The first lecture of every class usually starts with the introduction of a syllabus, but there is no official policy that requires professors to stick with it for the rest of the term.
While professors tend to follow the syllabi they hand out at the beginning of the course more often than not, the lack of official university regulation on the subject is an issue that AMS VP Academic Anne Kessler hopes to tackle.
Currently, the group in charge of academic regulations, the UBC Senate, requires professors to include information detailing a description of the course structure, operation of the course, prerequisites, statement of learning objectives, a mark breakdown, a course schedule and a description of the grading system in their curriculum guide. Professors are only recommended to include information on academic integrity.
Kessler’s desire for a syllabi policy comes from a combination of her personal experience observing friends who saw professors make larger curriculum changes in the middle of the term, and her communication with peers from other universities that already have syllabi policies in place.
“A syllabus should be a contract between a professor and a student about what the class is going to look like,” said Kessler.
Commerce student Lauren Telford described an incident when her oral communication professor assigned weekly journal entries that would be due at the end of the term for 15 per cent of the grade. One week before the due date, the assignment was changed to a reflective essay on the journal entries.
Although this incident was eventually resolved, Telford believes occurrences like it are a sign of the weaknesses of UBC not having an official syllabus policy.
"Just like a budget lays out our money, a syllabus lays out our time -- and once approved shouldn't be changed," said Telford. "I don't want to do more work so a paid professor can suddenly decide that they want to do less.”
Other students feel that pre-structured syllabi restrict professors from adapting to the needs of their class. First-year Sauder student Amy Wu had a professor change the pace of a class dramatically in order to keep up with the schedule of the syllabus.
“The speed-up caused a lot of people to drop behind,” said Wu.
Kessler believes that uncertainty in the management of a course negatively affects student success. She is currently holding discussions with other university officials about timelines and agreements for a new syllabi policy she hopes to put in place in the next few months.
Some of these plans include a requirement for professors to put up syllabi two weeks prior to the beginning of a class. This would allow students to have a better understanding of the expectations and work level of a class before actually showing up on the first day.
The syllabus for each course would also be posted alongside the short blurbs that are currently listed as information about classes on the SSC.
“We joke about the 140 characters that are on the student service centre,” said Kessler.
Kessler also hopes to include mental health resources on syllabi, including resources that will help students who are struggling to keep up with class work or are overburdened by stress. Reinforcing information about academic misconduct and plagiarism will be another one of her focus points.
Kessler is aware of how these extra requirements will affect professors and hopes that the discussions she is hosting over the next few months will allow her to make a policy that reflects the needs of the students while being mindful of the work professors will need to put into it.
“We definitely require a lot more from professors," said Kessler. "We don’t want to add an extra burden.”