Course Policies

Academic concession for work that will be completed BEFORE course grades are submitted by the instructor:

A student whose academic performance is affected by injury, family or personal affliction, or illness should immediately consult with University Counselling Services, University Health Services, or another health professional, and may request, directly from the course instructor, deferral or substitution of a mid-term test or examination, or of other work which is due during the term.

Students who request academic concessions are not required to provide medical documentation from health care professionals. Unless your request is due to conflicting responsibilities, supporting documentation is not required. Individual instructors are not authorized to request documentation, including notes from health care providers, directly from students.

All work for which a Concession is approved must be completed before course grades are submitted by the instructor.

If the request for deferral or substitution of term work is denied, a student may appeal as described under “Appeals”.

If make‐up tests are assigned, they are normally scheduled by the Department of Economics on Friday afternoons after 2:30 p.m. Students must be registered for these tests by their instructors to be permitted to take them.

Academic concession for work that will be completed AFTER course grades are submitted by the instructor:

In the event of a missed final examination, or submission of an assignment after grades are submitted by the instructor, students must submit a Request for Academic Concession (RAC) to Undergraduate Records. Students are not required to provide medical documentation from health care professionals. Unless your request is due to conflicting responsibilities, supporting documentation is required. Individual instructors are not authorized to request documentation, including notes from health care providers, directly from students.

The RAC form is available on the Undergraduate Records website.

Academic integrity requires commitment to the values of honesty, trust, fairness, respect, and responsibility. Students are expected to observe the same standards of scholarly integrity as their academic and professional counterparts.

A student who is found to have engaged in unethical academic behaviour, including the practices described in the Policy on Academic Integrity in the University Calendar, is subject to penalty by the university.

Students are expected to attend all classes in which they are enrolled (University Policy). Students who do not attend classes must not assume that they have been dropped from a course by a department or an instructor. Courses that are not formally dropped will be given a failing grade, students may be required to withdraw, and will be required to pay the tuition fee for the course.

An instructor may refuse a student admission to a lecture or laboratory because of lateness, misconduct, inattention or failure to meet the responsibilities of the course. Students who neglect their academic work, including assignments, may be refused permission to write the final examination in a course. Instructors must inform students at the beginning of term, in writing, of the minimum attendance required at lectures and in laboratories in order to qualify to write examinations.

Students who are absent because of illness, an accident or family affliction should report to their instructors upon their return to classes.

For details and the complete undergraduate grading scale, see the University Calendar, Grading.

Undergraduate Grading Scale

An A+, A, or A- is earned by work which is technically superior, shows mastery of the subject matter, and in the case of an A+ offers original insight and/or goes beyond course expectations. Normally achieved by a minority of students.

A B+, B, or B- is earned by work that indicates a good comprehension of the course material, a good command of the skills needed to work with the course material, and the student’s full engagement with the course requirements and activities. A B+ represents a more complex understanding and/or application of the course material. Normally achieved by the largest number of students.

A C+ or C is earned by work that indicates an adequate comprehension of the course material and the skills needed to work with the course material and that indicates the student has met the basic requirements for completing assigned work and/or participating in class activities.

A D is earned by work that indicates minimal command of the course materials and/or minimal participation in class activities that is worthy of course credit toward the degree.

Complete (pass). Used only for 0-unit courses and those credit courses designated by the Senate. Such courses are identified in the course listings.

Continuing. Denotes the first half of a full-year course.

F is earned by work, which after the completion of course requirements, is inadequate and unworthy of course credit towards the degree.

Did not write examination or complete course requirements by the end of term or session; no supplemental.
* The grading scale for the evaluation of course achievement at the University of Victoria is a percentage scale that translates to a 9 point GPA/letter grade system. The 9 point GPA system is the sole basis for the calculation of grade point averages and academic standing. Standardized percentage ranges have been established as the basis for the assignment of letter grades. The percentage grades are displayed on the official and administrative transcripts in order to provide fine grained course assessment which will be useful to students particularly in their application to graduate studies and for external scholarships and funding. Comparative grading information (average grade [mean] for the class), along with the number of students in the class, is displayed for each course section for which percentage grades are assigned.

