Grading
Please note UC Davis Continuing and Professional Education's grading policies are consistent with UC Davis’ grading policies.
We offer three distinct types of courses:
- Courses for Academic Credit
- Courses for Continuing Education Units
- Attendance-Based Courses not for Academic or CEU Credit
All courses offered for academic credit through Continuing and Professional Education are identified by an X designation that precedes the course number (e.g., X199). Below is the course letter and number key to our courses.
X1-99 Lower division courses
X100-199 Upper division courses
X200-299 Graduate level courses
X300-399 Professional level Teacher Education
X400-499 Professional level courses
XD1-399 Campus-equivalent courses
The letter A following the course number indicates the course is the first in a series, the letter B indicates it is the second in a series, and so forth.
Academic credit courses are graded using Letter, Pass/No Pass, or Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory grades. The following grades are used to report the quality of a student’s work at Continuing and Professional Education:
A Excellent
B Good
C Fair
D Barely Passing
F Fail
P Passed (grade C or better) (Open Campus courses C- or better)
NP Not Passed
S Satisfactory
U Unsatisfactory
Audit Opting out of academic credit
I Incomplete (work is satisfactory but not complete for good cause, extra approval necessary)
IP In Progress (courses not yet graded by the instructor)
The grades A, B, C and D may be modified by a plus (+) or minus (–).
Applying coursework toward a certificate requires a grade of C or better, unless otherwise noted.
Instructors have two weeks from the last day of class to send grades to Continuing and Professional Education. Some exceptions apply. (This timeline does not apply to Open Campus. If you are concerned about receiving your Open Campus grades quickly please talk to the instructor of your course and they can give you a timeline. Grade reports for courses offered for academic credit are sent within two weeks after the grades are received from the instructor. Grades will not be given over the phone.
Effective 2015: No Show (NS) and No Work Submitted (NWS/NW) are no longer valid grading types in academic credit courses.
Petition for Grading Option Change
Students at Continuing and Professional Education may opt to take an academic credit course as Pass/No Pass (P/NP) or may choose to Audit. If a student decides to change their grading type they must complete a Petition for Grading Option Change form and submit it to the Student Services office before the last class meeting. Once the grading type is changed, grades cannot be converted back to their original grading method.
Pass/No Pass Grading:
Caution: How P/NP grades are applied towards a degree, certificate or other purpose is subject to the rules and limitations of the conferring institution.
Auditing
Caution: Choosing to audit a course will forfeit academic credit. Most institutions do not accept audited courses for transfer credit.
Incomplete Grades
All grades except I (incomplete) are final when filed by an instructor at the end of the quarter (class). No final grade except I may be revised by examination or the submission of additional work after the close of the quarter (class).
A grade of I may be assigned when a student's work is of passing quality and represents a significant portion of the requirements for a final grade, but is incomplete for a good cause as determined by the instructor; good cause may include current illness, serious personal problems, an accident, a recent death in the immediate family, a large and necessary increase in working hours or other situations of equal gravity.
"Passing quality" means "of C quality or better." This standard holds in such courses whether or not the student has elected to take the course on a Passed/Not Passed or Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory basis. For courses being graded on a Passed/Not Passed or Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory basis only, the completed work must be of a quality consistent with a grade of Pass or Satisfactory, respectively.
A student may not re-enroll for credit in a course for which an I grade has been assigned.
For Continuing and Professional Education Courses
Students may replace an I grade with a passing grade in a Continuing and Professional Education course provided they satisfactorily complete the course work as specified by the instructor. In order to change the record, students must complete a Petition for Incomplete Grade form and submit it to the Student Services office. This form requires the instructor's signature and a plan for how and when the course work will be completed.
All course work must be completed by the deadline outlined in the plan. This deadline cannot exceed 12 months after the course end date. If course work is not completed within the established timeline an I grade will be converted to an F (or NP or U).
Caution: Students enrolled in an online course will lose access to online materials once enrollment expires or an I grade is recorded. It is the student’s responsibility to coordinate with the instructor to obtain the relevant materials required to complete the course.
For Open Campus Courses
Students will have three quarters of attendance at UC Davis to finish their incomplete Open Campus course work. Quarters of attendance include coursework taken as:
- A Continuing and Professional Education Open Campus student
- A UC Davis Summer Sessions student
- A regularly enrolled UC Davis Student
After the third quarter of completed coursework an I grade will be converted to an F (or NP or U).
Retroactive Grade Changes
All grades except I and IP (In Progress) are final when filed by an instructor at the end of the quarter. No final grade except I may be revised by examination or the submission of additional work after the close of the quarter.
If a student disagrees with a grade that has been assigned, they must first contact their instructor and discuss if there has been a clerical or procedural error in the reporting of the grade. If this is the case the instructor may submit a Request for Grade Change to the Student Services office
If the instructor does not agree that there has been a clerical or procedural error or the student believes they should be allowed to retroactively add/drop a course, change their grading type to P/NP/Audit, or would like to make any other change to their academic record, the student must submit a Petition for Retroactive Change form with documentation supporting why this late request should be granted. These requests will be reviewed by the Academic Records office in Student Services with input from the academic unit and instructor as necessary.
Repeating Courses
For Open Campus please review UC Davis’ Policy on repeating courses.
Students may repeat a Continuing and Professional Education course in which they received a C-, D, F or NP. Courses in which students received a grade of D or F may not be repeated on a P/NP grading basis. (Courses in which a grade of NP was received may be repeated on a P/NP grading basis.)
Repeating a course more than once requires approval from the academic unit in which the course is offered.
All grades assigned will appear on the student's transcript. Repeating a course does not erase the original grade.
Caution: If a student is transferring these courses to another institution, how repeated courses are applied towards a degree, certificate or other purpose is subject to the rules and limitations of the conferring institution.
Continuing Education Units – CEU Grading
CEU courses are those without academic credit, but offering continuing education units (CUEs). CEUs are a nationally recognized means of recording non-academic study. One CEU is awarded for each 10 hours of scheduled class time. A notation of CEU appears under the grade designation and the number of classroom hours is recorded.
For all courses without academic credit that do not offer CEUs, a grade designation of Attended appears on the transcripts and grade reports. Attendance confirmations for these classes are only sent upon request by the student.
Professional Credit
Select Continuing and Professional Education courses offer Professional Credit. This credit may be awarded to students who complete the requirements established by the approving association. See course information for available Professional Credit.