Fellow supporters, Please see below Swinburne University of Technology's response to the matter of our grading system on students prior to 2014. While our grade will not be changed respectively we have achieved much more information explaining how the new grading system will effect our past grades. Swinburne will be adding a notice regarding this into their student newsletter which is emailed out, as well as updating their website to better explain how students GPA's will be calculated. Please read the letter below. Thank you for all the support. 31 July, 2014 To Sarah Kolston Petition Organiser Dear Sarah GRADING SCHEMA PETITION I refer to the above petition and our subsequent discussion on the matter. The purpose of this letter is to formally respond to the concerns raised in the petition and to ask you to forward it onto all students that have signed it as I do not have all of their details. By way of background, I can advise that Swinburne looked at its grading schema and the introduction of a Grade Point Average (GPA) during 2013 as it prepared for the Student One student management system (Student One) implementation which occurred in May 2014. During this consultation, Swinburne compared its grade sets with other Victorian universities, where it was found the majority of institutions had a grading schema where Credit, Distinction and High Distinction grades were set at a lower level, namely the format now used at Swinburne from 2014 onwards. In addition, the majority of institutions used a 4.00 point GPA. While different GPAs are in use across the world, the 4.00 point GPA was seen as the most appropriate one for admission into overseas and high-level programs. As part of the consultation, the Swinburne Student Union (SSU)and the Swinburne Student Amenities Association (SSAA) were consulted on the proposed reforms. At the time, questions were asked about what would happen to students that studied prior to 2014 and continued with their studies in 2014. These groups were advised that only one grading schema was possible and that it could not be applied retrospectively. Therefore a grade from 2013 would not be altered into the 2014 grading schema as that was not the grading schema at the time. Further, GPA calculations would be based solely from 2014 results onwards, as Student One would not configured to handle two grading schemas when calculating a student’s GPA. SSAA and SSU acknowledged this and accepted that the new grading schema and the introduction of the GPA was a progressive step. Following this consultation the proposed changes were taken to the Academic Review and Policy Committee, Academic Senate and the Vice-Chancellor’s Planning and Management Committee where it was formally approved. Communications were subsequently forwarded to the Swinburne student population via the Student News email and were information was also displayed on the Current Students FAQ webpage. Following the petition, I have also requested that the next Student News again advise students of the grading schema change and that the FAQs be updated to better explain the change, the benefits it brings our students, the reason why we cannot retrospectively change grading schemas and to better explain how the GPA is calculated. Thank you for raising this issue via the petition and hope that I have been able to answer your questions to your satisfaction. Yours sincerely Tony Reed Registrar