Dear students,
We are writing to inform you of changes for undergraduate students in relation to Pass/Fail (P/F) grading. These changes allow undergraduate students with fewer than 26 credits to place one class per semester on P/F. They also restrict all undergraduate students to one P/F class per semester.
Some policy relating to the use of P/F grades remains unchanged. Courses taken Pass/Fail may only be used as electives. They may not be used to satisfy general education, school/college, major or minor requirements. In total, undergraduate students can place no more than 12 credits on P/F (excluding those from spring 2020). Your current or future school or college may have additional limitations and policies concerning courses that can be placed on pass/fail. These credits may also not be transferable to another institution. Students who are on scholastic probation remain ineligible to place any classes on P/F.
Because of these limits on how P/F grades may be used, it is important that you consult your assigned academic advisor as well as your intended school/college’s policies regarding which courses can be placed on P/F before submitting your request.
These changes were passed in the UConn Senate Bylaws in April 2022, to be implemented for the 2022-23 academic year and beyond. These changes do not apply to graduate students.
- The full text of the bylaws can be found here, and also copied below. Because the changes in academic regulations were made after the publication of the academic catalog, academic regulations published in the catalog now have minor differences (no use of P/F for students with fewer than 26 credits, no limit per semester for use of P/F) from those in the senate bylaws. If you are a student with more than 26 credits and wish to place more than one class this semester on P/F, you may be approved to do so, but only with the support of your advisor and advising dean/director. This flexibility will be extended only for Spring 2023 due to the discrepancy in published catalog language.
Requests to place or remove courses from Pass/Fail must be submitted using the Student Enrollment Request Form (http://registrar.uconn.edu/forms/) no later than 11:45 p.m. on Monday, April 10, 2023. Deadlines for every term are found on the Academic Calendar (https://registrar.uconn.edu/academic-calendar/). Utilizing Pass/Fail requires approval from your advisor. If you are not sure who your advisor is, you can find out here. This information is available in the Student Administration system.
Sincerely,
Jeffrey Shoulson
Senior Vice Provost for Academic Affairs
Excerpt from BY-LAWS, RULES, AND REGULATIONS OF THE UNIVERSITY SENATE:
Pass-Fail Option. A student who is not on scholastic probation may elect a maximum of 12 credits (not including credits on P/F recorded in spring 2020) to be distributed over not more than one course per semester and three courses total, to be recorded as ‘P’ for Pass or ‘F’ for Fail on his or her permanent record. Courses taken Pass-Fail may only be used as electives; they may not be used to satisfy general education, school/college, major or minor requirements. Students who are selecting a course for the Pass-Fail option or want to convert a Pass-Fail back to a graded basis must do so by the eleventh week of the semester. Students who convert to a Pass-Fail and then revert the course back to a graded basis cannot again convert the course back to a Pass-Fail. Students seeking to put a course on Pass-Fail after the eleventh week of the semester must get approval from the student’s advisor and from the Dean or designee of the school or college in which the student is enrolled. Approvals are given only for extenuating circumstances beyond the student's control; poor academic performance is not an extenuating circumstance. For courses taught outside of the fall and spring semesters, these deadlines will be adjusted in a pro-rated fashion by the Registrar.
During the semester the student completes the course and is graded in the usual way by the instructor; and the instructor submits a letter grade (per 3a, above). This letter grade is translated into a ‘P’ (‘D-‘or above) or remains an ‘F.’ In neither event will a course taken under the Pass-Fail option be included in the computation of the semester or cumulative grade point average, but a grade below ‘C’ makes the student ineligible for Dean's List. The individual schools and colleges have the privilege of adopting the Pass-Fail option with or without supplementary restrictions. Students are referred to the detailed statements of the various schools in the University Catalog for such restrictions.
For more information, contact: Office of the Registrar at registrar@uconn.edu