Students at the University of Otago who fail papers
compulsory for their courses will soon find their options
more limited.
New rules will be introduced next year to ensure students can
no longer enrol for papers when they have failed the
prerequisite paper.
In a report to the university council on Tuesday, student
administration manager David Cross said there were about 200
students in the second semester this year enrolled in papers
for which they had failed the prerequisite paper in semester
one.
Some may have been given permission by their department to
carry on, but there was no formal recording process for that.
Many of the 200 would not have permission to carry on, which
could result in the university receiving government funding
for students enrolled in breach of its own programme
regulations.
Mr Cross's recommendation, endorsed by the council, was to
advise all students failing prerequisite papers that they had
been removed from the following semester's paper.
Students would be forced to switch to another paper instead,
re-enrol in the original paper, or discuss their options with
their head of department.
In cases where approval was given for a student to carry on,
an audit trail would be created which would solve the issue
of the university possibly wrongly claiming government
funding.
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