Home » Institute for International Studies and Public Policy » Department of Political Science and Public Policy » academic policy and discipline

Academic Policy and Discipline

In accordance with standard university assessment procedures, each course is assessed separately in each semester. Students are notified at the end of each semester whether they have satisfied the program requirements.

1. ASSESSMENT AND EXAMINATION

Students’ academic performance is assessed by semester. In other words, a pass or good score in one semester cannot compensate for a fail or poor score in the other. And students are assessed in two ways:

  • On-going assessment (60%) based on class tests, homework, assignments, projects, oral presentations and class participation, and
  • Final Examination (40%) taken by all students at the end of each semester.

2. PROMOTION

Students must fulfill all academic and attendance requirements in order to be promoted to the next level.

In order to pass a subject/course, students have to achieve a score of AT LEAST 50%. This means that 50% is a borderline pass. Please read the following policy carefully to avoid any possible problem.

  1. If a student fails any course in any semester, s/he will be allowed to sit for a supplementary examination for that semester provided that s/he has fulfilled the attendance requirements. However, in year 4 semester 2, there is no supplementary examination. Students who fail one or more subjects in that semester will have to repeat the subject.
  2. If a student has failed THREE courses or more in one semester after taking supplementary exams, s/he will have to repeat that respective semester. However, students are allowed to repeat only ONE whole year for each year level.
  3. If any student fails THREE courses or more in both semesters, s/he is required to repeat all those courses and will NOT be promoted to the next year level.
  4. Under no circumstances can students take more than 6 years to complete the Bachelor’s degree.
  5. All students are eligible for all semester exams. However, if a student has failed the attendance of any course, his/her exam score (no matter how high) will be considered invalid and s/he will have to repeat that course automatically and will NOT be eligible for its supplementary exam (see the Attendance Regulations below).In this case, both the attendance and score columns will be marked ‘F’.
  6. Foundation Year students will not be promoted to year 2 if they fail even ONE single course after taking the supplementary exam.
  7. For year 2 and 3, if a student fails fewer than THREE courses after taking supplementary exams in a semester, s/he will have to repeat only those courses and can still be promoted to year 3 and 4 respectively.
  8. Year 3 students who repeat the total of ONE course in year 2 or 3 twice may be promoted to year 4.
  9. Year 3 students who repeat more than one course in any year and have studied at the department for five years will be promoted to year 4 and have to retake all those courses. However, they will not be awarded a Bachelor’s degree if they still fail even ONE single course in any year.

3. REWARDS

To enhance competition and quality, the institute has unanimously adopted a student reward system in which students are rewarded on the basis of their overall academic performance and lecturers’ evaluation of other qualities stated in the Student Evaluation Form, which will be distributed to you.

Awards of Excellence and/or gifts in-kind will be presented annually to most outstanding students in each group of the first three years during the Opening Ceremony/Orientation of each new academic year and to the most outstanding students in year 4 in their Graduation Ceremony.

4. CREDIT TRANSFER

In line with the sub-degree of the government, students of other universities who wish to enroll in the BA-PPA Program are required to follow the procedures below.

  1. Submit a credit transfer form and their official foundation year transcripts.
  2. Take a test designed by the department.
  3. Wait for the approval from the Institute of Foreign Languages.

Students who go on an overseas exchange program and wish to have credits transferred to the department must have their selected courses approved by the DPSPP management. The content of the subjects must be consistent with those of the DPSPP.

Early Exams: Students who miss their final exams due to personal emergencies may request a permission to sit for early finals or in supplementary exams.

5. RULES OF CONDUCT FOR TESTS AND EXAMS

Throughout the Test or Examination period:

 Students must be careful to follow any instructions given by invigilators.

Before the Test or Examination:

 Enter the room quietly and sit at the place assigned by the invigilators at least five minutes before the test or examination starts.

 Do not talk once you have entered the test or examination room.

 Leave all personal belongings at the front or the shelves at the back of the room.

 Do not begin reading and writing until the invigilators indicate to do so.

During the Test/Examination:

 Do not cheat or attempt to cheat (see the Academic Penalties below.)

 Turn off your phone and put it away from you during the whole test/examination period.

 Do not talk to or communicate with your classmates by whatever means.

