Deferred Standing 

As you know, there is a campus-wide policy on Deferred standing in coursework: 

UBC Calendar – Campus-wide Policies and Regulations: http://www.calendar.ubc.ca/vancouver/index.cfm?tree=3,42,97,0

 

There has been no change in this policy.  

G+PS has seen an increase in the number of  students who have been given an extension to time to complete course requirements without formal Deferred standing. In some cases the outstanding requirements have not been completed, and the missing grades have not been noticed until final checking before graduation. Such a situation can be very difficult to resolve, particularly if the instructor is no longer available either to provide a grade on work that was completed or to review the student’s submission of the outstanding material to complete the course. This can have serious consequences for a student who is expecting to graduate. 

In order to prevent such occurrences, we will be offering more support to programs to identify students who have missing grades and who may need Deferred standing. One month after the end of each term, we will run a report that identifies students with missing grades, and will inform graduate programs. The programs can then contact their students and the course instructors to determine whether the students still have work to complete and whether Deferred standing is appropriate. Programs follow up with G+PS and either request Deferred standing or enter a grade for the work the student has completed. 

If the program decides to request Deferred standing, the instructor must provide an interim grade that will be entered in the student’s record in addition to SD (for Deferred standing). This ensures that if the instructor is no longer at UBC when the SD is completed, another faculty member can grade the remaining work and calculate a total grade using the interim grade.   

Please see Deferred Standing in the Policies and Procedures section of the G+PS website for details on the procedure for requesting Deferred standing.

The form for requesting Deferred standing has been updated to clarify this procedure. 

Please don’t hesitate to contact me (max.read@ubc.ca) if you have questions. 

Kind regards, 

Max 

Max Read
Associate Director, Student Academic Services
Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies | Office of the Dean and Vice-Provost
The University of British Columbia | Vancouver Campus
170-6371 Crescent Road | Vancouver BC | V6T 1Z2 Canada
Phone 604 822 0283
max.read@ubc.ca | http://www.grad.ubc.ca