RECOGNIZING THE difficulties students had during their first semester of online learning due to COVID-19, many universities including the Korean National Sports University and Yonsei University implemented a credit abandonment system. The aim was to address students’ concerns over unfair evaluations owing to circumstances outside of their control such as poor server connection* in addition to concerns over the fairness of grading due to reported cheating incidents during exams.

Pass/non-pass or drop it altogether

   Credit abandonment, or some variation of it, was a policy many universities turned to in handling the extraordinary circumstances of the past semester. In practice, the system allowed students to request that their grade for a specified course be dropped, with an opportunity to later retake that same class if necessary. The dropped grade was then excluded from the calculation of the student’s Grade Point Average (GPA). This policy was described as an emergency course withdrawal system as it essentially created an additional time frame for course withdrawal (typically held before midterms) after the finalization of students’ grades. There was, however, some variation in how credit abandonment was conducted between universities. At Yonsei University, students were allowed to replace the grade of a single course with a WE mark on their student record, with the notable exception of the College of Medicine and Dentistry. Another common policy was the pass/fail grading system. Universities that decided to implement this system included Hongik University and Dongguk University. Both schools allowed students to replace a grade above D0 with a “pass” designation.

Advocating for relief

   The implementation of a credit abandonment system at Yonsei was a somewhat contentious endeavor. Originally, the General Student Council, Mate, proposed an elective pass/fail grading system and adjustments to the course retake policy in a meeting with the administration’s chief of staff on June 15. However, this initial student council proposal was rejected on the grounds that it was “undesirable from an educational point of view**.” This was similar to the opinions of other universities who refused to implement the pass/fail grading system considering that it would be unfair to change the grading system for students who have worked hard. In response to this declaration, students following the lead of the General Student Council’s Protest Headquarters rallied against the school administration’s decision. Many students also participated in an online campaign through Instagram and Facebook demanding “Yonsei should communicate [with its students].” The student council conducted surveys to highlight instances in which students felt that their educational rights were infringed upon and these statements were delivered to the dean. Following these efforts as well as numerous meetings with the Provost, the Office of Academic Affairs, and the school headquarters which continued until July, the school decided to implement a credit abandonment system as an alternative to the proposed elective pass/fail grading system on August 4th.

In the interest of fairness

   According to Yonsei University’s Office of Academic Affairs, 1671 students, roughly 8.4% of the total student population, used credit abandonment in the previous semester. Those who did so were rendered ineligible for academic honors. However, there have been some grumblings within the student body that this was too light a repercussion. One student from the Department of Public Admin who wished to remain anonymous remarked that “there should be other penalties for those who used this system other than not being eligible for the academic honors.”

   To maintain fairness, students’ original GPA (dropped grades included) were used when students applied for university scholarships. However, the issue of external scholarship remains as those programs recruited new students after the sixth week of this semester, allowing students who had taken advantage of credit abandonment to use their recalculated GPA. The question of fairness lies at the heart of last semester’s policies; a professor from Kyung Hee University noted that the credit abandonment system inflates student GPAs making it harder for students who truly worked hard to receive a proper evaluation for their efforts ***. This sentiment was shared by a staff member from the personnel department of a private enterprise Chang-jae School who noted that the problem with the increasing credit inflation is that the credibility of university education is also falling. A Yonsei student from the Department of Business Admin also expressed her concern that, “if students are not taking classes seriously thinking that they can simply ‘delete’ their low grade, this could have a negative effect on the academic environment, especially in courses based on group work.” In the past, similar concerns led to the abolishment of credit abandonment systems. After an inspection by the government offices in 2013, the Ministry of Education and Korean Council for University Education began requiring universities to abolish this system due to the notable drawback of grade inflation from the difference between students’ original GPA and recalculated GPA on the academic transcript. They required universities to come up with a more ethical and strict grading policy.

Controversy and student opinion

   Currently, there are differing opinions from students as to whether course abandonment should remain a part of Yonsei’s grading policy. In an interview with The Yonsei Annals, a student from the Department of Cultural Anthropology said, “I think there should be a credit abandonment system even after the pandemic. In my case, I want to try taking a natural science course but I can't since I am concerned [about my grades]. However, a credit abandonment system would let me take courses that I am interested in without the pressure.” Lee Kyung-chan (Fresh., Dept. of Cultural Anthropology) shared the same sentiment by saying that “I applied for my class after reading the class review, but the class was so different [from what I expected] that I had a hard time. Although there is a withdrawal period, there are students like me who may want to change their decisions after taking the mid-term exams. But this is not possible when we only have the withdrawal system, so I think it is appropriate to have a credit abandonment system.” A sophomore student from Sustainable Development and Cooperation added that although she agrees with the implementation of this system, there should be a discussion regarding the course repeat policy because having unlimited chances to re-take courses would remove the need for credit abandonment. However, the student from the Department of Business Admin said, “I think when we return to face-to-face classes it could be problematic because there is already a withdrawal system [which is similar to credit abandonment system].”

   Regarding the question of whether to implement credit abandonment again for the current fall semester, an authority from the Office of Academic Affairs stated that, “For now, the answer is that we will not be implementing this system again. This semester, we informed students in advance that all classes would be non-face-to-face, so we anticipate that there should be fewer problems.” In addition to this, she questioned the need for a credit abandonment system by saying that, “although students’ grades may improve a little, credit abandonment is not really beneficial to students because there will be pressure for the student to take the same class again.” However, students offered a different view of the matter. There were problems due to difficulty in communicating with professors during the semester. One student also said that, “without any notice given by my professor, we were not able to go back to previous questions on the midterm after answering them, so I was unable to check my answers.” In addition, there are still cases of cheating including the recent incident in the Engineering Math course where a student used Chegg**** during the exam that solves math problems. Despite the school administration’s hesitance to allow credit abandonment again this semester, it is clear that not all of the issues from this past spring have been resolved.

*                 *                  *

   Yonsei University is expected to finalize its decision regarding credit abandonment at the end of the fall semester. Regardless of the administration’s decision, the uniqueness of the present-day circumstances has opened the door for our universities to have an earnest debate on fairness.

*Yonsei University

**General Student Council Facebook page

***Hankook Ilbo

****An education technology company that provides online tutorial and assignment help