Repeating/Retaking a Course
A student wishing to repeat a course must file an Option to Repeat Form. Only students receiving a grade of D or F are permitted to repeat a course once for each of four courses. Required courses may be repeated a second time, i.e., major/minor or general education requirement, exercising one of the student's four options. The last grade prevails and the original grade is removed from the GPA computation. The student must petition his/her dean, in writing, for any exceptions to the policy. If more than four D or F grades are received, the student should always petition for an exception to the repeat policy before retaking courses. If the four repeat options have been exercised, and a student is required to retake a course in which a D or F was received to proceed with his/her academic program, both entries will remain on the permanent record. Both grades will be calculated into the GPA and for fulfilling major requirements, if applicable.However, if the course is passed both times, only the initial passing grade is used to satisfy institutional semester hour requirements for a degree. The student can petition his/her dean for more repeats. Courses in which a C or higher was earned will not be retaken nor will credit be earned unless it is a course such as an independent study where the course content is different or is specifically referred to as repeatable in the course description. If it is determined in the degree audit process that a student has the same non-repeatable course both with C or better grades on his/her record, the grade for the first time the course was passed will be the course counted toward all institutional and program requirements. Upon written recommendation by the department chair, an exception to the repeat policy may be obtained for students who earned C or better grades. This exception applies to coursework which places time restrictions on course applicability in a specific program. An example may be a nursing course taken more than five years ago. Such written requests must be submitted to the Office of the Registrar.
The repeat option may not be invoked for any course previously passed on the student's academic record at the time any degree was awarded by NKU. Similarly, if any transfer work was included as part of the hours used for an AAS degree and D and F grades were included on the record, the transfer work may not be reevaluated to eliminate these grades in the computation of the GPA even if the student declares a new catalog. The repeat policy is applicable to NKU coursework and transfer work from another institution. Discontinued courses may not be repeated unless a new course covering the same content has been created to replace the discontinued course. Verification from the department chair is required before such a substitution may be allowed. Under no circumstances may one course of different content substitute for another under the repeat policy.