<York Calendars<Undergraduate Calendar 2001-2002<Glendon College<Regulations for the Bachelor of Arts Degree

General Regulations

• Bilingual Program
• Certificate of Bilingualism - French and English
• Certificate of Bilingual Excellence
• Language Credit
• Study in a Francophone University
• English as a Second Language
• General Education Requirement

1. All candidates for the BA degree are subject to changes in regulations and requirements made after their first registration unless, in the opinion of the Faculty Council, undue hardship is involved. All inquiries about regulations and requirements shall be addressed to the Office of Student Programs.

Bilingual Program

2. i) Those who accept an offer of admission to the Bilingual program of the college must register in it.

ii) Students are placed in a second-language course in accordance with the results obtained in a placement test.

iii) Students admitted in 2001-2002 will not be allowed to transfer to the Unilingual program.

Elementary Level:

To satisfy the bilingual requirements for the Bachelor of Arts at Glendon, students must successfully complete at least six credits in each official language. These courses must be at the second-year level and above in French as a Second Language and in English as a Second Language, or any courses at any level in another discipline of the college which are designated as satisfying the bilingual requirements.

To satisfy the bilingual requirement, all of the required course work, tests and exams must have been completed in the language of instruction of the course.

A student who wants to satisfy the requirement by taking an eligible disciplinary course must present to the Office of Student Programs a statement signed by the course instructor stating that the student has completed all of the required course work in the language of instruction of the course.

Note: Students who were admitted to the unilingual stream prior to 1987-1988 must take in their first year of study at the college and must pass before graduation a course taught in English focusing on French Canada.

In 2001-2002 a number of courses will be available in satisfaction of the requirement. A course taken in satisfaction of the unilingual stream requirement cannot be offered in satisfaction of any other college requirement.

Certificate of Bilingualism - French and English

To receive the Certificate of Bilingualism, students must successfully complete at least 18 credits in their second language with a minimum grade of C in each course. These courses must be at the second-year level and above in French as a Second Language or any courses at any level in another discipline of the college which are designated as satisfying the bilingual requirements.

Certificate of Bilingual Excellence

3. i) A Certificate of Bilingual Excellence is awarded to graduating students who successfully pass the Glendon Examination of Bilingual Excellence.

ii) Course Requirements:

To sit for this exam, students must fulfill the following requirements:

a) English-speaking students must have obtained or be reasonably certain of obtaining a minimum grade of B in 18 credits taken in French; these courses must be at the third or fourth-year level from the French Department, including French as a Second Language courses or any courses at any level from another discipline of the college which are designated as satisfying the bilingual requirements.

iii) Examination Procedures:

a) Information about registering for this exam is available from the Office of Student Programs. The Glendon Examination of Bilingual Excellence is held once a year in the Winter Term. To become candidates, students must be in their final year and must submit an application by the annually announced deadline.

b) Eligible candidates take a written and an oral examination which assess their comprehension and expression proficiency in both languages.

c) Candidates who pass both the written and oral sections of the examination are awarded a Certificate of Bilingual Excellence in addition to the Bachelor of Arts Degree.

Language Credit

4. i) A language credit, equal to six credits, will be awarded on application to English-speaking students who obtain a minimum grade of C in 12 credits taken entirely in French.

ii) Courses designated as language training courses will not count in satisfaction of the course requirements. Courses given partly in one language and partly in the other will not be counted. Where a course has the main lectures in French with the option of a seminar in English afforded, the course is excluded if students take the English seminar. All written work submitted in connection with the course must be done in the language of the course, with the exception of non-take-home examinations.

iii) Courses taken in the Department of French by English-speaking students doing a major in French will not be counted for purposes of the award of a language credit. In this context major means the 36 credits in the department required for a Bachelor of Arts degree, the 60 credits in the department prescribed for Specialized Honours, both the 42 credit and the 24 credit component in Combined Honours, the 42 credit component in General Honours and Honours Double Major.

iv) If students complete, with the appropriate standing, only six of the 12 credits required, they will be eligible to receive one-half of a language credit.

v) Though a language credit will be equivalent to six credits and will enable students who obtain such a Credit to graduate with 84 credits instead of 90 credits for a Bachelor of Arts degree and 114 credits instead of 120 credits for an Honours degree, it will allow students to be exempted only from a free elective. They will still have to do the number of courses in their major prescribed for a Bachelor of Arts program or for any Honours program and they will also have to satisfy the General Education requirements.

vi) The language credit will not be shown on students' cumulative records and it will not be counted in the academic average they are required to maintain. It will be shown only on the final transcript when students graduate. Until graduation the official record of students who have earned a language credit will show an apparent deficiency of one course. Students who wish to earn a language credit should pay careful attention to this procedure because it means, in effect, that the language credit will count towards degree requirements only if students graduate from Glendon. If students transfer to another Faculty of York University or to another university, their language credit will not be shown on their transcript and therefore will not count in any way towards the degree program to which they transfer.

vii) English-speaking students who intend to earn a language credit should, in most cases, take a normal course load in their first two years, including the required French language training course in each of those years. If they are Honours students they should normally plan to take a course in French in third year and another in fourth year. This would give them the option of taking a 27 credit load in each of the two upper years, or a 24 credit load in one of the two years and a 30 credit load in the other, depending on their estimate of the point at which their course load needs to be lightened to enable them to devote the necessary extra time to the courses they are taking in French. Bachelor of Arts degree students should aim at earning only one half of a language credit by taking a course in French in their third year, unless they are proficient enough in French to have been exempted from first year language training or to be able to carry 12 credits in French in their third year.

viii) Some graduate schools do not recognize the language credit as equivalent to a course. Students contemplating enrolling at a graduate school who wish to take courses in French are therefore strongly advised not to seek a language credit.

Note: Students in the Translation program are not eligible to receive the language credit. However, anglophone students who complete TRAD II in a francophone university may receive a credit or a half-credit at the discretion of the Director of the School depending on the number of courses completed and the grades obtained.

Study in a Francophone University

5. Students in the Honours degree program, with an adequate knowledge of French, may receive credit towards a Glendon degree for a year's study in a francophone university in Canada or abroad. Enquiries should be addressed to the Subcommittee on Study in a Francophone University (SSFU), c/o the Office of Student Programs. Students re-entering Glendon after such a year of study, approved by the SSFU, need not make formal re-application, but should inform the Office of Student Programs of their intention to return and arrange to have transcripts forwarded to that office as early as possible.

English as a Second Language

6. All students admitted to the college whose mother tongue is a language other than English are required to take an English language placement test before registering. Continuing students who are non-native speakers of English should meet with the Director of English as a Second Language or the English as a Second Language Adviser before choosing their courses.

General Education Requirement

7. Every student in the College shall complete before graduation the equivalent of at least six credits in each of three of the four General Education divisions: Humanities, Modes of Reasoning, Natural Science, Social Science. At least six of the 18 credits taken in fulfillment of the above prescription must be at the 3000 or 4000 level. For detailed information about these divisions, see the description under Multidisciplinary Studies.