According to the University of Victoria Calendar

"A student may not attempt a course a third time without the prior approval of the Dean of the Faculty and the Chair of the Department in which the course is offered unless the calendar course entry states that the course may be repeated for additional credit. A student who has not received this approval may be deregistered from the course at any point and may be asked to withdraw from his or her declared or intended program.”

Students who wish to attempt a course for the third time must seek permission to do so from the Department of Economics. Failing to do this will result in deregistration from the course.

To obtain permission, students must complete the Request to Repeat Courses form and submit it to the Economics Department at econdept@uvic.ca. 

If you have questions about this process, please contact the Economics Undergraduate Advisor.

Student Procedures for requesting a Review of an Assigned Grade

These procedures address cases in which a student believes that there has been a mistake or unfairness in the assignment of a grade. They do not apply to students seeking academic concession due to illness or personal affliction. Not quite meeting a required grade or a desired GPA are not sufficient grounds to request a grade review.

1. Notify the instructor in writing normally within 14 days of the grade being available stating your reasons for requesting a review and asking for a meeting with the instructor to discuss your grade.

2. If the instructor determines there is no cause for review or that the review confirms or lowers the original grade and you believe there are valid reasons for reviewing the instructor’s decision you may appeal to the Chair of the Department.

3. You must appeal to the Chair in writing, clearly stating why you believe your assigned grade should be reviewed. You must attach all the graded assignments and tests which have been returned to you.

4. If the Chair believes there are reasonable grounds for a further review you will receive an email informing you of this. For the grade review to proceed you must reply to this email confirming your understanding of the Chair’s notification that the grade determined by the review will be recorded as the official grade even if it does not change or if it is higher or lower than the original grade.

5. If the Chair does not find grounds for a review of your grade, you may formally request a grade review through Undergraduate Records as set out in the Academic Calendar.

Printable PDF version can be found here: Student Procedures for requesting a Review of an Assigned Grade. 

A detailed overview of the Faculty of Social Sciences procedures for review of an assigned grade can be found here.

UVic takes sexualized violence seriously, and has raised the bar for what is considered acceptable behaviour. We encourage students to learn more about how the university defines sexualized violence and its overall approach by visiting www.uvic.ca/svp. If you or someone you know has been impacted by sexualized violence and needs information, advice, and/or support please contact the sexualized violence resource office in Equity and Human Rights (EQHR). Whether or not you have been directly impacted, if you want to take part in the important prevention work taking place on campus, you can also reach out:

Where: Sexualized violence resource office in EQHR, Sedgewick C119
Phone: 250.721.8021
Email: svpcoordinator@uvic.ca
Web: www.uvic.ca/svp

Are you a student with a learning disability, ADHD, mental health issue or long-term recurring physical or sensory disability? Do you have chronic health issues? If you do, and you need support with accessing your courses, or need academic accommodations to address barriers to your education, you need to register with the Centre for Accessible Learning (CAL).

After you register, the CAL office will work with you, your instructors and others to create learning environments that are equitable, inclusive and usable.

In some courses students may be assigned a final grade of N or debarred from writing final examinations if the required term work has not been completed to the satisfaction of the department.

Instructors in such courses must advise students of the standard required in term assignments and the circumstances under which they will be assigned a final grade of N or debarred from examinations.

• Instructors have no discretion to admit waitlisted students or raise the cap on the course.
• Students on the waitlist should discuss with the instructor how to ensure they are not behind with coursework in the event they are admitted.
• For full-term courses (Sep-Dec, Jan-Apr, May-Aug), registered students who do not show up in the first seven calendar days from the start of the course may be dropped from the course.
  • For May-June and July-August courses, students who do not attend the first two class meetings may be dropped from the course.
• Registered students who decide not to take the course are responsible for initiating their dropping the course, and are urged to do so promptly out of courtesy toward waitlisted students.
• Waitlist offers cease after the last date for adding courses irrespective of published waitlists.