CR/NCR option cannot be used to fulfill program requirements. Moreover, the university has restricted the option to UTM students taking UTM courses, making it unavailable to UTM non-degree students, visiting students on a letter of permission, and students from other faculties and divisions of the university.
The CR/NCR policy has been successfully in effect on the St. George campus in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences since 2008. The Scarborough campus followed suit in the summer of 2010. This influenced the committee’s decision to implement the practice at the UTM campus, since there was positive feedback on the policy at the other two campuses.
The St. George and Scarborough campuses, where the CR/NCR break was 60%, have since changed their break to 50%, mirroring UTM’s policy.
The Academic Affairs Committee of the Erindale College Council, the highest decision-making body at UTM, approved the Credit/No Credit policy, first effective during the 2011/12 fall semester.
The CR/NCR policy makes it possible for students to explore courses outside of their comfort zones without risking damage to their GPA. For example, if a student in management tried a linguistics course but found himself out of his depth and failing, he would have the option to let the course be assessed simply as “credit” or “no credit”.
In the 2011/12 year, 479 UTM students took advantage of the CR/NCR policy. In the fall term, 107 students used it in 68 different half-credit courses, with 101 receiving credit. In the winter term, 350 students exercised the option over 119 courses.
I could sure use one!