UNC Charlotte Academic Policy and Procedure: Grading (Undergraduate) (effective until Fall 2021)

I. Executive Summary

This policy and procedure guides all aspects of grading, and is effective until Fall 2021 when a new Grade Replacement policy takes effect.

Please note: Grading Policy Exceptions were made for Spring 2020 and for the Academic Year 2020-2021 (Fall 2020, Spring 2021, and Summer 2021) due to COVID-19. Also note: this exception was Amended to include an H grade designation.

II. Policy and Procedure Statement

Instructors assign grades on the basis of their evaluation of the academic performance of each student enrolled in their courses. At the end of the term, the grades are reported to the Office of the Registrar which is responsible for maintaining student academic records and making grades available to students.

GRADES

Letters are used to designate the quality of student academic achievement.

UNDERGRADUATE GRADES
Letter	Meaning	Grade Points Per Semester Hour
A	Excellent	4
B	Good	3
C	Fair	2
D	Passing	1
F	Failing	0
FX	Academic Dishonesty Violation	0
I	Incomplete	*
IP	In Progress	*
W	Withdrawal	*
WE	Withdrawal with Extenuating Circumstances	*
AU	Audit	*
NG	Temporary Unreported Grade	*
NR	No recognition given for audit	*
	Cooperative Education
S	Satisfactory	*
U	Unsatisfactory	*
	Pass/No Credit
H	Honors/High Pass**	*
P	Passing	*
N	No Credit	*

GRADE OF FX (ACADEMIC DISHONESTY VIOLATION)
For details on the use of the UX grade, please see University Policy 407, Code of Student Academic Integrity, Section IV – Penalties.

GRADE OF I (INCOMPLETE)
The grade of I is assigned at the discretion of the instructor when a student who is otherwise passing has not, due to circumstances beyond his/her control, completed all the work in the course. The missing work must be completed by the deadline specified by the instructor, and no later than 12 months. If the I is not removed during the specified time, a grade of F, U, or N, as appropriate is automatically assigned. The grade of I cannot be removed by enrolling again in the same course, and students should not re-enroll in a course in which they have been assigned the grade of I.

GRADE OF IP (IN PROGRESS)
The grade of IP is based on coursework for courses that extend over more than one semester. For example, a course that requires enrollment for two consecutive semesters would be eligible for an IP grade in the first term (i.e., Undergraduate Senior Project). A grade of IP should not be given for coursework to be completed in one given term. It cannot be substituted for a grade of I. The IP grade expires after six years, and if no final grade has been awarded by that time, the IP grade will default to a grade of N (no credit).

GRADE OF W (WITHDRAWAL) or WE (WITHDRAWAL WITH EXTENUATING CIRCUMSTANCES)
No grade will be given for a course dropped on or before the last day to drop a course without record. After this period, students may only withdraw from a course in accordance with the conditions and deadlines in the Withdrawals policy. Students who withdraw without extenuating circumstances will receive a grade of W and are allowed no more than 16 credit hours of W grades over their academic careers. Students who withdraw under formally recognized extenuating circumstances will receive a grade of WE, indicating that the withdrawn hours do not count against the student’s W-limit hours. Post-deadline withdrawal is only allowable for recognized extenuating circumstances. Unsatisfactory academic performance itself is not an extenuating circumstance. The grade of W or WE is posted on the academic transcript.

PASS/NO CREDIT OPTION
Every student will be permitted during his/her undergraduate years to select up to a total of four courses (at most one per academic year) in which he/she can receive an evaluation of H (honors), P (pass), or N (no credit). This option is designed to encourage curiosity, exploration, and experimentation in areas where a student has strong interest but little or no previous experience. The Pass/No Credit option only applies to courses normally graded on an A-F scale, and it cannot be used on courses taken by a student for credit toward his/her major or minor or to satisfy University General Education requirements. [Note: courses designated by the faculty to be graded on a Pass/No Credit basis may count for the major.] To exercise this option, the student must declare his/her intention to take a Pass/No Credit option by completing the appropriate form at the Office of the Registrar by the 6th business day of the Fall and Spring semesters, and the 2nd business day for the first and second Summer sessions; this form requires the approval of the chair of the student’s major department. Courses completed with the grade of Honors or Pass will count toward the hours needed for graduation, but they will not be considered in the computation of the grade point average.

UNSATISFACTORY GRADE REPORTS
Unsatisfactory Grade Report notifications are sent via email to students in the middle of each semester for courses in which the student is performing below average and a grade has been reported. Students should also seek feedback from instructors. Unsatisfactory grades are available through the secure student access pages of My UNC Charlotte online at my.charlotte.edu.

