***CLARIFICATION***

A few concerns surrounding this petition have been brought to our attention, and we would like to address them;

1.The ideas presented in the petition are not set in stone, and if you have any areas of concern that we have not considered or suggestions that could be made please send them our way by using the google form https://forms.gle/pREDT8moKR65De2z9 as every student's opinion matters on this issue. 

2. We are aware that there is no standard grading scale and that different professors and faculties choose different ways of grading. The grading scale listed in the petition was one example of many that can be used throughout SFU. 

3. We are taking into consideration the needs of all faculties across SFU. We would not promote anything or pass anything that would put any students at a disadvantage. The ideas presented in the petition will be discussed with SFSS, student senators, departmental student unions so that every voice is heard.

Dear SFU students, 

My friend and I are starting a petition to bring awareness and possibly a change to SFU grading scheme and scale. We are looking to implement two changes:

1.  Add percentages to our transcripts 
2. To change our grading scale to match other post-secondary scales (i.e., 90-100 = A+). 

The reason why we feel this change is necessary is that not having percentages on transcripts puts students aiming for graduate studies at another school at a disadvantage. 

Starting with our first proposal, the reason why this disadvantages us is because without physical percentages on transcripts, other universities are not aware of what your actual percentage is. Due to this lack of information, other universities will take the lowest number within that letter grade range to calculate your admission CGPA. For instance, if a student at SFU earns an 88% (e.g., an A- at SFU) but plans on going to UBC for graduate school, the UBC admission board will calculate and round that A- percentage down to 80% since 80-85% is an A- at UBC. 

Other universities do not compensate and/or adjust for SFU’s grading scale. Due to this lack of consideration, we would like to implement our second proposal that we should change our grading scale to match that of other universities. The link below shows that Ontario groups our scale together with UBC when that is simply not the case.   

https://www.ouac.on.ca/guide/orpas-conversion-table/

For those of you who are unfamiliar with other post-secondary grading scales, I have provided links below.

UBC

https://students.ubc.ca/enrolment/courses/grades                  

SFU Grading scale:   

A+: 95-100

A: 90-94

A-: 85-89

B+: 81-84

B: 77-80

B-: 73-76

C+: 67-72

C: 61-66

C-: 56-60

D: 50-55

F: 0-49

UBC, KPU, UVIC, CAP, TRU Grading scale: 

A+: 90-100

A: 85-89

A-: 80-85

B+: 76-79

B: 72-75

B-: 68-71

C+:64-67

C:60-63

C-: 55-59

D: 50-54

F:0-49 

University of Victoria 

https://www.uvic.ca/humanities/atwp/current-students/grading/index.php

Thompson Rivers University

https://tru.ca/distance/services/policies/newgrading.html

Kwantlen Polytechnic University 

https://calendar.kpu.ca/academic-regulations/grades/ 

Capilano University 

https://capilanou.ca/mycapu/grades/

Also, The Peak has also highlighted this issue in several articles regarding SFU’s grading scheme as well as comparing it to other universities. If you would like to read about what The Peak has said about the matter. I have also provided the articles below. 

https://the-peak.ca/2014/09/making-the-grade/

https://the-peak.ca/2016/05/universities-should-adopt-a-uniform-grading-scale/ 

If you have any further questions regarding this petition, or if you have any additional comments/arguments for or against this petition, it would be very helpful to us if you could fill out this Google Form linked below! Also, if you have any suggestions on how SFU could fix their grading scheme beyond the points we have made feel free to leave them in the form as well. 

https://forms.gle/pREDT8moKR65De2z9