Starting this year, the maximum grade that students can get for repeated courses rises from B+ to A0. It has been a year since the 55th General Students’ Association (GSA), “Shall:We,” pledged this.

On February 20th, the 56th GSA, “P:New,” announced the relaxation of the maximum grade for retaken courses from B+ to A0, starting this semester. This initiative, suggested as one of the main promises of the 55th GSA, “Shall:We,” had drawn significant attention from the campus. However, due to prolonged meetings and reviews (reported by “Channel PNU” on November 2nd, 2023), it took a year to implement the policy. The relaxation has been officially announced after the final approval at the University Council meeting on February 7th.

According to the revision of “Article 60 of the Pusan National University (PNU)’s Statute (Retaking courses),” the relaxation will be implemented from the spring semester of this year. Students who received grades of C+ or lower until last year’s winter semester will be eligible to receive a maximum grade of A0 when repeating those courses. Courses in which students have already received grades of B0 or higher through one repeat are not eligible for further repetition.

This change seems to be a response to the growing phenomenon of grade inflation in universities. Before this relaxation, PNU and Kyungpook National University, among nine Flagship Korean National Universities, were the only two universities that had set the upper limit of retaken grades to B+. This has raised concerns that PNU students might be at a disadvantage in terms of grade evaluation for employment opportunities.

The news of the relaxation is greeted among students. With this change, they see an opportunity to enter the job market with higher grades. Student A (Dept. of Polymer Science and Engineering, 20) said, “As I need to do whatever it takes to get a job, it’s good to hear this news. I think this change will provide even greater motivation to retake classes.”

However, the revision of the regulation came later than the course registration, confusing some students. Not only did the announcement of the revision come after the first registration period, which started on February 6th, but it also came after the second registration period, starting on February 19th, leaving students unable to decide whether to register for courses requiring repeats.

In response to comments that the announcement should have been made earlier, the GSA stated that it was not able to expedite the process due to internal administrative procedures within the university. Lee Chang-Jun (Dept. of Geological Sciences, 22), the president of the GSA, said, “At first, we aimed to announce the revision before the course wish list registration period for this spring semester, but it was delayed due to discussions and revision processes in the university. We will ensure that students can utilize the course add/drop period through the announcement.”

The GSA revealed the plans to enhance regulations regarding retaken grades through monitoring. When revising the rule, there have been concerns that higher-grade students who retake courses may be overly advantaged to students in lower grades. Choi Han-Gyeol (Dept. of Mathematics, 22), the Director General of Education Policy of the GSA, said, “During the process, there were many suggestions about relaxation, but we decided to proceed with the original plan.” Choi added, “If we make additional regulations to prevent side effects, there may be some unintended problems. We will monitor and research future issues that may arise.”

Reporter You Seung-Hyun

Translated by Lee Soo-Hyun