Student Academic Information

A. Attendance
a. Attendance is obligatory and as such you are expected to attend all
your classes and in case of an absence you are required to justify your
absence with an eligible excuse that is submitted to the course
coordinator within one week
b. When you reach your fourth unjustified absence you will be sent an
official warning after which any additional absence will result in
dropping you from the respective course (you are requested to check
your email regularly)
c. If your course has been dropped then you need to submit a course
activation request at the Registrar’s Office to be able to re-activate the
dropped course. Approval of the course activation form is conditional
upon the assessment of the course coordinator based on your
performance on TMAs & quizzes and the submitted excuse and
justification.
d. Students must attend their registered sections only and must obtain
written approval form he course coordinator if they want to attend
another section

B. Submittal of TMAs and Quizzes and Make Up exams

a. Always consult with your tutor, course calendar and university
channels of communication (e.g. Moodle, email, website, bulletin
boards, etc…) for assignment and exam dates
b. TMA deadline has to be observed and missing a deadline will result in
having a grade deduction penalty that may reach zero depending on
how late you are.
c. A missed Quiz (MTA) and without providing valid excuse will result
in a zero grade on that quiz
d. Missing a Final Exam WILL NOT result in dropping the course, but
will result in a ZERO GRADE allocation on the exam and
consequently FAILURE in the course
e. You can submit a valid excuse to justify why you have missed an
assessment WITHIN THREE DAYS OF THE DEADLINE
i. The excuse for a missed quiz or TMA is submitted to the staff
tutor/coordinator of the course (You can download the Late
Submission Excuse form using the online services tool under
“Access university forms”)
ii. The excuse for a missed final exam is submitted to the
Registrar’s Office, by using the “Make Up Excuse form” with
the supporting documents. (You can download the Make Up
Excuse form using our online services tool under “Access
university forms”)
PS: Someone else can submit the excuse on your behalf if your
case prevents you from passing by the coordinator ‘s office or the
Registrar’s office)

iii. Students are responsible to check the result of the Make up

Excuse submitted and the Make Up Exam date (the make up
exam is held during the normal examination session when the
course is offered again)
 A zero grade will be allocated for a missed make up exam
and for rejected make up requests.

C. Drop/Add courses:
When dropping a course after the expiration of the drop & add period, &
depending on the drop date, the student will face a financial penalty which can
reach 100% of the course fees, therefore student is responsible to check the
website and follow the drop and add announcements to be aware of the refund
percentage.
Dropping a course must be done at most ONE WEEK before the final exam
date; otherwise a zero grade will be allocated on the course.

D. Course Assessment
a. For every course, there are two types of assessments:
 Continuous Assessment consisting of (Tutor Marked
Assignments, TMAs) + (short quizzes, MTAs): all count up to
50 % of the whole course grade.
 Final Exam(s): count to the other 50 % of the whole course
grade.

b. To pass a course you need to maintain the following three necessary

conditions:
1. An average ≥ 40/100 on finals
2. An average ≥ 40/100 on Continuous Assessment
3. An average ≥ 50/100 on the cumulative whole course
grade (TMAs + Quizzes + Finals)
 If you miss any condition of the above you will fail the course
and your resulting letter grade will be F.

c. All courses are now split (which means courses are completed within
one semester) and their final letter grade is issued within the same
semester. This means that students should exert great efforts to succeed
in the Continuous Assessments (TMAs and Quizzes) and Final exams
as they will not have the chance to raise their grades in the second part
of the course.

d. Grading System:
i. Grades are assigned according to a letter system with each
letter representing a grade-point value. These letter grades and
their grade-point values are as follows:

F
Grades 0.0
Points
A 4.0
ii. A B+ 3.5
B 3.0
l C+ 2.5
e C 2.0
t D 1.5
t
 er “P” indicates a course being in progress, “I” indicates a
course component is incomplete but approved for make up
exam, and “W” is a dropped course.