FINAL GRADES
Final grades are available through the secure student access pages of My UNC Charlotte online at my.charlotte.edu.

FINAL GRADE CHANGES AND APPEALS FROM FINAL COURSE GRADES
When a final course grade other than Incomplete (I) is officially reported by the instructor at the end of an academic term, the grade is recorded by the Office of the Registrar and can be changed only if the grade has been assigned arbitrarily or impermissibly as defined in University Policy 410, “Policy and Procedures for Student Appeals of Final Course Grades.”

Students should follow the procedures outlined in the policy if they believe that the final course grade that has been assigned is incorrect. The policy requires the student to discuss the grade with the instructor as soon as possible after the grade is received. Students should note, however, that the University is not obliged to respond to a grade appeal unless the student files it with the appropriate department chairperson or interdisciplinary program director within the first four weeks following the last day of the regular semester or the summer term in which the grade was received. When a grade is assigned consistent with University policy, only the instructor has the right to change the grade except as provided in the Incomplete grade policy. When an instructor reports a grade change for a grade other than I, the “Change of Grade” form must be approved by his/her department chair and college dean, or the assigned designee of the department chair and/or college dean.

REPEATING COURSES
A student may receive credit for a course one time only, unless the course description specifies that it “may be repeated for credit.” However, students can repeat a course to improve their GPA under two different sets of conditions. In the first case, within the limits specified in the next section, a student may replace a grade. This process is called “With Grade Replacement.” In the second case, a student may repeat a course with the new grade averaging in with all others for this same course. This is specified in the second section below as “Without Grade Replacement.”

With Grade Replacement
Undergraduate students may replace up to two (2) courses (maximum of 8 credit hours) for grade replacement. Both grades will be reflected on the transcript. However, the higher of the two grades will be used in calculation of the GPA. This policy applies to courses first taken in Fall 2007 and thereafter. [Note: Some courses in the College of Health and Human Services may not allow grade replacement.] All courses for which a grade of A, B, C, D, or F may be assigned are eligible for grade replacement under this policy. The course to be replaced and the repeat course must have their grades assigned by UNC Charlotte.

Students must submit a completed “Grade Replacement” online form through Banner Self-Service by the last day to add or drop a class with no grade in the semester or summer session in which the course is to be repeated (see the Academic Calendar for the exact date). A repeated course may not be selected retroactively to use this grade replacement policy. In courses for which the final grade assigned was a D or F, the student may submit the “Grade Replacement” online form requiring no further approval, providing it is within the course and hour limits specified in this policy. In courses for which the final grade assigned was a C or above, the student must submit the online form that will be routed electronically to obtain approval of the department chair and the dean of the college of the student’s program or major, and remain within the two-course, eight-hour limitations of this policy. Once a student has filed a “Grade Replacement” form for a course that choice cannot be revoked due to withdrawing from the course or from the University. (Medical or special circumstances may be reviewed on a case-by-case basis.) The original course grade will be the grade of record for the course and not a W. Any such withdrawal still consumes one of the two course substitutions permitted under this policy. Students enrolled in special topics courses for a grade replacement must enroll in the same topic for which they originally received the grade to be replaced. A grade received owing to an admitted or adjudicated academic dishonesty violation shall not be replaced if the course is repeated. This exception is not subject to appeal or academic petition.

Without Grade Replacement
In all courses which are not identified as being repeatable for additional credits, a student who has received a grade of C, D, H, P, or above in a course may repeat that course only with prior approval of the student’s advisor, department chair, and dean. Students seek approval by following the directions for their major’s college to request a repeat override, found online at ninercentral.charlotte.edu/courses-registration/repeat-course-overrides. An undergraduate student who received an F or U in a course may repeat a course without seeking outside approval. All grades for repeated courses will be shown on the student’s official transcript and be used in the calculation of the grade point average. For prerequisite purposes, the most recent grade will be used whether or not it is the highest.

CREDIT HOURS
Credit hours, also known as semester hours, are the number of hours the course is allocated. The majority of undergraduate courses have three (3) credit hours, while labs and other courses may have one, two, four, or more credit hours. Attempted, passed, and earned credit hours are reported on transcripts. Refer to example below.

QUALITY POINTS
Quality points, also known as grade points, are determined by multiplying the number of points assigned to each grade (A = 4, B = 3, C = 2, D = 1, F = 0) by the number of credit hours associated with that course. Refer to example below.

GPA HOURS
GPA hours, also known as quality hours, are the total number of credit (semester) hours in the graded courses the student has attempted, except for those for which a grade of I, IP, W, P, AU, or N is recorded. Refer to example below.

