Credit Standing

In rare circumstances, where a student has:

  1. not completed a course’s requirements and would normally be eligible for a deferred assessment but is unable to complete one because they are impacted by extreme medical, psychological or compassionate circumstances beyond their control, or
  2. where extreme circumstances have impacted the student’s level of achievement as reflected in the final course grade,

they may submit a request to the Academic Review Sub-committee for credit standing in the course.

Under a) above, in circumstances where students are able to provide appropriate documentation that there is little reasonable expectation that the outstanding components of evaluation can be completed by the end of the subsequent semester, they may make a request for credit standing.

Under b) above, in circumstances where students are able to provide appropriate documentation that their level of achievement as reflected in the final course grade was impacted by extreme circumstances, they may make a request for credit standing.

“Extreme circumstances” are generally defined as catastrophic circumstances beyond the student’s control that renders the student incapable of accessing the academic consideration process.

A student awarded “credit standing” by the Academic Review Sub-committee will receive credit for the course(s) with the notation of CRD instead of a numerical grade. The effect of this on the student’s program is that the course(s) are not included in the calculation of the student’s overall cumulative or semester average, or specialization average.

The request for credit standing must be made in writing to the Academic Review Subcommittee of the student’s degree program, and it must be accompanied by supporting documentation. For students to be considered for credit standing, they must have:

  1. Completed at least 75% of the graded components of the course(s) for which credit standing is being requested; and
  2. Received a cumulative passing grade for the components of the course which were evaluated.

Students must submit written requests for credit standing, along with their supporting documentation, to the Academic Review Sub-committee via their Academic Advisor within the first 20 class days of the subsequent semester. Students’ written requests for credit standing must include an explanation of why they are unable to undertake or complete a deferred assessment in order to complete the course’s evaluative components and/or an explanation of the extreme circumstances which affected their final course grade.

Requests for Credit Standing are not normally granted more than once in a student’s program and consideration is limited to a maximum of one semester of courses in the student’s program (a single request may include one, some, or all courses in the semester specified in the request).