FAS Residency Requirements

A. Introduction

SCUS paper 99-27 (November 2, 1999) outlines a proposal by the Registrar to institute residency requirements in place of the current system of transfer credit limitations at SFU. The primary goal of the proposal is to scrap an apparently unnecessary limitation process at the time of admission and to avoid the difficulties that may arise when students switch between programs with different transfer credit limits. In essence, the proposal relies on the observation that the primary purpose of limiting the allowable transfer credit for a degree program is to implicitly define the minimum requirements for course work completion at SFU. By making these latter requirements explicit as residency requirements, the limits themselves can be removed.

The Registrar's proposal also provides a unified approach that simplifies the current system of varying transfer limits by degree program, using two basic rules.

1. At least 50% of the credit hour requirements for a degree must be completed through study at SFU.
2. At least two thirds of the upper division credit hours used for a degree program must be taken at SFU.

The Registrar's proposal also applies the 50% rule to certificate programs and the two-thirds upper division credits rule to post-baccalaureate diplomas.

Overall, the Registrar's proposal has merit and there is support for it from the Faculty of Applied Sciences. However, two further issues need to be addressed.

1. Advising of students who are given transfer credit in excess of 60 hours total or who are given substantial upper division credit.
2. Unification of the degree program residency requirements with the hodgepodge of individual program residency requirements for majors, minors, degree options, certificates and diplomas.

B. Advising

With the elimination of transfer credit limits, students may well be admitted with substantially more than 60 credit hours overall or with more than 15 hours of upper division credit. When seeing that these credits have been granted, students may mistakenly assume that the remaining work at SFU can be determined by subtracting the total credit hours for the degree from the figure awarded for transfer credit. For example, a student awarded 100 credit hours, including 30 hours of upper division credit, might well assume that s/he need only take 20 credit hours including 15 upper division credit hours to earn an SFU degree. This problem is avoided with the present system of transfer credit limitations.

Recommendations:

1. Whenever a student is awarded more than 60 hours of total credit, or 5 hours of upper division credit, a note should be included on the transcript stating that SFU residency requirements may limit the amount of transfer credit that can be applied to particular programs.
2. An overall limit of 90 credit hours (the maximum that could be used for any degree program) should be maintained.

C. Program Residency Requirements: FAS Proposal

Beyond the overall and upper-division residency provisions, it makes sense to consider how those provisions relate to the various finer-grained residency requirements in existence for major, minor, honors and other programs at SFU. At present, there is little consistency between these requirements and it may make sense to suggest a uniform standard be applied to each of these programs. The following regulations are proposed for the Faculty of Applied Sciences calendar entry.

Residency Requirements Simon Fraser University may award substantial transfer credit for course work completed elsewhere. These transfer credits reduce the amount of work that need be completed at SFU for a degree, subject to minimum residency requirements for work completed at SFU. In addition to University-wide residency requirements, the Faculty of Applied Sciences also defines program-based residency requirements for each of its programs. Overall, the residency requirements define three conditions that apply to every program offered through the Faculty of Applied Sciences. At least one half of the total credit hours in the program must be earned through study at Simon Fraser University. At least two thirds of the total upper division credit hours in the program must be earned through study at Simon Fraser University. At least two thirds of the upper division credit hours in the courses of a School offering (or jointly offering) a program must be earned through that School at SFU. These conditions apply to all undergraduate degree programs, post-baccalaureate programs and certficate programs offered through Applied Sciences. The conditions also apply to Applied Sciences major, honors, minor, extended minor program and specialist programs that form part of an overall degree program, whether the degree program is offered by Applied Sciences or by any other Faculty.

The following examples illustrate the program-based residency requirements. At least two thirds of the upper division CMNS credits required for a CMNS Major must be taken at SFU. At least two thirds of the CMPT credits required for a CMPT minor must be taken at SFU. At least two thirds of the upper division CMPT credits required for a Joint CMPT-BUS Major must be taken at SFU. At least two thirds of the upper division ENSC credits for a BASc must be taken at SFU. At least two thirds of the upper division KIN credits for a PBD in Kinesiology must be taken at SFU. At least two thirds of the upper division KIN credits for the Certificate in Health Studies must be taken at SFU.

A key feature of this proposal is that the residency requirements for each program are calculated based on the upper division courses specifically offered by the relevant School. For example, the CMPT Major program may use CMPT, MATH and MACM courses, but the residency requirement for work at SFU is defined simply on the set of CMPT courses used for the Major. This has three benefits.

1. It is easy for advisors and graduation checkers to do the calculation.
2. The residency requirement for a credential offered by a School is defined in terms of the courses that the School directly offers.
3. The residency concept can be readily applied to joint programs.

The new regulations will supercede the individual regulations for various programs. The deleted provisions currently found in the calendar are listed below, together with the proposed entries for each School that make reference to FAS Residency Requirements.

Program	Current	Proposed
Communication (All Programs)	No provisions.	Transfer Credit and Residency Requirements Transfer students are advised that residency requirements apply to all programs offered or jointly offered by the School of Communication. See Residency Requirements under Faculty of Applied Sciences.
Computing Science Major	For all major programs in the School of Computing Science, at least 24 credit hours of the required CMPT courses must be taken at Simon Fraser University.	Transfer Credit and Residency Requirements Transfer students are advised that residency requirements apply to all programs offered or jointly offered by the School of Computing Science. See Residency Requirements under Faculty of Applied Sciences.
Specialist Program in Multimedia Computing	No provision.
Specialist Program in Software Engineering	No provision.
Computing Science Honors	No provision.
Computing Science Minor	at least 12 credit hours of these courses must be completed through study at Simon Fraser University.
Post Baccalaureate Diploma in Computing Science	No provision.
Certificate in Computing Studies	At least 10 credit hours of the CMPT courses required for this program must be completed through study at Simon Fraser University.
BASc	Transfer Credit Normal university regulations state that 60 transfer credit hours may count toward a Simon Fraser University degree. In addition, a further 20 credit hours in engineering science may be credited toward the BASc degree.	Transfer Credit and Residency Requirements Transfer students are advised that residency requirements apply to all programs offered by the School of Engineering Science. See Residency Requirements under Faculty of Applied Sciences.
Minor in Computer and Electronics Design	No provision.
Kinesiology Major	No provision.	Transfer Credit and Residency Requirements Transfer students are advised that residency requirements apply to all programs offered by the School of Kinesiology. See Residency Requirements under Faculty of Applied Sciences.
Kinesiology Honors	No provision.
Kinesiology Minor	At least seven credit hours of upper division kinesiology courses used toward the minor must have been completed through study at Simon Fraser University.
Post Baccalaureate Diploma in Kinesiology	No provision.
Certificate in Applied Human Nutrition	Please note that a maximum of nine credit hours are transferable to the certificate from any other institution, including the Open Learning Agency.
Certificate in Health and Fitness Studies	Please note that a maximum of nine credit hours are transferable to the certificate from any other institution, including the Open Learning Agency.
Bachelor of General Studies (Applied Sciences)	No more than 9 of these 30 credit hours may be satisfied by transfer credit.	Faculty of Applied Sciences residency requirements must be satisfied.

Each of the existing requirements is changed to bring it in-line with the general rule. For example, the requirement for the KIN minor is increased from 7 upper division KIN credits to 10, while the requirement for the CMPT minor is reduced from 12 upper division CMPT credits to 10. The certificate programs of the two Schools change in the opposite fashion: the requirement that one half of the work be done at SFU is a slight increase for the CMPT certificate and a decrease for the KIN certificates.