Policies

FAES admits learners of any race, sex, disability, and age to all the rights, privileges, programs, and activities accorded or made available to learners at FAES. FAES does not discriminate based on race, sex, disability, age, or any other protected class in the administration of its educational policies, admissions policies, scholarships, and other academically administered programs.  

Credit-bearing Courses

Participation and Attendance Policy

Enrolled students are expected to complete the entire course and complete all assignments by the course end date. Students may not attend classes either online or in person until they have officially registered for the course through FAES’s online registration portal and payment has been received.

Enrollment Options

  • Credit

Students registered for credit must complete all coursework as required by the instructor. In a 7-week online course, a two-credit course requires students to spend on average, 10-12 hours/week of time on task, reviewing materials and completing assignments. In an in-person class, one credit corresponds to 15 standard classroom hours.

  • Audit

An auditor must pay the same tuition fee and meet the same prerequisites as a credit student. Auditors receive full privileges of class participation if they choose to exercise them. An auditor does not receive a grade or credit; they receive a grade of “AU.”

Enrollment Status Changes

Consult the academic calendar to learn enrollment status change deadlines. Students may request an enrollment status change from credit to audit by submitting the audit grading request form. Reporting a credit-to-audit change to the instructor does not constitute an official change. Students who have been sponsored by their home institutions or employers to take FAES courses may want to check with their Administrative Officers when requesting a change from credit to audit. 

Course Levels and Grading Policy

The FAES Academic Programs at NIH offers courses at the following levels:

1 to 99 

General adult education (may not be at undergraduate level)

100 to 199

Lower-college level (Freshman/Sophomore)

200 to 299

Upper-college level (Junior/Senior)

300 to 399

Senior and graduate levels

400 to 499

Graduate students and qualified seniors

500 to 600

Graduate and/or professional level

600 to 700

Board Examination subspecialty courses

 

FAES Academic Programs at NIH courses are graded as follows:

A+   97-­-100
A Excellent 94-­-96
A-   90-­-93
B+   87-­-89
B Good 84-­-86
B-   80-­-83
C Adequate 70-­-79
D Minimum Passing 69-­-60
F Fail 59 and below
I Incomplete1 N/A
AU Auditor2 N/A
Pass   Pass3 60 and above
W Withdrawn N/A
AW Administrative Withdraw4 N/A

 

1 “I” indicates that the required coursework has not been completed. Incompletes are for extenuating circumstances only (see Extenuating Circumstances below) and require approval from the dean of academic programs before assigning any “I” grades. Incompletes must be resolved by the end of the following term. If left unresolved, a grade of “I” will convert to “F” at the end of the following term.

2 “AU” is assigned by FAES Academic Programs when a student requests to change to audit status before the published deadline on the FAES Academic Calendar. Auditors do not receive academic credit for the course regardless of assignment completion

3 “Pass” is offered in select courses that are offered on a Pass/Fail basis, including 3-week intersession courses and language courses

4 "AW" is assigned by FAES Academic Programs when a student has not accepted the Canvas invitation to the course or completed any coursework by the fourth week of the course.  

Course Withdrawal Policy

  • Drop Policy

Students may drop a course according to the timeline published on the academic calendar. The dropped course will not appear on students' academic transcript if completed before the published deadline on the academic calendar. Students may drop courses through self-service by completing the Drop form.

Students who drop (or withdraw) from a course after the posted “Drop” deadline, and before the posted “Withdraw” deadline, in the Academic Calendar will receive a grade of W on their transcript.

Students who have stopped participating in a course and have not withdrawn before the deadline will receive a grade of F.

Reporting a course withdrawal to the instructor is not considered official

  • Sponsored Students

Students whose courses will be paid for by their employers need to coordinate in advance with their Administrative Officers or HR departments to determine whether they are liable to pay the prorated portion of the tuition in cases when they wish to drop a course.

Students who are recipients of an FAES scholarship will have the prorated tuition withheld when refunds are to be paid due to dropping a course.

  • Extenuating Circumstances

Students can withdraw from a course for the following reasons:

  1. Illness of student or immediate family member (child, parent, spouse, or member of household).
  2. Death of student or immediate family member (see above).
  3. Called to active military duty via enlistment, activation, or deployment.

FAES reserves the right to request written documents of substantiation to accompany the request for withdrawal. Examples include: physician’s note specifying the dates of treatment and that the illness made it impossible for student to continue enrollment in classes; notice, newspaper article, or funeral program; copies of military orders signed by an appropriate official, etc.

