The Minister of Higher Education, Pascale Déry, announced on Wednesday that the deadline for dropping courses in the college network will be changed from 20% to 60%.
This withdrawal date allows a college student to withdraw from a course without specifying failure
will appear in the bulletin for this course. It doesn't affect his grade point average or his college performance rating, commonly known as the R rating.
R rating or Performance appraisal
A method of evaluating academic records used by Quebec universities to manage admissions to certain programs, particularly those that are more limited.
In a press release, the Ministry of Higher Education explains, students can benefit Greater flexibility in their educational path
.
The early nature of withdrawal deadlines, currently established as a fixed date within 20% of session duration, is a barrier to success and can be stressful.
We explain.
This means that students usually have less than a month to decide whether or not they can pass their course. According to Federation of College Education (FEC-CSQ) President Uri Blanchet, students should make this decision before taking an exam.
An opinion shared by the Federation of Quebec College Students (FECQ), which represents 80,000 students from 28 CEGEPs.
Results are taken in a 20% session in a course, which corresponds to a three-week class. Often an exam isn't even taken until the fourth or fifth week.
By moving the withdrawal deadline to 60% of the session, students will have more time To analyze their situation and make the right decisions to support their academic success
Ministry mentions.
With few exceptions, a college session is a minimum of 82 days, meaning students have at least ten weeks to decide whether to continue or drop their course.
According to Quebec, students can better assess their academic progress before dropping a course.
Photo: Radio-Canada / Linda Paradis
By giving students more latitude in their academic path, we allow them to make better decisions and, ultimately, encourage them to persevere in their course of study.
The new measure will be implemented this year in both CEGEP and private colleges.
These changes will allow students to maintain their status as a person considered to be studying full-time and, thus, continue to benefit from free tuition. Ultimately, we are coming to apply at the college level what has already been done in the university network.
Minister Terry's office explains.
asked the students
According to the head of FECQLaurence Mallette-Léonard said moving the withdrawal date would not only allow students to better evaluate their progress before dropping out, but would also avoid references to avoidable failures on the report card, especially for students with heavy workloads or work-family-study issues.
We observe that many students take multiple courses and don't drop just one course [pour se concentrer sur les autres cours]They fail four out of six because they cannot submit all the work
, Ms. Mallette-Léonard explains. Beginning in the fall, they will have the opportunity to cut nearly two-thirds of their session time.
This news has been well received by the editors. In such studies, there was no negative effect of such an action. In fact, the president believes the consequences can only be positive FEC–CSQ. This allows students to get a better idea of their situation within a course.
The current dropout date is too early. Sometimes there was no rating at all or only one.
There are plenty of students who really don't know, and so as not to negatively impact their R rating, they give up.
Adds Yuri Blanchet.
This is good news for teachers who are at risk, Mr. Blanchett believes. An early abandonment date means that their tasks may be cut short. […] If there were students who dropped out, we calculated the work with the remaining students. There, it is even more interesting for our precarious teachers who have a very substantial task, pushing back the dropout date to 60%.
Teaching work refers to all activities that a teacher is called upon to undertake as part of their duties.
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