COME September, new and returning students of the University of the West Indies will have their foundation courses added to their total Grade Point Average (GPA).

The foundation courses once had a pass or fail grade, but will now be added to the cumulative GPA, but not the degree GPA. The cumulative GPA takes into consideration all the courses for the duration of study, and the degree GPA takes into account courses done from the second year onwards.

Foundation courses include Writing in the disciplines or English for academic purposes; Law, governance, economy and society; Science, medicine and technology, and Caribbean civilisation.

Clement Iton, director of administration, told Career & Education that the move, made by the Board of Undergraduate Studies, was to get students to realise the importance of the courses.

“In the past courses carried a pass or fail grading and because of that students did not ascribe the importance to the courses as the university would require,” Iton said.

He said the idea was to have students do the courses in their first year of study in order to focus on the courses that will be counted in their degree GPA, but mishaps continued to happen.

“Take English for an example, in the past we had a foundation course called Use of English [now Writing in the disciplines and English for academic purposes] and you had students in the final year of their medical programme not passing it,” he said.

For graduation, part of the university’s guidelines is that a student who has not passed a foundation course will not be awarded a degree. And Iton explained that at the St Augustine campus in Trinidad, if a student’s cumulative GPA is below 2.00 they are rejected from getting state funds through the Government Assistance for Tuition Expenses programme.

But, according to Iton, a larger part of the picture is a reorientation of how students view the university experience.

“It’s not about passing exams; we are preparing students to be reputable citizens in the nation, region and the world and with this we hope to get them to see the broader perspective in keeping with the strategic plan to create an ideal UWI graduate,” Iton said.

According to a former guild president, 42 per cent of students who enrolled in foundation courses failed it, and the question of why these courses would have lower attendance and student retention rates than any other courses in the university would often be asked.

But though the move seeks to make a graduate of the university more rounded, not all students are happy with the change.

However, Guild President Lerone Laing said for the past two years the issue has been tossed about and he along with the past guild president supports it fully.

“Foundation courses, given their importance, were not being given the due regard by students as it is seen as not affecting their GPA,” Laing said.

Furthermore, Laing said the inclusion would provide balance when the GPA weighting is applied.

“It is important for the foundation courses to have some weight as it allows for a balance in the GPA structure. For example, a student sitting five courses including a foundation course who fails one of his or her courses will be considered in the GPA system as having been successful in three of five subjects even though they passed the foundation course,” he said.

According to Laing, the decision has room for more positive impact for students.

“The content of these courses will benefit them in the long-term. These courses contain information that will enable students to comment constructively on societal issues, do proper research and know the basics of law and governance. The foundation courses are critical to developing the distinctive UWI graduate, who is expected to be well honed in his or her demonstration of the English language and should have a heightened level of social consciousness so as to contribute constructively to nation building,” Laing said.

Laing maintained that the decision has reservations based on how students view foundation courses [burdensome] but the measure will help students in the long run as the content of the courses contain information they will need to sound like the ideal UWI graduate.