Academic concerns are generally categorized as:
- Grade-Related
- Accommodation-Related
- Content and Delivery-Related
If you have an academic concern, please review the processes outlined in the sections below and follow the steps to remediate your concern.
Academic Concern Categories
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Students with formal diagnoses, temporary, or long-term illnesses, or who are experiencing an isolated medical incident may work with Student Accessibility Services and their professor/course director to develop suitable accommodations, which will then be outlined in a Letter of Accommodation (LOA). The complete process is outlined here: https://accessibility.students.yorku.ca/new-students
Students do not have to disclose personal information, including the nature of their diagnosis/specific diagnosis, to faculty members.
CONCERN
After presenting your Letter of Accommodation (LOA) to your instructor, you feel your recommended academic accommodation is not being met.
ACTION
Request a meeting to speak informally with your course instructor regarding why you feel your accommodation is not being met.
OUTCOME
Preferred Informal Outcome: You are able to come to a resolution with the instructor that satisfies your accommodation as outlined in your Letter of Accommodation (LOA).
Continue only if an informal outcome is not satisfactory.
If you are unable to reach the preferred informal outcome, you must then contact the Director, Student & Enrolment Services who will assist in the development of a suitable resolution. At the discretion of the Director, Student & Enrolment Services, consultation may be sought from the Program Director, Academic Area, or Student Accessibility Services to ensure the documented accommodation is met.
If a student feels that their grade is incorrect, they may submit a formal grade appeal. However, the student should first attempt to resolve the appeal informally with the instructor.
CONCERN
You receive your grade and you feel the grade is not representative of your performance based on one of the two grounds below:
- A clerical error has resulted in a miscalculation of the grade.
- A computational grade awarded did not fairly reflect your academic performance according to the grading system used by the instructor.
ACTION
Request a meeting to speak informally with your course instructor. Note, you are to go directly to your course instructor. At the instructor’s discretion, consultation may be sought from the Program Director or Academic Area.
OUTCOME
Preferred Informal Outcome: You are able to come to a resolution with the instructor by which the grade is either changed, or you come to better understand and accept why the original grade was awarded.
Continue only if an informal outcome is not satisfactory.
If you are unable to reach the preferred informal outcome with the instructor, you must then follow the formal written Grade Appeal Process, as outlined at: https://teachingandlearning.schulich.yorku.ca/grade-appeals/
This process is subject to term-related deadlines, of which it is your responsibility to be aware. Further, appeals should be submitted only once you have received all of your marks for a course.
At the end of each term, students are asked to fill out evaluations of each of their instructors. These evaluations rate instructors on a variety of criteria. All Schulich faculty are also strongly encouraged to collect interm feedback on their courses in order to learn what is working well, and to gain insights and ideas about possible improvements or innovations while allowing time to make adjustments during the current term.
CONCERN
You are dissatisfied with an element of the course content or delivery of content prior to the last two classes of the term (which is the period during which formal online course evaluations are collected). Note, this is different than dissatisfaction with faculty conduct.
ACTION
You have three options, depending on the level of confidentiality you wish to maintain.
Option 1: Request a meeting to discuss, or send a respectful email to the course instructor outlining the concern.
Option 2: Send a respectful email outlining the concern to your instructor/and or Program Director.
Option 3: If you wish to remain anonymous, send a respectful email outlining your concern to the Director, Student & Enrolment Services, who will confidentially share the concern with the Program Director.
OUTCOME
Preferred Informal Outcome (Option 1): You engage directly with the instructor in a meaningful dialogue to address your concern, and you both leave the discussion satisfied that you have been heard, and that there is a plan in place to resolve the concern.
Continue if an informal outcome is not satisfactory or you initially pursued Option 2 or 3.
The Program Director will connect with the instructor to discuss your concern, and come to a resolution and/or identify areas for improvement.
The resolution will be shared with you either by the Program Director directly or, in cases where you wish to remain anonymous, via the Director, Student & Enrolment Services.
All students will also have the opportunity to provide end-of-semester course evaluations. More information on the online course evaluation process can be found here: https://teachingandlearning.schulich.yorku.ca/course-evaluations/