 Do not borrow pens, erasers or other stationery

 Do not use correction pens or cover fluid. If you want to change your answers, simply cross them out and write new ones.

 Write all your answers clearly in blue ink, not pencil.

 Raise your hand if you have a problem. An invigilator will come to your desk to help you.

 Do not leave the test/exam room throughout the whole exam period.

 You may use dictionaries only if course lecturers have specifically stated that they may be used for a particular section or part of a test or examination.

 If you have finished, leave the room quietly after having carefully checked every item in your test or exam paper. Do not disturb others.

At the end of the Test/Examination:

 Stop writing immediately after the invigilator has said “pens down” or “stop writing”

 Remain silently seated whilst papers are being collected and checked.

 Leave the room when the invigilators indicate that everything is in order.

6. ACADEMIC PENALTIES

Cheating in all forms is a serious crime, and so is plagiarism (an act of stealing or copying another person’s idea or part of their work and pretending that it is your own). Penalties for a student’s act(s) of cheating or plagiarism are: warning, mark deduction, invalidation of particular work (such as homework, assignments, tests and examinations), repetition of the course(s) that student was found cheating or plagiarizing, or even repetition of the whole year. In the most serious cases, a student can be expelled from the institute.

Please carefully read Penalties for Cheating in Tests and Exams, which are strictly enforced with NO exception.

Behavior Action taken
a. An attempt to cheat Warning
b. First cheating 20%
c. Second cheating 50%
d. Third cheating 100% (paper invalidated)

7. RESULT ANNOUNCEMENTS

All semester results shall be announced not later than one month after the exams are administered. And all supplementary exams shall be administered no later than TWO weeks after the semester results are released. Students who miss any supplementary exam during this period will not be allowed to take any supplementary exam if they take leave NOT permitted by the Department.

8. DISCIPLINE

All semester results shall be announced not later than one month after the exams are administered. And all supplementary exams shall be administered no later than TWO weeks after the semester results are released. Students who miss any supplementary exam during this period will not be allowed to take any supplementary exam if they take leave NOT permitted by the Department.

  1. Sexual harassment and other improper sexual behaviors, for example kissing and hugging, are strictly prohibited on the IFL premises.
  2. Cursing, vulgar or disrespectful words, immoral facial expressions and body language, especially directed to lecturers, are not tolerated.
  3. Guns and other weapons are not allowed.
  4. Sexy, see-through, and skimpy clothes are prohibited.
  5. Jeans or T-shirts are not allowed.
  6. Flip-flops are not allowed in the classrooms.
  7. Negative attitudes towards and malicious acts against others are punished.

9. ATTENDANCE REGULATIONS

Attendance is mandatory for all the subjects and largely maintains the quality of the department. Therefore, observe the following attendance regulations carefully and comply with them strictly. Non-compliance with any of these regulations will result in a Fail in attendance, a Fail in a course or the invalidity of leave forms.

  1. You must use a leave form obtained from the photocopy office.
  2. Your class patron or course lecturers may NOT grant leaves for more than ONE day. These leaves have to be requested from the DPSPP coordinator by depositing the Leave Form at the office.
  3. You should produce two copies of one-day leaves for two different lecturers.
  4. Reasons in phrases are not accepted. They must be written in full sentences in a formal way.
  5. Class monitors are NOT allowed to write in the 'Official Use Only' box and/or grant leaves to their classmates.
  6. For one-day leaves, the starting date and the ending date must be the same.
  7. The period of leave should indicate the number of days or sessions, excluding public holidays and weekends.
  8. Write a class code NOT a room number, for example A1.1 (DPSPP) NOT G14.
  9. Write dates NOT days, for example 27 October, 2006 NOT Friday October.
  10. 1Leave forms may not be written by anyone other than you. If you change class during a semester, show your new class lecturers your former class attendance records and academic scores (if any) signed by your former lecturers.
  11. Absence from a test/exam without a permitted leave will incur a zero (0) in that test/exam.
  12. Only students absent from a test with a permitted leave will receive the lowest score in that test, or only under rare circumstances will he or she be allowed to take a make-up.
  13. Any student who takes a granted leave from any semester exam well before the exam takes place is qualified for its supplementary exam and for his or her actual exam score (not a borderline pass of 50%), but is not allowed to take any other additional exam.
  14. Before you submit a request for leave for more than 1 day, make sure that you attach a valid supporting document. Otherwise, it will be rejected.
  15. Notifications of Absence submitted LATER THAN TWO DAYS after returning from leaves are not accepted.
  16. Leaves for the maximum period of 6 weeks may be granted to fee-paying students and scholarship students per semester for missions and other serious situations with valid supporting document(s). With this maximum leave period, the leave taker shall receive only a borderline pass in attendance in all the courses. In these cases, one-week leave incurs 5% deduction of attendance in each subject.
  17. If you fail the attendance of any subject in any semester, you will fail both the subject and its attendance. You will not be allowed to take its supplementary exam and you will repeat the subject.
  18. There is no guarantee that leaves you request or notify are accepted. They are granted on the merits of your reasons and supporting documents.
  19. Notification after taking long leaves without informing any relevant lecturer in advance are not accepted even if they are submitted within two days after returning from leaves.
  20. Three 15-minute late attendances without permitted leaves are equal to one absence.

