Due to the rise of COVID-19 cases in New Brunswick, UNB decided to update the course withdrawal date and the grading system for the courses of the current semester.
Announcement made by email
On December 7, an email was sent to all students communicating that the course withdrawal date and the grading system for the fall semester of 2020 have been updated to ease the “additional pressure and concern” students may be facing because of the alert levels in the province.
New course withdrawal date
The date to drop a course without academic penalty has been moved from November 2 of this year to Friday, December 11.
Dropping a course before the withdrawal date means students will not need to complete the final exam or any final assignments.
Any student who has dropped a course after the original withdrawal date will have the academic penalty removed from their transcript. If the change has not happened by January 8, 2021, students are encouraged to contact the registrar’s office by emailing at unbsjreg@unb.ca.
Courses marked as “withdrawn” will not count for program requirements and do not have points assigned so it will not have a negative or positive impact on the grade point average.
Credit/ non-credit grading system
After completing all the requirements and getting the final grade for a course, students will have the option to change it to a credit/non-credit grade or leave it as a letter grade.
Students who wish to request the change have until January 8 of next year to do so. Anyone who wants to change the final grade must contact the UNB Saint John registrar indicating which course or courses.
Faculty of Law students will not be able to select the credit/ non-credit option for any courses.
To request a course as “credit”, the student needs to pass the course with any letter grade between A and C. The course will still be counted as credit hours completed, as a prerequisite, and count for program requirements but it would not have points that would affect the student’s grade point average.
Courses with D or F as final grades are able to change to non-credit. However, the changed courses would not count as credit hours completed, as a prerequisite, and it will not count for program requirements. It will also not have grade points to affect the student’s grade point average.
“Selecting CR/ NCR [credit/ non-credit] options may affect scholarship awards” warns the email; “CR/NCR is not recommended if you are considering applying to graduate studies, law, and other programs in the future.”
The email recommends students to talk with their respective academic advisor if any student has questions about the credit/non-credit option or if anyone is planning to request the grade change.
