Policy Register
3342-3-01.4 Administrative policy and procedures regarding final examinations.
(A) Purpose. All courses offered for credit require a substantial final examination.
(B) Intent and scope.
(1) The general intention of this policy applies equally to all university campuses. Specific application and procedures appropriate to the regional campuses are to be developed separately.
(2) Final examinations have an important function in the progression of students through their courses of study. Such examinations are a vital element in students' intellectual development.
(3) The general nature of the final examination in each course is a curricular responsibility of the department or school.
(4) Within the limits of the course description, the content and weighing of each examination is the responsibility of the faculty member teaching the course, except where a block final or standard final is established by the department or school, in which case these matters are a responsibility of the department or school faculty collectively.
(5) This policy applies to all Kent state university courses offered for credit.
(6) Monitoring and enforcement of university and department or school final examination policies is the responsibility of the campus dean, department chairperson, school director, or independent school dean.
(C) Definitions.
(1) As used in this rule, "final examination" means a formal examination or an equivalent appropriate activity used in evaluating student performance. In the case of courses that do not meet as formal classes (e.g., individual investigations, research, individual music instruction), or that do not use the lecture as a standard format, alternative activities (e.g., research papers, performances, presentations, portfolios) would be the norm. Other exceptions to the formal examination should be rare and justified on pedagogical grounds.
(D) Procedures for all campuses.
(1) Department or school final examination requirements for individual courses are to be established through normal curricular procedures, recorded on the basic data sheet, and made available to faculty members.
(2) Faculty members are expected to include information regarding the nature and weighing of the final examination on the course syllabus. Such information must be supplied to all students in each course.
(3) Students with four examinations scheduled for one day may ask to have one of them moved. Deans of colleges, independent schools, or regional campuses may grant relief to students with fewer finals on any one day as appropriate.
(E) Procedures for the Kent campus.
(1) Final examination must be given at the officially scheduled time, day, and place as published in the schedule of classes or through other official university means. In rare and pedagogically justifiable cases, a faculty member may request permission to change the time of a final examination. Such a change cannot be made unless it is approved by the department chairperson or school director and the dean: if approval is granted, the examination must also be given at the regularly scheduled time for those students who prefer to take it then.
(2) It is the responsibility of the registrar's office to construct and publish the final examination schedule. Final examinations are to be scheduled over a five-day week following the end of classes for all and spring semester. Final examinations are scheduled for the last day of class for summer terms.
(3) A period of at least two hours is to be allocated for each final examination period. Faculty members are urged to make full use of that time to the extent appropriate based on course credit hours.
(4) Block finals may be established by departments or schools through normal curricular procedures. Requests for scheduling of block finals must be made of the registrar's office and approved by the dean's office and the office of the provost at the time of scheduling classes. All block finals must be noted in the final examination schedule. Times for make-up exams must be scheduled for each block final to accommodate students with conflicts.
Effective: June 1, 2007
Prior Effective Dates: May 5, 1995, September 7, 1995, February 27, 1998, September 19, 2005
