Announcement Regarding the Grading System

Dear Students,

On April 3, 2020 the University Senate took the following decisions regarding the grading system for the spring 2020 semester, in which distance education had to be implemented due to the suspension of face-to-face education.

-It will be possible for students to receive either a letter-grade or a Pass/Fail grade in courses that are currently letter-grade courses.

-Letter grades in graduate and undergraduate courses may be changed, at the request of the student, into a Pass/Fail grade. Such changes will be allowed only once for each course.

-Only for undergraduate courses, it may be possible to change the grading system from letter-grade to Pass/Fail if distance education makes it unfeasible to assess the students’ performance adequately for a letter grade. Such requests should be made by the departments to the board of the relevant Faculty, School, or Institute. The decisions regarding these courses will be taken by the Senate. Students who want to receive a letter grade in courses that are designated as Pass/Fail through this procedure should make requests within the deadlines determined by the Senate. In such cases, students can be awarded a letter grade based on additional assessment (e.g. an exam), to be determined by the faculty member and the department.

A second announcement as to how the Senate and University Executive Board decisions will be implemented will be shared with you soon.

The following calendar outlines the dates for the procedures described above.

Sincerely,

Prof. N. Zeynep Atay Gök

Vice Rector

IMPORTANT DATES

-Application period for students who want a letter grade for courses that have been designated as pass/fail courses by the Senate: 4-11 May 2020 (Monday-Monday)

-Course drop period: 4-29 May 2020 (Monday–Friday)

-2019-2020 Academic Year-the 1st application period for leave of absence (not counted toward the overall number of semesters) for the spring 2020 semester: 4-11 June 2020 (Thursday – Thursday)

-Course drop period for courses which students received an F grade:  22-27 July 2020 (Wednesday – Monday)

-2019-2020 Academic Year-the 2nd application period for leave of absence (not counted toward the overall number of semesters) for the spring 2020 semester: 6-17 July 2020 (Monday-Friday)

-Application period for students who want to change a letter grade to pass/fail in courses that have been designated as letter-grade courses: 22-27 July 2020 (Wednesday – Monday) [(Except for those who requested letter grades between 4-11 May 2020)]