NUMBER OF ABSENCES ALLOWED Years 1, 2, 3 & 4

Courses No. of sessions absent with leave granted No. of sessions absent without leave granted Attendance percentage
All DPSPP courses at all year levels 4 4 70%

10. FINANCIAL POLICY

A. PAYMENT

The fee paid by year isUSD1200 and the fee paid by semester is USD600. Fee payment should be made at the beginning of each academic year or at the beginning of each semester.

Please note that classes are arranged according to the ‘first come, first served’ basis. This means that if you want to stay in your previous class or in a different class with your friends, you must register and pay together. In order not to harm our quality and image, there is a limit to the size of each class. If a class is over-sized, certain students will be moved to other small classes on this ‘first come, first served’ basis.

Semester 1:

Students are required to apply for their studies and pay their tuition fees for a new academic year by the closing date specified by the Institute of Foreign Languages so that classes and times they choose can be arranged in time.

Semester 2:

Students have to make their payments by the closing dates set by the institute, which is NO LATER THAN 10 DAYS after the release of semester one results. If s/he fails to do so, s/he will have to pay a penalty of USD20.

B. FEES FOR SUBJECTS REPEATED

1) Foundation-year students who fail any subject and wish to attend their repeated classes again must pay the following rates.

SUBJECT Per Semester Per Year
Introduction to Political Science $120 N/A
History of Political Thoughts $120 N/A
Introduction to East and Southeast Asia $120 N/A
World History and Civilization $120 N/A
Academic Writing and Reading 1 & 2 $120 $240
Khmer and Regional History $120 N/A
Applied Mathematics and Statistics $120 N/A
Khmer Civilization $120 N/A
Professional Communication $120 N/A

2) If a foundation-year student does not have time to retake repeated classes, they have to pay the following fees examinations for each course. But this does not apply to those who failed attendance because they have to attend classes and pay the fee specified in (1).

SUBJECT Semester 1 Semester 2
Introduction to International Relations $60 N/A
History of Political Thoughts $60 N/A
Applied Mathematics and Statistics $60 N/A
ASEAN Studies $60 N/A
Academic Writing and Reading 1 & 2 $60 $60
Introduction to East and Southeast Asia N/A $60
World History and Civilization N/A $60
Khmer Civilization N/A $60
Professional Communication N/A $60

3) Year 2-4 students who fail any subject and wish to attend their repeated classes again must pay USD120 per subject per semester.

4) If year 2-4 students do not retake repeated classes, they have to pay USD60 for examinations for each course. But this does not apply to those who failed attendance because they have to attend classes and pay the fee specified in (3).

C. FEES FOR ELECTIVE COURSES

The amount of annual fee does not cover the additional fee for elective courses; a fee of USD120 per course/subject is to be paid for each elective course. Each elective course will be offered when there are more than 25 enrolled students in a class. Elective courses and credits will be presented in the enrolled students’ academic transcripts. Enrollment for elective courses will start at the beginning of the second semester of each year in Room 03. Each elective class is arranged according to the ‘first come, first served’ basis. The Institute will announce further notice on the specific enrollment date and deadline.

Contact Info

Director of IISPP

#
Email: #

Scholarship

For students who are looking for a scholarship, RUPP provides a number of sources of scholarships. read more...