SUBJECT:  CEP Policy on Midterm and Final Examinations

The Committee on Educational Policy (CEP) would like to remind you of the policies on midterm and final exams:

Policy on Midterm Examinations

a. Faculty are obliged to have printed in the Schedule of Classes the date and time of any midterm which is to be given outside of the regularly scheduled class hours.

b. Additionally, any midterm given outside of the regularly scheduled class hours must be announced in a syllabus distributed to the class at the beginning of the quarter.

Policy on Final Examinations.

a. Academic Senate Regulations specify that final examinations are required in all undergraduate courses unless an exception has been approved by CEP or the CEP Subcommittee on Undergraduate Courses. Final examinations are, however, normally not required for laboratory courses.

b. Final examinations may not be given at any time before examination week without explicit approval of CEP.

c. Although the instructor may give a final examination at an alternative time during final examination week with the approval of CEP, students must be permitted to take an equivalent examination at the originally scheduled time if they so desire.

d. An instructor may administer an examination at an alternative time if a valid reason is given by the student for not taking the regularly scheduled examination. Valid reasons include: religious holidays, illness, family disasters.

e. No student may be excused from assigned final examinations.

f. A final examination must, whenever practicable, be written and must be completed by all participants within a previously announced time limit.

g. Final examinations in non-laboratory courses may not exceed three hours duration.

h. No instructor may require a "take-home" final examination be turned in before the date and hour at which the examination for the course was scheduled by the Registrar's Office.

i. Faculty members (including visiting faculty) must be available to students during final examination week up to the time when the final examination of their courses are given and, physically present in the examination room for the entire final examination, except in special cases when an exam is given in more than one room. In cases where the approved absence of a course instructor cannot be avoided, the department chair or program director must seek CEP approval to designate another faculty member to administer the final examination. Nevertheless, faculty course instructors themselves must assign grades for the courses they teach.

j. CEP will not recommend approval of faculty absences during finals week unless arrangements to administer the final examination have been worked out in advance with the department chair or program director.

This policy may also be viewed at:

http://www-senate.ucsd.edu/committees/cep/policychanges/midterm.htm