Claims by a student advocacy group that it successfully lobbied a university to overturn 100 failing grades have been shut down by the school in question.
A small group of protesters, some of whom attend Algoma University’s Brampton campus, have been rallying for days over claims the school failed a cohort of predominantly international students intentionally in an attempt to force them to pay to retake an online IT course.
“As international student applications plummet, these mass failings appear to be a cash grab,” the Naujawan Support Network, a group claiming to represent the interests of international students and workers in Canada, shared on X.
Despite university administrators meeting with protesting students in recent days to hear their concerns, and all Algoma University attendees having access to an academic grade review process, the Naujawan Support Network maintains its claims that protesters successfully lobbied the school to overturn 100 failed grades.
On the contrary, Algoma University told Now Toronto that it “absolutely did not overturn the grades of 100 students… there is no truth to it,” it asserted.
According to the university 230 students took the course in the fall of 2023 and after receiving student complaints about the pass rate, it launched an urgent review which showed that the class had grades below statistical norms.
“Following university policies and procedures, the course instructor applied a standard bell curve that resulted in 61 additional students exceeding a 50 per cent passing grade. All students were advised of their own update by letter,” the university confirmed in a statement to Now Toronto.
Following the bell curve, 32 students still had a failing grade.
The university said students who failed will be granted a chance to take a make-up exam and undergo a process to challenge their marks under approved and existing university procedures, if they so wish.
The university is offering study materials and free tutoring sessions to support students in their preparation.
It also said the retake exam will be composed and graded by a different faculty member to the original and that there is no fee to take it.
“COSC 3707 Techniques of Systems Analysis, is a difficult course related to computer engineering and Algoma University has committed to continue reviewing grades students have challenged, using this formal process, which will include a review of students’ previous tests and assignments,”
To date international and domestic students have passed their Algoma University lecture courses at a nearly identical high rate — “93 per cent and 92 per cent, respectively,” the school concluded.
