Academic Administration

The Office of the Provost is working with various offices to implement and communicate the following changes:  

1. A change in the academic calendar that extends the last day of class by one day to create 14 Mondays in a regular academic term (i.e., the Fall and Spring semesters). [See for example, the 2026-27 calendar]  
2. A revised credit policy that provides more transparent guidelines that accommodate the many ways that WashU provides academic experiences for our students in compliance with external obligations and regulations. [See: University Statement on Credit October 2025]  

WashU students are able to receive federal financial assistance because the institution is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission, or HLC.  In October 2024, as part of HLC’s ten-year comprehensive evaluation of WashU policies and practices, HLC required WashU to undertake a comprehensive review of “academic calendars, course-scheduling practices, and credit-hour monitoring (and exception) processes” and implement necessary changes identified during our review.    

During WashU’s review, it was discovered that course sections with a Monday meeting did not comply with our institutional credit policy.  

In August 2025, WashU submitted a report of our review to HLC, which accepted our plans for improvement in these areas and asked us to report on our progress in implementing our plan at our next accreditation review, in 2028.  As a result of WashU’s actions, we remain accredited by HLC, students continue to benefit from federal financial assistance, and their degrees are recognized for admission to graduate and professional schools.  

While the Office of the Provost has helped to provide the framework and support for the process of review and recommending improvements, the actual work of review and recommending the direction of the change was the work of a steering committee, six ad-hoc subcommittees, and an existing university committee.  These committees comprised over 60 faculty, administrators, and staff representing all schools at WashU.  Details of the committee structure can be found in the Academic Administration pages of the Office of the Provost.  

The changes have been reviewed and endorsed by several individuals and bodies as part of the shared governance process, including the University Calendar Committee; the Provost; the Faculty Senate Council Policy Committee; the Faculty Senate Council Executive Committee; the Council of Deans; and the Standing Committee of Vice Deans of Education.  

These changes apply to all schools and educational programs and courses that are transcripted and that lead to a degree or academic certificate configured in Workday Student.  This includes undergraduate, graduate, and professional programs, whether in-person, online, or hybrid and across the several additional locations where WashU instruction is provided (whether international or in a department of corrections facility).    

The new calendar and the revised credit policy will both take effect on the first day of Academic Year 2026-2027.  Clarifications to the reading days and final exam period policy will be made in AY 25-26.  

HLC has asked us to report on progress towards consistent compliance with our revised credit policy by our next assurance review in 2028.  We know that change will take time and intentional collaboration and communication to help align school practices with the newly articulated expectations. 

The faculty, administrators, and staff who worked to develop changes to policy and practice tried to find solutions that (a) are as inclusive of WashU’s tradition of educational innovation as possible, (b) have the least impact on the greatest number of people possible, and (c) allow us to document our compliance with accreditation standards and federal regulations.  We continue to communicate with constituents to better understand the impact of these changes and modify implementation plans as needed.  Please see below for more detailed questions related to ways we anticipate that our community will be impacted.  If you have a specific question that isn’t covered below, please contact the Office of the Provost, Mark Valenzuela.

When WashU reviewed the academic calendar, we found an inconsistency between classes that didn’t have a scheduled Monday meeting (like Tuesday-Thursday sections) and those that did (like Monday-Wednesday-Friday sections).  Students in one section got more contact with their instructors than in the other.  In part this was due to the class holidays in our Fall and Spring semesters.  We explored several options, including increasing the number of days of the academic year, eliminating a class holiday, or leaving it up to the instructor to make up the time.  We felt that the least disruptive option that helped ensure compliance was to reduce the number of reading days to allow adding a 14th Monday to the fall and spring semesters.  

There are several academic activities that are allowed during reading days, including “study sessions, portfolio reviews and critiques.” Please see the following for more details.

Yes, please see above.  Over the coming weeks, we will work with school administration and curriculum committees to discuss more detailed guidance.  

Why?

The majority of our students take courses that meet during the regular semester and are offered through an in-person lecture or seminar. To offer federal financial aid, WashU has to meet the expectation that a semester comprises approximately 15 weeks.  While each regular term at WashU is composed of 14 weeks of instruction, it’s the usage of the final assessment period that allows us to affirm that our semester is approximately 15 weeks, as expected by federal regulation.

What?

The credit policy uses the broad term “final assessment” to signal that instructors have the discretion to choose an appropriate method of evaluating students’ learning in their course, subject to the expectations of the course’s department, school, or programmatic accreditation agency.  As can be seen in the credit policy, the only expectation is that the assessment “requires substantive out-of-class student work.”  The instructor and school have discretion over what constitutes substantive work, within reason.  The form of this final assessment is really at the discretion of the instructor, subject to the requirements as further described below.  Final assessments include, but are not limited to: an in-person written exam proctored by the instructor or their assistant, an in-person or on-line oral exam, a take-home exam that is turned in either physically or digitally through WashU’s LMS, an on-line exam that is administered through the LMS or other technology, a paper that is submitted physically or digitally, an individual or group presentation, an individual or group project report, a portfolio or exhibit that is critiqued, a performance in front of a jury or audience, etc. 

