Bilkent University Senate convened on December 9 to discuss the academic calendar for the 2016-2017 academic year in addition to a number of proposals regarding the university rules and regulations.
The finalized 2016-2017 academic calendar can be found here. New undergraduate student registrations, GE100 Orientation, and the COPE exam will be held before the feast of sacrifice holiday in September. Course registrations will take place after the holiday, on September 21-22, with classes starting on September 23, 2016, Friday. Starting with the 2016-2017 Fall semester, the Senate has decided to move the withdraw (W grade) deadline to the end of the tenth week of classes. Consequently, the Senate has also decided to propose that from then on, previously taken courses with W grades should be considered as “new courses” during course registrations.
The Senate has decided to propose the Board of Trustees a number of changes to the undergraduate rules and regulations. These can be summarized as:
- Retake exams will be discontinued starting with the Fall semester of the 2016-2017 academic year. Retake exams will be given for the last time in the Spring semester of the current academic year 2015-2016. Bilkent University’s education system did not have retake exams from 1986 to 2012 when on 06/19/2012 the Higher Education Executive Board made it mandatory for all universities in Turkey. After the Higher Education Executive Board reversed this decision on 10/28/2015, the university Senate decided to go back to the original system.
- For midterm exams, medical reports have to be submitted to the Dean’s or Director’s office within 3 working days from the final day of the report. For final exams, reports have to be submitted no later than 2 days after the missed final exam.
- If they choose to attend the Summer School, students who have not passed ENG 101 can only take ENG 101 in the summer and students who have passed ENG 101 but not ENG 102 have to take ENG 102 in addition to another course if they choose to do so. The main reason for this change is the fact that successfully completing ENG 101 and 102 help the students in their other courses.