Grade Reappraisal Principles

  1. Students may, with sufficient academic grounds, request that a final grade in a course be reappraised (which may mean the review of specific pieces of tangible work). Non-academic grounds are not relevant for grade reappraisals; in such cases, students are advised to petition to their home Faculty. Students are normally expected to first contact the course director to discuss the grade received and to request that their tangible work be reviewed. Tangible work may include written, graphic, digitized, modelled, video recording or audio recording formats, but not oral work.

    Students need to be aware that a request for a grade reappraisal may result in the original grade being raised, lowered or confirmed.

  2. In the event that students are still not satisfied with the final grade or the course director is not available to review the work, students may submit in writing a formal request for a grade reappraisal to the department or unit in which the course is offered*. The Senate-approved deadline for submitting grade reappraisals is February 15 for fall term grades, June 15 for fall/winter session and winter term grades, September 30 for summer session grades, or a minimum of 21 days from the release of grades, whichever is later. When a submission deadline occurs on a weekend or holiday, requests will be accepted up until the end of the next available business day. Exercising discretion about minor delays in meeting the deadline, resulting from slow mail delivery or extraordinary circumstances, is reasonable.

    *The exceptions are as follows:

    • For courses offered by the Faculty of Education, Osgoode Hall Law School or Schulich School of Business, the requests for reappraisal are submitted to the office of the relevant Associate Dean.
    • For courses offered by the Faculty of Environmental and Urban Change, grade reappraisal requests are submitted to Student Academic Services, 137 Health, Nursing & Environmental Studies Building.

  3. If the condition of sufficient academic grounds has been met, the relevant department committee, Department Chair, Associate Dean or Graduate/Undergraduate Program Director will be responsible for ensuring that the work is reappraised by an appropriate faculty member, ensuring anonymity of both the student and the reappraiser, and for communicating the result of the reappraisal (including the reappraiser's comments) and the route of appeal to both the student and the course director. The reappraiser will be given the nature of the assignment and the rationale for the original grade. It is expected that every effort will be made to render the decision within 30 days of the reviewer having received the work.
  4. Parties to the decision may appeal a negative decision on a request for a reappraisal, or the result of the reappraisal itself to a Faculty-level appeals committee in the Faculty in which the course is offered (or, in the case of the Faculty of Graduate Studies, to the Dean) only on the ground of procedural irregularity.

    Procedural irregularity is defined as actions taken or not taken by a Department, Faculty, Graduate Program, its officers, committees or members with respect to the previous disposition of the case which violate or nullify one or all of the following:

    • Normal and written procedures of the University, Faculty, Graduate Program or Department concerned;
    • Consistency in the Faculty's, Graduate Program's or Department's handling of cases substantially similar to that being appealed;
    • Principles of equity, natural justice or fairness, whether or not such violation occurred in accord with written or customary procedures. Appeals based on allegations of these last procedural irregularities should allege and demonstrate obvious bias or other misbehaviour on the part of the officers or agents of the University and for which redress was not provided by an authority which considered the case prior to the appeal.

    Appeals must be submitted within 21 days of notification of the decision. Faculty committees may waive that deadline when special circumstances are established by the appellant. No member of the Faculty committee shall consider an appeal if they considered the matter at an earlier level. At the discretion of the Faculty committee, the student and/or the faculty member may be invited to meet with the Committee to present his/her case orally. The Committee's decision will be taken in camera and it is expected that parties will be informed of the decision in writing within 30 days of the filing of the appeal.

  5. Parties to the appeal at the Faculty-level may file an application for leave to appeal the decision to the Senate Appeals Committee (SAC) on the ground of procedural irregularity at the Faculty-level. Applications for leave to appeal must be submitted within 21 days of the notification of the Faculty decision. SAC may waive that deadline when special circumstances are established by the appellant. No member of SAC shall consider the application if s/he considered the matter at an earlier level. As explained in the SAC procedures, parties may appear before the Committee if leave to appeal is granted to make oral submissions on the ground of procedural irregularity. The Committee's decision will be taken in camera and it is expected that the parties will be informed of the decision in writing within 30 days of the filing of the application.
  6. Parties to the decision of the Senate Appeals Committee may apply to the Committee to have the matter reconsidered if there is evidence of procedural irregularity on the part of SAC. Applications must be submitted within 21 days of the posting of the decision. SAC reserves the right to waive this deadline in special circumstances. Requests for reconsideration of a SAC decision will be considered by a panel of SAC members who did not serve on the panel first hearing the matter; it is expected that a decision will be rendered within 30 days of its submission.