The extenuating circumstances listed above may also be justification for a student to receive an Incomplete if approved by the dean of academic programs.

Tuition Refund Policy

To obtain a refund or partial refund, a course must be officially dropped by the refund deadline, as indicated in the academic calendar. The intent to drop (withdraw from) a course must be made in writing to the FAES Academic Programs via the Drop form.

Refunds will be computed as of the date the written intent to drop is received in the FAES Academic Programs Office via the Drop form. Reporting a course withdrawal to the instructor is not considered official.

Refund policy when dropping a seven-week course:
A week or more before the course starts 100% tuition refund less $25 refund fee and $75 technology fee
During the 1st week 100% tuition refund less $25 refund fee and $75 technology fee
During the 2nd week 80% of tuition refund less $25 refund fee and $75 technology fee
After the 2nd week no refund will be granted

Refund policy when dropping a three-week course:
A week or more before the course starts 100% tuition refund less $25 refund fee and $75 technology fee
During the 1st week 80% tuition refund less $25 refund fee and $75 technology fee
After the 1st week no refund will be granted

Inclement Weather Policy

FAES Academic Programs onsite courses are held in federal government facilities. Consequently, FAES follows the snow and dismissal procedures of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM). When government offices are opened late or closed early or all day due to hazardous weather conditions, or when hazardous weather conditions are probable for the daytime workshops or evening academic courses, classes will not be held.

FAES will notify students and faculty in advance of any delayed start or cancellation due to inclement weather.

Courses Canceled by FAES Academic Programs at NIH

FAES reserves the right to cancel a course due to insufficient enrollment. In such cases, students will receive a 100% refund of tuition and fees. Further, FAES reserves the right to limit registration, and to cancel, combine, terminate, or postpone courses, and to require the withdrawal of any student at any time for any reason that FAES deems sufficient.

Workshops

Registration Cancellation Policy

  • All cancellations must be received in writing via email to registrar@faes.org.
  • Cancellations received after 4:00 pm (ET) on business days or received on non-business days are time marked for the following business day.
  • All refund payments will be processed by the start of the initial workshop.

Refund Policy when cancelling a workshop

14 or more calendar days before the workshop starts 100% tuition refund less $25 refund fee and $75 technology fee
Between 4 to 13 calendar days before the workshop starts 50% tuition refund less $25 refund fee and $75 technology fee
3 calendar days or less before the workshop starts no refund will be issued

Workshops Cancelled by FAES Academic Programs at NIH

FAES reserves the right to cancel a workshop due to low enrollment. In such cases, students will receive a 100% refund of tuition and fees. Further, FAES reserves the right to limit registration, and to cancel, combine, terminate, or postpone workshops, and to require the withdrawal of any student at any time for any reason that FAES deems sufficient.

 

Policy on Academic Integrity

The FAES Academic Programs at NIH prides itself on providing quality educational experiences and upholds the highest level of honesty, integrity, and mutual respect. It is our policy that cheating, fabrication or plagiarism by students is not acceptable in any form. If a student is found to be in violation of any, or all of the below, the student's credits will be forfeited, and they may not be allowed to enroll in future courses or education programs administered by FAES.

  • Cheating is defined as an attempt to give or obtain inappropriate/unauthorized assistance during any academic exercise, such as during examination, homework assignment, and class presentation.
  • Fabrication is defined as the falsification of data, information or citations in any academic materials.
  • Plagiarism is defined as using the ideas, methods, or written words of another individual or via artificial intelligence, without proper acknowledgment and with the intention that they be taken as the work of the deceiver. These include, but are not limited to, the use of published articles, paraphrasing, copying someone else’s homework and turning it in as one’s own, and failing to reference footnotes. Procuring information from online sources without proper attribution also constitutes plagiarism.

 

Copyright

All course materials are the property of FAES and the author or the publisher and are to be used for the student’s individual academic purpose only. Any dissemination, copying, reproducing, modification, displaying, or transmitting of any course material for any other purpose is prohibited, will be considered misconduct, and may be cause for disciplinary action. In addition, encouraging academic dishonesty by distributing information about course materials or assignments which would give an unfair advantage to others may violate the FAES Academic Integrity policy. Course materials may not be exchanged or distributed for commercial purposes, for compensation, or for any purpose other than use by students enrolled in the course. Distributions of course materials may be subject to disciplinary action.

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