Who?

At WashU, instruction is offered in a variety of formats, modes of delivery, and time-periods that are different from a regular term.  If an instructor teaches a course that is not scheduled to run the length of the regular Fall or Spring Term (for example, a summer term or Half term/Mini A), then the final assessment requirements described in the credit policy do not apply (although a department’s, school’s, or programmatic accreditation agency’s expectations may apply). If this is the case for you, skip ahead to the “How?” question below.

For courses that are scheduled to run through the entire length of a regular term (Fall or Spring), the Table below shows if a course is expected to offer a final assessment and if that assessment should occur during the Finals Period for alignment with the credit policy.

Table 1. Only for courses offered as part of the regular Fall or Spring term.  The credit policy requirements for final assessments do not apply to courses that are offered during non-regular terms.

NB: Y = Yes, N = No, D = At the instructor’s discretion and subject to department, school, and programmatic accreditation agency expectations.

In line with the Reading Days and Final Examination Period Policy, final examinations, final papers, and final presentations should not be due during the Reading Days Period.

How?

Based on Table 1 above, if a final assessment is required for the credit policy, it can be any portion of a student’s final grade (small or big).  How the instructor uses the assessment is at their discretion. [A guide is being developed in collaboration with OUR to guide encoding of assessment in Workday as part of a course section and will be shared soon.]

When?

 Courses that assign an in-person Final Exam should designate  a “Standard Final Exam Date and Time” through Workday, so that the OUR can schedule the final  in alignment with the Reading Days and Final Examination Period Policy.  For all other courses that assign a final paper, presentation, or a take-home final, the instructor should use their discretion to assign the due date within the Final Examination period and let students know as early as possible (ideally when the syllabus for a course is posted or distributed).  An instructor can assign an exam or paper on the last day of class as long as doing so does not violate the Reading Days and Final Examination Period Policy.  However, for compliance with the credit policy, the instructor should additionally assign an assessment during the Finals Period, if required during the Finals Period, as shown in Table 1 above.

Where?

The expectations for final assessments cover courses offered on the Danforth campus, the Med School, international locations, and the Prison Education Project locations, subject to the conditions listed above.

Faculty teaching a course during the regular term (14-week Fall or Spring semester) are asked to schedule their comprehensive (i.e., cumulative) final exam during the university’s scheduled final exam period.  Doing so would meet the intent of the Reading Days and Final Examination Period Policy by protecting “students’ opportunities for review of course materials” for all their courses.  That said, faculty are allowed to give a last exam that is non-cumulative on the last scheduled class meeting, so long as they also require students to submit a final assessment during the Final Examination Period (whether it be a paper, presentation, a cumulative final exam, or other assessment).   

The short answer is, “yes.” For context, the requirement for holding a final assessment during the final exam period is intended to apply only to those courses that are scheduled for the regular academic term.  

With the general guideline that WashU really prizes personal contact with students, faculty are asked to think about using as much of the time we have with our students to help them learn, whether it’s holding a study session that helps them put their semester in perspective or giving them time to substantively reflect on the semester through course evaluations or having an outside speaker come in to give examples of how the concepts apply in a particular career path.  We only ask that you use all of that allotted contact time in ways that are meaningful.  

At WashU, we really value that interaction between faculty and students, and so instructors typically have a statement about attendance and participation in their syllabi.  You certainly have free will and there are circumstances that are beyond anyone’s control, but know that most of the time there are consequences.  Be sure to discuss with your instructor what those consequences are so you can make the best decision possible.  

The credit policy doesn’t require you to make up contact time for students’ individual absences, only if you have had to cancel a class, which affects all the students. 

A museum visit that fits in with the subject of your course and that is required of all students is a creative example of meeting the spirit of the contact time.  It’s a great way to bond with students and interact with them in ways that can make a WashU class stand out in positive ways.  Go forth.  

The Office of the Provost is putting together a list of resources that can help make sure that the contact time is not lost, but is still meaningful for students’ learning.  In the meantime, know that it is fine to record a lecture and require students to watch it on their own for these limited occasions.    

Please feel free to share your concerns using the Student Complaint website.

Please feel free to contact the Office of the Provost via Mark Valenzuela (vmark@wustl.edu).  We want to make sure that faculty and staff know that these policies provide guidance, but also a lot of freedom to be as innovative as makes sense for each academic discipline.