Promotion Standards - Pre-Clerkship and Clerkship

Promotions Process Flowchart Promotions Standards (printable) SAMC Terms of Reference (printable)

STUDENT PROMOTION

The academic performance of each student will be considered by the relevant Year Subcommittee who will recommend that a student be:

• Promoted;
• Required to remediate within a course, or repeat a portion of the program, or
• Required to discontinue.

Year Subcommittee meetings are held at the end of each promotion period to consider student performance (Pre-Clerkship - End of Fall Term and End of Winter Term; Clerkship – End of Winter Term). Promotion recommendations from the Year Subcommittees will be forwarded to the Student Academic Management Committee (Promotion committee for the MD program) for a final determination of each student’s status.

Promotion and graduation decisions will be made in keeping with the principle that a student must demonstrate academic performance and professional attributes sufficient to support their success in subsequent portions of the program or post-graduate education. In addition, students are expected to make consistent academic progress in the program within a reasonable timeframe. The Student Academic Management Committee will make promotion and graduation decisions in accordance with the Promotion standards and this principle.

Notwithstanding the Standards, the Student Academic Management Committee can make decisions that uphold the principle. Students who meet the Standards for unconditional promotion and for whom there are no professional behaviour concerns that would prevent promotion will be considered by definition to have met the principle outlined above.

Note: Although numeric grades are often used within the college to delineate standards of achievement for promotion and awards, the final transcript will indicate only pass (P) or fail (F). A student who has been not been promoted due to being unsuccessful in one or more course will receive a fail (F) on his/her transcript for the relevant course(s).

MD PROGRAM PROMOTION STANDARDS – PRE-CLERKSHIP

In the pre-clerkship period (Years 1 and 2), students must achieve the following in order to be promoted to the next term of the program:

Successful completion of each course in each term in the pre-clerkship period, as described in the course syllabus for each course.

a. Students who have successfully completed all courses will be promoted unconditionally.

b. Students who have been unsuccessful in any one course will be required to either remediate the course in which they were unsuccessful, repeat a portion of the program, or discontinue, based on the following considerations:

• academic performance in all courses of that term, including performance on individual in-course assessment components and modules
• academic performance in previous terms in the MD program
• other mitigating circumstances

c. Students who have been unsuccessful in more than one course will be required to either repeat a portion of the program or discontinue.

d. Students may be required to remediate a portion of the program, repeat a portion of the program, be suspended for a period of time, or be required to discontinue on the basis of unprofessional behaviour.

MD PROGRAM PROMOTION STANDARDS – CLERKSHIP

In Year 3 of the clerkship period, students must achieve the following in order to be promoted to Year 4:

Successful completion of each course in Year 3, as determined by that Course’s policies as per the Course Syllabus.

a. Students who have successfully completed all courses will be promoted unconditionally.

b. Students who have been unsuccessful in any one course (with the exception of Core Clinical Rotations – see “c” below) will be required to either remediate that course, repeat a portion of the program, or discontinue the program, based on the following considerations:

• academic performance in all courses of that year, including performance on individual in-course assessment components and modules
• academic performance in previous terms in the MD program
• other mitigating circumstances

c. Students who have been unsuccessful in the Core Rotations Course, or in more than one of the other Year 3 courses (Selected Topics in Medicine; Success in Medical School III) will not be promoted, but will be required to either repeat a portion of the program or discontinue.

d. Students may also be required to remediate a portion of the program, repeat a portion of the program, be suspended for a period of time, or be required to discontinue on the basis of unprofessional behaviour.

In Year 4 of the clerkship period, students must achieve the following in order to graduate:

Successful completion of each course in each Year 4, as determined by that Course’s policies as per the Course Syllabus.

a. Students who have successfully completed all courses will graduate unconditionally.
b. Students who have been unsuccessful in one or more Year 4 course(s) will not graduate, but will be required to either repeat a portion of the program, or discontinue.
c. Students may also be required to remediate a portion of the program, repeat a portion of the program, be suspended for a period of time, or be required to discontinue on the basis of unprofessional behaviour.

Students are expected to make consistent academic progress in the program within a reasonable timeframe. Consistent academic progress may vary depending upon each student’s circumstances, however non-exhaustive indicators of a lack of academic progress may include the following and would be reviewed by the SAMC:

• A pre-clerkship student required to repeat more than two terms (or portions of terms) in pre-clerkship or repeat each year due to failure of promotion based on academic reasons or academic withdrawal
• A clerkship student required to repeat each year of the clerkship program (or portion of that academic year) due to failure of promotion based on academic reasons or academic withdrawal
• A student takes more than six years to complete the program due to academic failure or for academic withdrawal reasons.
  • This will not apply to withdrawal/leaves for medical or personal reasons in which academic performance is not a concern or for approved additional degree programs in which the student is in good academic standing. SAMC will determine appropriate duration of withdrawal periods and placement on return to program in order to support student success.

Each situation will be reviewed by SAMC with an ultimate view to whether a student has demonstrated consistent academic progress in the program in accordance with the standards.

Update approved Faculty council Jan 2023