THE COURSE CREDIT SYSTEM AND THE ABOLITION OF PASS DEGREE BY PROFESSOR PETER O. NKEONYE CTEXT FTI, FMSN, FPIN Department of Polymer and Textile Science, Ahmadu Bello University Zaria

ADAPTED FROM THE BOOK ‘THE COURSE CREDIT SYSTEM: THINGS THAT YOU MUST KNOW’ BY PETER O. NKEONYE

SYNOPSIS In the 2013/2014 Academic Session, the National Universities Commission (NUC) reviewed the Pass Mark in the Undergraduate Programmes from 40% to 45%, and abolished the Pass Degree. This presentation takes into consideration the above NUC directive, as will be seen in the foregoing discussion on the COURSE CREDIT SYSTEM.

WHAT IS COURSE CREDIT SYSTEM? American system of grading. Now adopted internationally by most countries of the world, including Great Britain USA Map and World map insert

Characteristics of the Course Credit System Points system of grading, as opposed to the Letter Grade system Courses weighted in Credit Units according to the contact hours required to teach the course, e.g. 1 Credit Unit = 15 Contact Hours 2 Credit Units = 15 x 2 or 30 Contact Hours 3 Credit Units = 15 x 3 or 45 Contact Hours

Xtics of the Course Credit System cont…. Credit units of most courses varies from 1 to 4 for taught courses For untaught courses such as Projects, SIWES, Field Trips the credit units may be as high as 6. Run on a Semester basis: 1 Academic Year = 2 Semesters

Xtics of the Course Credit System cont…. Classes are graded on levels of 100, e.g. 100 – 400 levels for a 4-year degree programme and 100-500 levels for a 5-year degree programme. Examinations are held at the end of each semester. Thus we have 1st and 2nd Semester Examinations.

Student’s academic standing is measured in terms of: Grade Point Average (GPA) and Cumulative Grade Point Average (CGPA).

CLASSIFICATION OF COURSES Courses are classified into Core and Electives: Core Courses Compulsory/mandatory courses for all students in the programme Can come from within or outside the department/faculty Must be passed by every student before graduation Failure of a core course in an examination constitutes a ‘carry over’, i.e. carried over to the corresponding semester of the next session(s) until passed.

Can be further classified into: Electives Courses generally classified as ‘optional’ Can come from within or outside the department/faculty Never ‘carried over’ if failed Can be further classified into: Restricted, Unrestricted and Cognate electives:

Restricted electives: Taken from within the department/faculty. Unrestricted electives: Taken from any department/faculty in the University. Cognate electives: Like core courses, must be taken by all students in the programme. Unlike core courses, they are never carried over. A student records a ‘pass’ in a semester examination if he/she passes all core courses, even if an elective or electives are failed.

HOW MANY CORE AND ELECTIVE COURSES PER SEMESTER? Number of core courses per semester is influenced by factors such as: Registration ceiling of 24 credit units per semester Credit units of the individual core courses allowed in the particular semester Credit units for the entire electives for the semester (usually about 15 - 20% of the maximum credit load for the semester) The more the credit units of the courses, the less the number that may be accommodated.

COURSE CODES Courses identified by Course Codes Enable courses to be grouped into 1st and 2nd Semester courses Course code has two components: letter code (upper case) and digits code’ e.g. TEXT 102, CHEM 261, MEEN 206 Letter code derived from department or faculty offering the course Digits code indicate ‘level’ and ‘semester’, e.g. 100 level start with ‘1’, 200 level with ‘2’, etc; odd number indicates ‘1st semester’ and even number ‘2nd semester’.

REGISTRATION OF COURSES Beginning of 1st semester of the session Done in consultation with Departmental Registration Officer Register core courses including any carry overs and then the electives Maximum credit load per semester is 24 credit units; minimum is 12. More brilliant students may carry 20 – 24 credit load, others less. Minimum credit load for a full time student is 12. Registration nowadays is usually done on-line First and Second semester courses are registered simultaneously.

ADD- AND- DROP PERIOD -Begins after about 5 weeks of registration - Students may drop unwanted courses or add new ones provided the registration ceiling of 24 credit units is adhered to. - Any core course dropped must be taken in the subsequent session(s). Once registered, a student must write the course in the semester examination, or he/she scores zero (0 - F).

DEREGISTRATION OF COURSES AND DEFERMENT OF SEMESTER Open to all students with severe health or financial problem Application directed to Dean of Faculty through Head of the Department Application usually approved after due consideration A maximum of 4 semesters (2 sessions) may be deferred by a student in any particular programme. Periods of deferment are not counted as part of the normal duration of a programme.

