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The Minister of Higher Education, Pascale Déry, announced on Wednesday the moving of the withdrawal deadline to 60% of the session rather than 20% of the session, as is currently the case.
This withdrawal date allows a college student to withdraw from a course without a failure mark appearing on the report card for that course. This does not affect their grade point average or college performance rating, commonly known as an R rating.
The R rating or performance rating is a method of evaluating academic records used by Quebec universities to manage admissions to certain programs, especially the most restricted.
In a press release, the Ministry of Higher Education explains that students will be able to benefit from greater flexibility in their academic progress.
The early nature of the withdrawal deadline, currently established as a fixed date within 20% of the duration of the session, can constitute a barrier to success and be a source of stress, it is explained.< /p>LoadingYves Michaud, 1930-2024: the “Robin of the Banks” dies
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Which means that the students usually only have four to five weeks to decide whether or not they will be able to pass their course. Often, students must make this decision before even having taken a single exam, according to Youri Blanchet, president of the Fédération de l'enseignement collegiale (FEC-CSQ).
By moving the withdrawal deadline to 60% of the session, students will have more time to analyze their situation and make the right decisions in favor of their academic success, specifies the ministry.
With some exceptions, a college session has a minimum duration of 82 days, which means that students will have at least ten weeks to decide whether they will continue or abandon their course.
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According to Quebec, students will be able to better judge their academic progress in a course before abandoning it.
By giving students more latitude in their academic progress, we allow them to make better decisions and, ultimately, we encourage them to persevere in their study path.
A quote from Pascale Déry, Minister of Higher Education
The new measure will be implemented this year in both CEGEPs and private colleges.
These changes will allow students to maintain their status as person deemed to be studying full-time and, thus, to continue to benefit from free education. We ultimately apply at the college level what is already done in the university network, explains Minister Déry's office.
At the Federation of College Education (FEC-CSQ), the news is well received. This is a concern we have had for a long time. It's been almost two years since we met [on this subject] and we were waiting to see what the minister was going to do, explains Youri Blanchet.
In the studies as such, there is no negative effect brought by such a measure. In fact, the effects can only be positive, believes the president of the FEC-CSQ. This allows students to have a better idea of their situation within a course.
The current abandonment date is very early. It arrives in the fourth or fifth week, depending on the calendar, and sometimes there hasn't even been an evaluation or there has only been one evaluation.
A quote from Youri Blanchet, president of the Federation of College Education
There are plenty of students and college students. students who don't really know, and there, in order not to negatively influence their R rating, they give up.
This is also good news for teachers with precarious status, believes Mr. Blanchet. The very early abandonment date meant that their tasks could be reduced. […] If there were students who left, we calculated the task with the remaining students. There, by pushing back the abandonment date to 60% it is still interesting for our precarious teachers who will have a more substantial task.
The teaching task represents all of the activities that a teacher may be called upon to carry out as part of their duties.
