BY LAURA McFADZEAN

A total 3169 Monash University students have changed more than 10,200 unit results by opting in to the Satisfied Faculty Requirement (SFR) grading alternative, according to data provided to the Academic Board as of October 2.

The SFR alternative allows students to exclude all of their semester one pass grades from the calculation of their Weighted Average Mark (WAM) and their Grade Point Average (GPA). 

In total, more than 10,800 students altered more than 27,000 results; either by the SFR alternative, fails being withdrawn from transcripts, or accepting supplementary assessment offers.

These grading alterations are commonly known as the Academic Safety Net, and were introduced to combat changes to education quality in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Academic Board representative James Desmond said he was “overwhelmingly happy” to discover “so many people got a benefit from the [Safety Net] decision”.

“Working very closely with my colleague, Chloe Polgaze, there were a lot of late nights and early mornings, countless Zoom meetings and emails sent,” he said.

“There was a sense of proudness, for sure.”

The Academic Board liaised with the National Tertiary Education Union, Monash University Student Union (MONSU), Monash Student Association (MSA) and the Monash University Malaysian Students’ Union (MUMSU) to create the “well-crafted” policy, Mr Desmond said.

The Academic Board announced the introduction of the Safety Net in April for semester one, and July for semester two, but the changes have since been extended to include all listed eligible teaching periods from 2019 to 2021.

Mr Desmond said the extension of the Safety Net to semester two and overlapping periods created “an overwhelming sense of relief” and “unburdening of stress and anxiety” from students.

“I’m really glad Monash announced [the Safety Net extension] before the semester started,” he said.

“This policy is designed to make sure people who may have been thinking about deferring are not impacted and can continue their course.”

Fourth year arts/law student Marcelle Yacoub said opting into the SFR alternative in semester one to prevent her WAM from dropping one mark was “quite a hard decision”.

“I’ve heard that law firms prefer to see your marks even if you didn’t do amazingly, for transparency reasons,” Ms Yacoub said. 

“But if I need to, I’ll just be honest when applying for jobs about how my mental health was seriously affected.

“And if that can’t be recognised and understood, then do I really want to work there anyway?”

According to a Monash University spokesperson, more than 63,300 students were enrolled in a course offered at one of its Australian campuses at the end of the semester one 2020 teaching period. 

Sixty three per cent of those students were domestic.

However, not everyone believes the SFR alternative had a significant impact.

When told of the number of students who opted in, Ms Yacoub said she “expected more students” would. 

“It makes me wonder if those low statistics are going to put those who have elected to SFR core units at a disadvantage,” Ms Yacoub said.

“It doesn’t seem very equitable, especially considering the lack of data given to us on the effects of SFR, and when other universities just aren’t including any students’ results at all for fairness.”

To find out whether your teaching period is eligible for the Academic Safety Net, click here.