E. GPA and Degree Classification

a. Your GPA reflects your academic standing and performance. You

must always maintain a GPA of minimum 2. If you have a cumulative
GPA of less than 2 then you will not be able to graduate even if you
have completed all the program requirements.
b. Also if you a have a cumulative GPA of less than 2 at any time, you
will be placed under academic probation and will NOT be able to
register more than 16 credits
c. The classification is the rank that is issued on your Degree Certificate.
There are two classifications one for your AOU degree and another
one for the OU (United Kingdom) degree. The AOU classification is
based on the Cumulative GPA while as the OU classification is based
on the Award GPA
d. The Cumulative GPA averages reflect ALL the courses required by the
program. On the other hand the Award GPA is based on the level 2 and
level 3 core courses:
i. For the English Language and Literature program, Award GPA
is calculated for the following courses:
1. Level II: A210,U210
2. Level III: best grades of the 32 credit hours from the
following courses (A319, E300, and E303).
ii. For the Business Administration – Economics program, Award
GPA is calculated for the following courses:
1. Level II: best grades of the 32 credit hours from the
following courses (B200, B202, and DD202).
2. Level III: B300, D319.
iii. For the Business Administration – Systems program, Award
GPA is calculated for the following courses:
1. Level II: best grades of the 32 credit hours from the
following courses (B200, B202, T205)
2. Level III: B300, T306
iv. For the Business Administration – Accounting program, Award
GPA is calculated for the following courses:
1. Level II: best grades of the 32 credit hours from the
following courses (B200, B202, M248)
2. Level III: best grades of the 32 credit hours from the
following courses ( B300, B680,B321)

v. For the Business Administration – Marketing program, Award

GPA is calculated for the following courses:
1. Level II: best grades of the 32 credit hours from the
following courses (B200, B202, M248)
2. Level III: B300, B322,B324

vi. For the Business Administration – Business Studies program,

Award GPA is calculated for the following courses:
 1. Level II: best grades of the 32 credit hours from the
following courses (B200, B202, M248)
2. Level III: B300, B321, B322.

vii. For the Information Technology and Computing program,

Award GPA is calculated for the following courses:
1. Level II: best grades of the 32 credit hours from the
following courses: (M253,M255, M256,
M257,MT262,T209)
2. Level III: M359, M363,T324,T471

viii. For the Information Technology and Computing –

Communication program, Award GPA is calculated for the
following courses:
1. Level II:MT262, T209, T224
2. Level III: best grades of the 32 credit hours from the
following courses :( M359, T320, T324, T325, T471).

ix. For the Information Technology and Computing – Computing

program, Award GPA is calculated for the following courses:
1. Level II: M253, M255, M256, M257,M263
2. Level III: best grades of the 32 credit hours from the
following courses (M359, M362, M363, M366, and
T471).

x. For the Information Technology and Computing – Computing

with Business program, Award GPA is calculated for the
following courses:
1. Level II: best grades of the 32 credit hours from the
following courses (B202,M253, M255, M256, M257)
2. Level III: best grades of the 32 credit hours from the
following courses (B300, M359, M363, and T471).

Both the AOU degree classification and the OU (United

Kingdom) degree classification are base on the following table:

GPA Classification
3.67 – 4.00 Excellent
3.00 – 3.66 Very Good
2.33 – 2.99 Good
< 2.33 Pass
F. Repeating Courses
For the purposes of raising the GPA before graduating, a student can repeat
any course from the General Requirements and Elective course and the new
grade will be counted in the GPA whether it is higher or lower. Also for the
purpose of raising the GPA before graduating, a student can repeat an OU
based course (major course) on which he/she has a letter grade “D” on. The
student’s new grade will be ceiled at a letter grade of “C” as a maximum even
if the student actual course grade is higher than “C”. If a student repeats an
OU course and earns a grade which is below the old grade, the new grade will
be counted towards his GPA.

G. Plagiarism and Cheating

a. Plagiarism and cheating are not allowed and all such cases will be
penalized.
b. Penalty will range from NOT crediting the student for the work
submitted (getting a zero) to more severe actions such as disciplinary
measures.
c. To avoid being accused of plagiarism always keep in mind the
following:
1. If you use someone else's ideas, you should cite the
source.
2. If the way in which you are using the source is unclear,
make it clear.
3. If you received specific help from someone in writing
the paper, acknowledge it.
4. Consult online tutorial on what constitutes plagiarism
and how to avoid it and attempt interactive exercises.