GRADE POINT AVERAGE (GPA)
The grade point average for an undergraduate student is determined by adding all accumulated quality points together, and then dividing by the total number of GPA hours the student has attempted, excluding those for which the student received a grade of I, IP, W, WE, H, P, AU, or N. In computing the grade point average, only those credits attempted at UNC Charlotte or through the Greater Charlotte Consortium (GCC) are included. Refer to the example below.

Example of Transcript:

Subject	Course	Grade	Credit Hours	Quality Points
AMST	2050	P	3.000	0.00
CHEM	1251	F	3.000	0.00
CHEM	1251L	F	1.000	0.00
ENGR	1201	C	2.000	4.00
LBST	2101	C	3.000	6.00
MATH	1241	C	3.000	6.00
UWRT	1101	B	3.000	9.00

Term Totals (Undergraduate)

Term	Attempt Hours	Passed Hours	Earned Hours	GPA Hours	Quality Points	GPA
Current Term	18.000	14.000	14.000	15.000	25.00	1.666
Cumulative	18.000	14.000	14.000	15.000	25.00	1.666

Example of GPA Calculation:
GPA = Quality Points/GPA Hours; 25/15=1.666

GRADE POINT CALCULATOR
To calculate grades, visit the online GPA Calculator.

III. Definitions

• Department chair – The faculty member in charge of an academic department of the University.
• Registrar – The official at the University who is responsible for maintaining student records. The Office of the Registrar plans and oversees registration, academic record maintenance, transcript preparation, graduation, a degree audit report system, and curricular records.
• My UNC Charlotte – One-stop shopping for student services via the Web. It combines various systems, user interfaces, and technical solutions already available to the UNC Charlotte community in a single, consistent web-based interface. Students should use My UNC Charlotte at my.charlotte.edu to access web-enabled student services, course information, e-mail, and calendar scheduling.

IV. Policy and Procedure Contact(s)

• Authority: Faculty Council [Faculty Academic Policy and Standards Committee]
• Responsible Office: Office of the Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs
• Additional Contact(s): Office of the Registrar

V. History

• December 6, 1967: Policy approved
• November 2, 1989: Revised
• September 26, 2013: Revised [inclusion of assigned designee of the department chair and/or college dean for approvals of final grade changes]
• February 20, 2014: Revised [added grade of WE and updated Grade of W wording for new Withdrawals policy]
• March 17, 2016: Revised [Add/Drop period changed from 8 instructional days to 8 calendar days for Fall & Spring semesters, effective Fall 2016]
• May 10, 2017: Revised [under “Without Grade Replacement,” added information and link about repeat overrides and changed how Grades of D are handled]
• June 30, 2017: Revised [clarified “Grade Replacement” deadline]
• October 19, 2017: Revised [Pass/No Credit period changed from 8 calendar days to 6 business days for Fall & Spring semesters, and to 2nd business day for Summer sessions]
• June 22, 2018: Revised [added FX grade and definition]
• April 9, 2020: Revised [exception for Spring 2020 passed by FEC]
• May 4, 2020: Revised [added NG grade]
• May 6, 2020: Revised [extended implementation date from Fall 2020 to Fall 2021 for new grade replacement procedures due to the COVID-19 pandemic]
• November 6, 2020: Revised [exception for Academic Year 2020-2021 (Fall 2020, Spring 2021, Summer 2021) passed by FEC]
• December 11, 2020: Revised [added H grade to be is used to indicate a high pass during the 2020-2021 academic year due to the COVID-19 pandemic]

VI. Related Policies, Procedures, and Resources

VII. Frequently Asked Questions

• Which students are covered under this policy and procedure?
  This policy and procedure applies to all undergraduate students at UNC Charlotte.
• If a student drops a course that has been designated “with grade replacement” within the designated add/drop period, does the student forfeit that grade replacement?
  No, if a student is registered for a repeated course that they are taking with grade replacement and drop that course within the appropriate add/drop period with no penalty, they do not lose their grade replacement and can use it again in the future, should they desire. However, if a student withdraws from the course (after the add/drop period), the grade replacement is considered used.
• Is rounding used in GPA? For example: If my GPA is 3.769, will the university round the GPA to 3.8?
  No, this would not accurately represent the overall GPA. GPA calculations are generally reported to three decimal places and should be truncated when shortened, never rounded up. For example, a GPA of 3.489 would be written as 3.489, 3.48, or 3.4.
• How is the H grade being used for 2020-2021? For the 2020-2021 academic year, as an amendment to the Exception to UNC Charlotte Academic Policy and Procedure: Grading, the H grade is used to indicate a high pass or a successful credit by exam.