Despite overwhelming support by students, the NTU administration has rejected the proposal that allows students to exercise their Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory option after their grades are known, choosing instead to extend the deadline for exercising the option by three weeks.

Unsurprisingly some students here feel that the three-week extension pales in comparison with our peer institution at the National University of Singapore, which had in October last year allowed students to exercise their S/U option after the examination results are known.

The NUS policy—where less than stellar grades can be retroactively discounted from the computation of one’s GPA—is indeed more attractive than the one employed in NTU.

It is only natural then that students would call for a system similar to that of NUS to be adopted here in NTU.

It is however important to remind ourselves of the spirit in which the S/U option was introduced—to encourage academic exploration while providing a safeguard against any negative impact to students’ GPA as a result of these explorations.

The NTU administration has rejected calls to adopt the NUS system on two counts.

First, allowing students to exercise their S/U option retroactively would distort the students’ GPA, and may affect the credibility of the degrees issued by the University.

Second, top universities around the world also require students to exercise their S/U option or the equivalent before the examination results are known. In an earlier article, “Same principle leads to different S/U policies”, this newspaper explored similar systems implemented in the top universities around the world and found the NUS policy most liberal.

While Columbia University has something similar—where students can change a grade of “Pass” (the equivalent of “Satisfactory”) into a letter grade—students must still exercise their equivalent of the Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory option, called Pass/D/Fail, about 10 weeks into the semester.

The NTU administration has taken a cautious approach by following what most of the top universities have done—and with good reason.

Although the former NUS Students’ Union president who lobbied for the change said the retroactive S/U system would encourage students to work harder than they would if they had exercised the option before examinations, it can also cultivate a wait-and-see attitude among students, weakening their incentive to work hard.

After all students can always discount the grade if things do not turn out well.

But that is not to say that the current S/U system that NTU has adopted is ideal.

In addition to encouraging academic exploration, the university should also encourage students to do well in these unfamiliar territories.

The current S/U option is not the best way to do so, as it provides neither the incentive for students to give their best shot nor the penalty on their GPAs for those who do not even make the effort to pass these courses.

Because a grade of “C” is all it takes to secure a “Satisfactory” grade and gain the academic units for a course under the S/U option, students would rather go the extra mile for subjects that do get computed in their GPA.

If enough effort has been put in, there is little reason why a grade of “C” and above is not possible. Yet no penalty exists for students who do not bother to make the effort.

Since the university has looked at the systems adopted by other top universities before rejecting the retroactive S/U proposal, perhaps it can also take a leaf out of Dartmouth College’s book to encourage students to excel in their academic exploration.

The equivalent of the S/U option at Dartmouth is the non-recording option, where students select during the semester a minimum letter grade for a subject they want recorded in their transcript and factored into their GPA.

If a student scores the minimum grade or above, it is recorded as it is and computed in the GPA; if the score is lower than the minimum but at least a “C”, it is recorded as “Satisfactory” and not computed into the GPA. A student who scores lower than “C” has the grade recorded and computed in the GPA.

Such a system provides the incentive for students to work hard for an “A” instead of just having an “S” to look forward to. And just as importantly it will provide deterrence against those who may choose not to put in the effort to pass the course and are willing to settle for a “U”.

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• Same principle leads to different S/U policies

  —Oct 28th, 2008, 2.50am

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