Academic Catalogue

Course Policies

Here, you will find all you need to know regarding policies that affect how many courses you need to take, how to apply for an extension, and how to withdraw from courses or retake them.

Grading schedule

letter grades

Letter grade	designation	explanation	grade point
A		Excellent work	4.0
A-			3.7
B+			3.3
B		Good work	3.0
B-			2.7
C+			2.3
C		Passable work	2.0
C-			1.7
F	Fail	Unacceptable work	0.0

Other grade designations

letter	designation	explanation
AG	Aegrotat	Ungraded Pass: See below for the detailed Aegrotat Policy.
AU	Audit	Non-credit: Attendance recognized.
EX	Extension	Temporary designation for course in which a student has been granted an extension for course work.
CIP	Course in Progress	Temporary designation for course in which the grade has not yet been recorded.
P	Pass	Competency: Used only when a letter grade is deemed inappropriate.
R	Retake	Course subsequently retaken.
W	Withdrawal	Granted by the College when, because of exceptional circumstances, the student was unable to complete the course.

Grade Reports and Transcripts

Grades may be viewed online immediately after they are posted, once you have completed your course evaluation(s). You have one month from the date grades are posted to appeal any disputed grades (see Appeals). 

Official transcripts bearing the seal of the College and the signature of the Registrar may be ordered online or by submitting an Official Transcript Request Form along with the appropriate fee. All fees must be fully paid before an official transcript can be issued. Visit the Transcripts page for more details on ordering your transcript.

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Terms, Credit hours, and work load

Regent College operates on a three-term cycle:

• Fall (September–December)
• Winter (January–April)
• Summer (May–August)

Fall and Winter Terms

Fall and Winter Term courses are normally offered for 3 credit hours and meet 3 hours per week.

Evening and weekend courses may be offered for 2 or 3 credit hours.

In cases where a 3-credit hour course spans over two terms (Fall and Winter), you will be charged for 1.5 credits in each term; however, you will not receive any academic credit until the full course has been completed.

Summer Term

The Summer Term is divided into two sessions: Spring Session and Summer Session. Although the dates for these sessions vary, Spring Session courses are generally offered in May and early June, and Summer Session courses from late June through July. Some courses, especially the biblical languages, run into the month of August.

Summer Term courses vary: one-week courses are normally 1 or 2 credit hours, two-week courses are 2 or 3 credit hours, three-week courses are 3 credit hours (6 credits of Hebrew or Greek may also be taken in the Summer).

course load

If you are taking courses for academic credit, you may expect to invest a minimum of 45 hours of work into a course for each credit hour. Where applicable, this includes class lectures, assigned reading, papers, assignments, and exams.

In any given term, a full load of academic work is considered to be 12 credit hours. This presupposes that you spend about 40 hours per week (i.e., 8 hours per day over 5 days) over the 14 weeks of a Fall or Winter term attending lectures and completing assignments and exams. While some students do take more than 12 credits per term, this is a significant amount of academic work; therefore, we encourage you, where possible, to spread your studies out over Regent’s academic year (Fall, Winter, and Summer Terms), particularly if you wish to earn 30 credit hours per year. If English is a second language for you, you are encouraged to take no more than 9 credit hours in your first term.

For important information relating to the offering of courses at Regent College, see the General Course Information page. 

Please note: Full load in this context pertains only to academic work load. For full-time requirements around student loans, financial aid, study permits, tuition discounts, and tax forms, see the section immediately below this one.

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Full-Time Status

In contrast to a full load of studies, defined above, full-time status is the minimum credit load required for various purposes. For most purposes, full-time study is defined as 9 credit hours per term, or 18 credit hours per academic year (September to August).

You should be aware of specific criteria that apply if:

• You are applying for financial aid--whether a Canadian student loan, a US student loan, or a Regent College bursary or scholarship
• You have a study permit and you want to work in Canada
• You are applying for one of Regent College's tuition discounts
• You are wanting to receive a T2202A form for income tax purposes.

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Online Access to Onsite Courses

If a course is offered both onsite and online, students must register for the online section of the course to gain online access. Normally, online access is given via Zoom. 

Zoom link sharing is prohibited. This includes viewing a course in a group with people who have not registered in the course’s online section. Zoom access sharing may result in the student being dropped from the class.

Registering for an online section counts towards the online credit limit in the student’s program.

temporary online access for onsite students

Normally, students registered in the onsite section of a course will not receive any online access. This includes access to course recordings. Exceptions may be made at the course instructor's discretion, only if the course already has an online section, including but not limited to the following reasons:

• Illness or injury of the student
• Illness or injury of a student's dependent
• Emergency childcare issues

Students who need to change their registration from onsite to online during the term may appeal to the Registrar to change their registration. Online access fees may apply, and the course will then count towards the student’s online credit limit.

