Updates to Course Repeat Policy

Many NOVA colleagues have been asking about the VCCS course repeat policy change that went into effect in fall 2021. This message is intended to provide both clarity and context for the policy.

In the past, a student may repeat a course and the grade used for GPA calculation would come from the most recent attempt, not the best grade earned. The newly revised policy allows the best grade to be used instead of the most recent attempt.

When this proposal was submitted to the VCCS, the intent was that this policy change would impact courses repeated beginning fall 2021, regardless of when the original course was taken. For example, if a course was originally taken in Fall 2019 and then repeated in Fall 2021, this new policy would apply. However, we have since learned that SIS is not able to implement this process as was intended. Instead, the new policy can only apply to courses originally taken in fall 2021 and beyond. Using the earlier example, the new policy would not apply because the original course was taken prior to fall 2021. In this case, the ‘old’ policy would be used and the student would have the most recent grade factored into their GPA.

Please note that the course repeat and GPA recalculation processes are programmed at the VCCS level and run at the end of each semester after the grade submission deadline has passed. For fall 2021, these processes ran on December 20. Based on the implementation requirements, no students were eligible for the new policy.

Hopefully this clarifies any confusion in the interpretation of the policy. If there are any further updates, we will let you know. Feel free to contact Academic Affairs at academics@nvcc.edu if you have any questions.

Submitted by:
Barbara Hopkins, Academic Affairs, BHopkins@nvcc.edu