Grading Policies and Procedures

Responsibility

The Academic Dean is responsible to ensure that the seminary complies with all grading policies and procedures.

Course facilitation

Every course offered by ERSU will have a course facilitator who is responsible for oversight of the course including the final version of the syllabus, course requirements and all grading. Ordinarily, this course facilitator will be one of the three executive staff members or another on field instructor who is familiar with ERSU’s policies and procedures. The course facilitator himself is responsible to determine all assignments and grades for the course or delegate areas of responsibility as appropriate. When a staff member or regular faculty member teaches a course, he shall always be considered the facilitator for that course.

Grades

Grades will be given according to the table below:

5 points scale percent letters
5+ 97-100 A+
5 93-96 A
5- 90-92 A-
4+ 87-89 B+
4 83-86 B
4- 80-82 B-
3+ 77-79 C+
3 73-76 C
3- 70-72 D

No credit will be given for students earning lower than a 3- or 70 percent.

Final course grades will be given to the registrar by the facilitator. The registrar shall then record the grades and convey the grades to the students. Papers and exams shall be returned to the students.

Late assignments

1. If a student knows that he will be late with an assignment, it is his responsibility to contact the course facilitator BEFORE that assignment is due. The facilitator will decide if he will grant an extension on the assignment or not.

2. Extensions can be given by the facilitator for up to two weeks, and NO LONGER. The assignments must be in the facilitator’s hands three days after the extension, or they will be counted as late.

3. For assignments that are late, when no extension has been granted, the following guidelines apply: 1-7 days late – minus 5%; 8-14 days late – minus 10%; 15-21 days late – minus 20%; papers are not accepted after 21 days.

Poor Grades and Requests to ‘Redo’ Assignments

When a student does poorly on a particular assignment or exam, that student may request the opportunity of redoing the assignment or exam. The following guidelines apply:

1. Assignments or exams may never be redone unless the grade received was lower than a ‘3’.

2. Grades for redone assignments or exams shall be reduced by 5%

3. The course facilitator has complete authority in deciding whether or not an assignment or exam can be redone. He shall listen to the reasons for each such request and judge them on a case-by-case basis. The facilitator is never obligated to allow the redoing of an assignment.

Studying per Semester

An academic year in ERSU consists of three Semesters. [insert link to Semester chart].

There is a set date when the academic semester will be closed. All assignments and exams must be taken by that time. After that time, no more assignments will be accepted. The following guidelines for finishing a semester and starting a new semester apply:

Finishing a Semester

1. Students must hand in their assignments at the Tutorials as indicated by the Course facilitators.

2. Students who handed in less then 50% of the required written assignments, are not allowed to take the final exam.

3. Students who handed in only part of their written assignments can be allowed to take the final exam, only with consent of the Course facilitator.

Beginning a new Semester

1. Students who handed in all their Course assignments and took the final exams, will be allowed to attend the next Session.

2. Students who did not finish the assignments and / or exams for more then one Course of a Semester will not be allowed to enter the next Semester. Only after finishing all the work for the Courses, he can be admitted to a next Semester

3. Students who did not finish the assignments and / or exams for only one Course, can be allowed to the next semester, when they can finish all the work for this Course in maximum 2 weeks after the end new session. The decision for admission will be made by the Academic Dean.

Absences

If a student knows, that he will be absent from lectures or tutorials, it is his responsibility to contact the course facilitator before the lectures or tutorial. The facilitator will decide if he will accept the absence or not. The general rule is, that if a student will be absent for more then 20% of the lectures, he cannot take that course.

Unexcused absences from lectures or tutorials will result in points being lost from the student’s total grade for the course for each occurrence.

The following guidelines apply:

· absence of 10% of intensive lectures – minus 10%

· absence of 20% of intensive lectures – minus 20%

More then 20% absence – the student shall not be allowed to complete the course and has to fully retake it.

Cheating

Cheating is never acceptable at ERSU and will meet with severe discipline. Cheating is a moral sin and is not acceptable for Christians, and especially leaders in Christ’s church.  Cheating includes, but is not limited to the following:

· looking at someone else’s answers when taking an exam

· bringing additional materials into an exam where they are prohibited

· copying another student’s papers or assignments

· using material from a book, Internet or other source without giving proper references and credit

· information about exams will be given by the professor or facilitator; obtaining information about an exam prior to the exam from any other source is prohibited

Where cheating occurs, the following policies apply:

– Anytime a student is found cheating on an assignment or an exam, the student shall automatically receive a failing grade for that assignment. The first time a student is found to have cheated, the incident shall be reported to the staff of ERSU.

– If a student is found to have cheated a second time, he shall receive a failing grade for the course. The staff shall be notified, he will be put on probation and the incident will be noted in the student’s records.

– If a student is found to have cheated a third time, he shall be expelled from ERSU.