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Course Recordings

A course instructor may choose to record their course if it already has an online section. Recordings will normally only be accessible to students in the online section of the course who cannot reasonably be expected to attend the course live. Students should contact the course instructor to request permission to access recordings.

Grounds for accessing course recordings may include:

• Time zone differences
• An unavoidable scheduling conflict between courses required in a student's program
• Illness or injury of the student
• Illness or injury of a student's dependent
• Emergency childcare issues

• Personal review of course material
• Personal and work scheduling conflicts
• Church work
• Providing hospitality
• Vacation
• Failing to anticipate course workload

If a course is recorded, students will be notified via the course syllabus. Wherever possible, students in recorded courses may choose to sit where they cannot be recorded in the classroom or turn off their camera if they are participating online. Recordings are normally deleted at the end of each term and will not be posted outside of the course Moodle page or used for another class, including a subsequent year of the same class.

Students are not normally permitted to record lectures privately. For exceptions, students must seek permission to record from the instructor or through academic accommodations via UBC. If a student is permitted to make a personal recording of a class, the instructor will notify other students that a recording is being made without revealing the individual making the recording. Such recordings are only for personal academic use, and not for distribution of any kind.

Students are not permitted to distribute course recordings, including, but not limited to, watching recordings with someone not permitted to view course recordings, link sharing, or posting recordings online. Unauthorized distribution of recordings may result in the student losing access to course recordings and being dropped from the course.

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Style Guide and Paper Formats

The standard style used at Regent College is modified Chicago Manual of Style as outlined in Kate L. Turabian, A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations, current ed. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996). You must follow this style unless your professor specifically directs you otherwise.

For further information, see the Research and Writing section of the Allison Library website.

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Research with Human Participants

Students who engage in research involving human participants must adhere to the following guidelines taken from the Tri-Council Policy Statement: Ethical Conduct for Research Involving Humans:

• obtaining consent of human participants in advance of conducting any research,
• fully informing human participants of the nature and purpose of the research and of any likely benefits or risks they may face,
• keeping personal information confidential, and
• treating human participants fairly and equitably.

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Guided Study

A guided study is a course in which you are able to focus on an issue of your particular interest under the guidance of one of the regular full-time faculty of Regent College. Only students who are admitted to Regent College are permitted to take a guided study. Furthermore, you are limited to a maximum of one guided study per term for a total of:

Total Guided Studies Permitted by Program

GradDipCS	2
MA Christian Studies	2
MA Theological Studies	3
MALTS	0
MDiv	4
ThM	1

Guided studies may be taken for 1, 2, or 3 credit hours depending on the amount of work involved (1 credit for each 45 hours of work).

Guided studies are subject to the availability of a faculty supervisor, are subject to the same academic guidelines as other regular courses, and are not offered in place of regularly offered courses. 

If you wish to take a guided study, you must, in consultation with a faculty supervisor, complete a Guided Study Contract and submit it to the Student Services Office with your registration form or course change form at the beginning of a Fall or Winter Term. 

Guided studies are not normally offered in the Summer Term (note that if you are permitted to take a guided study in the Summer, you may be liable to the U-Pass fee throughout the Summer). Guided studies must be completed within the Fall or Winter Term in which they are registered. Note that only a general title will appear on your transcript (e.g., Guided Study: Applied Theology).

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Class Attendance Policy

Attendance is expected at all classes. If you must miss a class, for whatever reason, you should contact your instructor prior to the class. Instructors are at liberty to assign grade penalties for what they deem to be excessive absences.

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Extensions for assignments

Assignment deadlines can usually be found in your course syllabus. These deadlines are considered to be part of the course requirements. Due to the additional workload and inconvenience for faculty to have to grade late papers, and due to the College’s intention to be fair to students who submit their work on time, we will consider extensions only in exceptional circumstances. You should take serious consideration of this when planning your course load. 

Submit a Course Extension Application.

Grounds for an Extension

Extensions for course work are granted only in cases where the student demonstrates there was an unforeseeable and unavoidable emergency. Emergencies considered to be grounds for an extension typically include:

• personal sickness or injury which prevents one from working
• sickness, injury or death which requires the student’s attention
• emotional or psychological crisis for which the student has sought professional help
• unexpected increase in job responsibilities

By contrast, the following will not normally be considered grounds for an extension: church work, providing hospitality, vacations, relocating, difficult living situations, failure to anticipate the amount of work involved in a course, confusion over the nature of the assignments, computer problems (it is your responsibility to keep files backed up), lost assignments, lack of proficiency in English. If you have a permanent disability requiring an accommodation, contact the Access and Diversity Office on the UBC campus.

