The final week of each fall and spring semester is designated as a week for courses to administer a final exam. During finals week, all in-person, hybrid, or online synchronous courses with standard meeting patterns are scheduled to meet for one two-hour period. The Final Examination Policy is available at https://reg.msu.edu/ROInfo/Calendar/FinalExam.aspx. Final examinations are held during the final scheduled class meeting for fall and spring courses that do not meet for the full term and for all summer session courses. The final exam period may be used for examination, discussion, project submission, summarizing the course, obtaining student evaluation of the course instruction, or any other appropriate activity designed to advance the student's education. Attempts should be made to complete any makeup exams prior to finals week.
If an instructor requires a written report, project, or take-home examination in place of a final examination, it shall not be due before the final examination period scheduled for that course.
Any deviations from the final examination schedule must be approved by the assistant/associate dean of the college offering the course before being sent to the Office of the Registrar. Online classes must administer final exams remotely/online, if a final is given.
All instructors must terminate their examinations promptly so that rooms and buildings may be cleared for the examination periods which follow. If departments need additional time to conduct their exams due to accommodations through the Resource Center for Persons with Disabilities office, efforts should be made to provide those accommodations at times that are beneficial to students.
No student should be required to take more than two examinations during any one day of the final examination period. Students who have more than two examinations scheduled during one calendar day or have two final exams scheduled at the same time during the final examination period may contact the Academic Student Affairs Office in their colleges for assistance in arranging for an alternate time for one or more examinations.
Faculty members shall schedule office hours during the final examination period (or in some other way attempt to make themselves accessible to their students) as they do in the other weeks of the semester.
Common final examinations are scheduled in certain courses with several class sections. Requests for common final exams should be made to the assistant/associate dean in the college for approval before being sent to the Office of the Registrar prior to the start of a term.
A student absent from a final examination without a satisfactory explanation will receive a grade of 0.0 on the numerical system, NC on the CR-NC system, or N in the case of a course authorized for grading on the P-N system. Students unable to take a final examination because of illness or other reasons beyond their control should notify the assistant/associate dean of their college immediately.
For information on other examinations, see the Undergraduate Education and Graduate Education sections of this catalog.