Chung-Ang University (CAU) conducts midterm and final exams every semester during a set period. In addition, professors may administer additional tests, pop quizzes, and retests at their discretion. Students must attend at least three-quarters of the total class days to complete the course. Course grades are evaluated by considering attendance, assignments, and midterm and final exams. However, in this grading system problems that can easily be found have caused students' discomfort. Let's find out the problems caused by the grades viewing system, the check grade frequently system, and the D credit compulsory system with CAH.

1. Issue Regarding Access to Grades

a. A System that Requires Violence Education

         Students need to complete an online education program for gender equality and human rights, and lecture evaluations in order to check grades after each semester. Preventive violence education is divided into three categories: sexual violence prevention education, domestic violence prevention education, and disability awareness improvement education. However, this compulsory education is not of practical help, as already mentioned in the October 2022 issue of CAH. In fact, as a result of a survey of 81 students conducted by CAH, only 27% of the students actually finished the entire course, and the rest only completed half or almost none of the course. In addition, 70% of students expressed dissatisfaction with the compulsory system. However, even though it has been about half a year since CAH mentioned this issue, the problems related to violence education system are still not resolved. This system, which many students are dissatisfied with, is one of the problems that must be pointed out.

b. Students' Rights Violated

        According to Article 41 of the Academic Regulations I, students can directly view the grades of each semester within the designated period after the final exam. In addition, if there is an objection to the grade, a student can present the grade transcript within the deadline to the professor and request correction. Accordingly, it is a violation of the operating regulations to restrict access to grades due to not completing the violence education program. Therefore, as the often causes students to not be able to check their grades, forcing them to complete violence education can violate their rights, which is ironic, as that is what the online program teaches us about.

c. Position of CAU About Compulsory Education Completion System

       Regarding the operation of the grade reading system according to the completion of violence education, CAH reached out to the CAU Center for Human Rights office, but received no response to this issue.

2. Ununified Check Grades Frequently Platform

        To check grades, students can access the e-class, portal site, and the e-id system. First of all, in order to check the grades on the portal, students must click the “check grades frequently” in lecture index. Next, in the e-id, students can check the grades after clicking “the attendance sheet”, “my course list”, and finally the subject. In e-class, they can see the grades in the notice of the course or in the assignments section. However, the fact that the occasional grade input system is not unified can cause inconvenience to students. Students have to check where the grades come from for each subject, and the process is not simple, so if all subjects are on different platforms, it is inconvenient to check each courses grade. In some cases, multiple platforms are used in one subject, such as writing assignment scores in e-class and midterm exam scores in the portal.

         Student A, who is studying business administration at CAU, said, “Due to the nature of the department, I have a lot of assignments and team projects. Therefore, it is cumbersome to check the grades in different places each time. It would be nice if the platforms where I can check my grades were integrated, but I don't know why they are divided like this.” Regarding this, an official of CAU said “In principle, grades should be entered on the portal site. However, since COVID-19, an external site called e-class has been used for online lectures, and professors can post grades on this site. In addition, during the e-id electronic attendance system development, a grade input system was added. Professors still use the grade system in e-id, so it is difficult to get rid of it easily.” And explained why the ‘check grades frequently’ system could not be integrated. On the other hand, in the case of Soongsil University, students can check all assignments, grades, and attendance all on u-SAINT (portal). In addition, at Sungkyunkwan University, students can check all of their grades easily on the university site. In this way, the inconvenience of students following the reading of grades should be reduced by taking the case of other universities as an example.

3. D credit Compulsory System

          At CAU, except for second language and English lectures, teaching courses, and military science courses, all courses use a relative evaluation, and there is a rule that at least 5% students must get grades of D or lower. This compulsory D grade system was applied after the 2008 reorganization of school regulations[1]. The Academic Affairs Team explained that it had recently established a provision requiring at least 5% of D+ grades to improve the study atmosphere. In other words, even if all students sincerely participate in class, at least 5% of students must receive a grade of D or lower. Because the average grade that will receive a warning at CAU is a D, this D grade compulsory system causes students to lose their will to learn. In addition, it is almost impossible to find other schools that implement the compulsory D grade system. In both types of relative evaluation 1 and 2, conducted by Hanyang University, only the ratio of A and B grades is limited, and they do not require compulsory D grades. Yonsei University also uses a relative evaluation, but it too only sets the ratio of A and B grades with D grades not being mandatory. Therefore, CAU should consider a plan to abolish the grade compulsory systems in order not to further discourage students from learning.

For students, grades are one of the most important factors in school. However, at present, systemic problems about grades are still not being resolved. Currently, students cannot check their grades at the end of each semester even though they couldn’t complete the online education program for gender equality and human rights for an unavoidable reasons. In addition, the occasional grade input system that is not unified can also cause inconvenience and confusion. Lastly, the compulsory D grade system, which can lower the students’ will to study, is still one of the factors that make many students feel burdened in their studies. CAH hopes that CAU will try to solve these problems in a better way.