Application Process

Please read the following carefully: failure to follow extension policy instructions will normally result in a grade of F being assigned to the course. Note that it may take longer to grade assignments submitted with an extension.

For Fall and Winter courses (onsite and online)

For assignments due within the term (i.e., prior to the last day of final exams), assuming you have legitimate grounds as defined above, extensions may be granted at the discretion of your instructor. When requesting an extension, you may also present supporting documentation (e.g., a note from someone whose care or supervision you have been under).

• For an extension with a deadline up to seven days after the end of the term, you must appeal to your instructor.
• If your condition is such that you need to appeal for a further extension beyond that deadline and up to 30 days after the end of the term, you may submit a Course Extension Application through REGIS by no later than the extension deadline given by your instructor. You must also provide evidence, either to Reception (e.g., a signed note) or by email to Academic Advising (e.g., an email exchange), that your instructor granted you the prior extension.

For Spring and Summer Session courses (onsite and online)

Assignments are typically due 45 days after the last class, although some may be due earlier (see your course syllabus). If you require an extension beyond the assignment deadline: (i) complete a Course Extension Application form through REGIS by that deadline, and (ii) pay a $25 fee. Note that your assignments may be graded by someone other than the course instructor.

Notification: You should receive e-mail notification from the Student Services Office within 5 business days of submitting your application form. If an extension is granted, the e-mail will include instructions on how and when to submit your assignments.

Submission of Assignments

For extensions granted by the course instructor, submit your assignment(s) directly to him/her via Reception. For all other extensions, attach the Extension Submission Form (which you will receive from Student Services) and submit or post your assignment(s) to the Student Services Office, or email it/them to Academic Advising, by the assigned deadline. Assignments granted by the Student Services Office or the Academic Standards Committee must not be submitted directly to the professor or the TA. Failure to submit assignments by the assigned deadline will normally result in an assignment grade reduction of 1/3 of a letter grade per day late.

Extraordinary Situations

In a situation where the crisis you are facing continues beyond the extension granted by the Student Services Office, you may appeal for a further extension to the Academic Standards Committee. In order to do so, write a letter of appeal and submit it, along with supporting documentation, to Academic Advising. The decision of the Academic Standards Committee shall be final. Note that the Academic Standards Committee does not normally grant an extension for more than four months beyond the original submission deadline.

If it is not possible for you to complete the course, you may apply (through the same email address) for a Withdrawal from the course (a grade of W on the transcript). The latter type of appeal is normally accompanied by a letter of support from someone whose care or supervision you have been under (e.g., doctor, professional counselor). Note that a W (“Withdrawal”) on your transcript would not affect your GPA, whereas an F (“Failure”) would adversely affect it.

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Withdrawal Policy

Students who undergo extreme hardship that was not of their causing, was beyond their ability to control, and prevented them from completing course requirements even given an extension, may appeal to the Registrar for a Withdrawal from the course. This would normally be accompanied by a letter from a professional supporting your appeal (e.g., your doctor). If granted, a grade of W will be recorded on your transcript; this does not affect the GPA.

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Course Retake Policy

You may retake a course—subject to regular registration restrictions and limitations—in an effort to achieve a higher grade. This involves registering and paying tuition for the course a second time. Both courses will appear on the transcript in the terms they were taken; however, credit will not be granted more than once, and the best grade achieved will be retained. Only one retake will be permitted per course.

Since retaking a course in the MALTS program involves joining another cohort, MALTS students who want to retake a course must appeal to the Academic Standards Committee for permission to do so. Please contact the MALTS Program Manager.

Comprehensive exams may be retaken only once; you will be assessed a comprehensive exam retake fee. Retaking a course often requires a manual adjustment to the student transcript; so, when you have received the grade for a retaken course, please inform the Student Services Office.

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Aegrotat Policy

The grade designation AG (Aegrotat) is granted when, for reasons of serious illness or other extraordinary circumstances outside your control, you are unable to complete a course. Application for consideration must be made to the Academic Dean no later than one week of the end of the course. A favourable evaluation may be given where the circumstance is beyond doubt, where you have an otherwise excellent record of completion, and where neither further assessment (e.g., a deferred exam) nor extension of time are considered feasible (e.g., you are in the final term of a program of study). The Academic Dean, in consultation with other members of Faculty, shall determine whether the course should be awarded an AG (passing but without grade point) or a grade calculated on the basis of work already completed for the course. If your application is denied, you will be given a grade based on the work you submitted in the course.