PRESENTATION OF EXAMINATION RESULTS Rounding Up/Down of Examination Marks Final marks for submission to the Departmental Examination Officer should not carry fractions or decimals Raw marks can be rounded up or down depending on the fraction or decimal number, e.g. 44.5 to 45% 49.4 to 49% 59.6 to 60%

70-100 A 5 Converting Final Marks to Grade Points Table 1 50-59 C 3 From the **2013/2014 Academic Session, conversion of Final marks to grade points are as presented in Table 1 below. TABLE 1 Table 1 Mark Range (%) Letter Grade Grade Point 0-44 F 45-49 D 2 50-59 C 3 60-69 B 4 70-100 A 5

Technical Terms in a Results Chart: Grade Point (GP) Points system replacing letter grades F to A (see Table 1) Weighted Grade Point (WGP) Product of Grade Point and the number of credit units (CU) carried by the course. Thus  Grade Point Average (GPA):

Determines student’s academic standing. Cumulative Grade Point Average (CGPA) Determines student’s academic standing. Credit Units Registered (CUR) Sum of credit units of all courses registered by the student during the semester. Credit Units Earned (CUE) Sum of credit units of all courses passed by the student in the semester examination

Total Credit Units Registered (TCUR) Sum of the credit units of all the courses registered by the student from 1st semester of the 1st year to the particular semester under consideration. Total Credit Units Earned (TCUE) Total credit units of all courses passed by the student from the 1st semester of the 1st year to the particular semester under consideration.

CALCULATION OF GPA AND CGPA Table 2 Illustrated below for a 100 level student of the Department of Polymer and Textile Science after 1st and 2nd Semester examinations: Course Credit Units Scores (%) Grade GP WGP MATH 101 1 50 C 3 MATH 103 60 B 4 MATH 105 47 D 2 MATH 107 70 A 5 10 CHEM 111 53 6 CHEM 121 65 8 TEXT 101 59 PHYS 111 45 E COSC 101 42 F GEOG 101 56 17 49

1st Semester Exam Scores as in Table 2 Taking into consideration the GP ratings in Table 2 and the earlier definitions for WGP and GPA, we have:

2nd Semester Exam Scores Suppose same student registered 18 credit units in the 2nd semester and passed (earned ) 14 credit units with a WGP total of 46. Then:

Also for the above candidate: CUR (1st semester) = 17 CUE (1st semester) = 15 CUR (2nd semester) = 18 CUE (2nd semester) = 14 TCUR = 17 + 18 = 35 TCUE = 15 + 14 = 29

ACADEMIC STANDING Determines the status of a student as far as his/her programme is concerned Student in Classified degree programme is in good academic standing if his/her CGPA is 1.50 or higher Student in Unclassified degree programme is in good academic standing if his/her CGPA is 2.40 or higher.

PROBATION AND WITHDRAWAL FROM A PROGRAMME Candidate placed on PROBATION if CGPA falls below 1.50 (for Classified degree) or below 2.40 ( for Unclassified degree) for 2 consecutive semesters

Candidate is WITHDRAWN if he/she: Fails to come out of Probation after 2 consecutive semesters, i.e. the next two semesters Withdrawal from a programme can also be on the basis of: ii) Failure to register, without permission, for FOUR consecutive semesters iii) Having exhausted the maximum residency period for the particular programme iv) Conviction on a criminal matter or serious examination malpractice.

INTERDEPARTMENTAL AND INTERFACULTY TRANSFERS Possible provided the candidate meets the requirement of the intended department/faculty.

CREDIT REQUIREMENTS FOR GRADUATION Student graduates if he/she has passed all the core courses and earned the required credit units for the programme Needs to earn, on the average, a minimum of 15 credit units per semester or 30 credit units per session Minimum credit requirements for graduation (UTME) varies with duration of programme, e.g.

* Upper Limit is higher by 40 Credit Units [NUC]. 4 x 30 or 120 Credit Units: 4-year degree programme 5 x 30 or 150 Credit Units: 5-year degree programme 6 x 30 or 180 Credit Units: 6-year degree programme -For Direct Entry (DE) students, credit requirements for graduation are less by 30. * Upper Limit is higher by 40 Credit Units [NUC].

CLASSIFICATION OF DEGREES Based on CGPA at the point of graduation Affects only classified degree programmes Classes of degrees are as in Table 3 below:   * Pass degrees abolished by the National Universities Commission (NUC) effective with candidates admitted in the 2013/2014 academic session, as presented in Table 3. Table 3 Class of Degree CGPA First Class Second Class Upper Division Second Class Lower Division Third Class Fail 4.50 – 5.00 3.50 – 4.49 2.40 – 3.49 1.50 – 2.39 Below 1.50

DURATION OF ACADEMIC PROGRAMMES Academic programmes are expected to be completed within the normal duration , e.g. 4 years for a 4-year degree programme, etc. Maximum duration (excluding periods of deferment)   = Normal duration + ½(Normal duration) corrected to the nearest whole number. Durations for the different programmes summarised in Table 4 below. Table 4 Normal duration (Years) Maximum Duration (Years) 4 4+2=6 5 5+2½=8 6 6+3=9

MERITS OF THE COURSE CREDIT SYSTEM Allows students to graduate at their own pace Allows students to widen their knowledge by taking elective courses of interest from any department/faculty of the University Allows interdepartmental and interfaculty transfers Requirements for graduation and for making top class degrees are clearly spelt out right from the onset Relevant credits can be earned in one University and added in another (Not yet common in Nigeria) In difficult situations, up to FOUR SEMESTERS may be deferred at no disadvantage to the maximum residency period.

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