The University of Alberta has temporarily abandoned a letter grade system and has "strongly encouraged" professors to cancel final exams this spring in light of heightened concerns around the spread of COVID-19.

The measures were unanimously approved Thursday during a special meeting of the executive of the U of A's general faculties council.

Undergraduate and graduate students enrolled in the winter semester will be assigned one of three marks on their transcripts: credit, no credit or incomplete. The grades will carry no weight in calculating a student's grade-point average.

Exemptions to the grading scheme may be established by the deans. The deadline for students to withdraw from classes will also be extended.

In a statement posted to the university's website on Friday, officials said the changes are meant to manage issues presented by an "uncertain future."

"The transitions of the past weeks due to the COVID-19 pandemic have been extremely challenging," the statement said.

"We are still in the early phases of the pandemic. We know that more of our students are or may be ill, isolated, or caring for others. We also know that in the coming weeks, our human and technical resources will be stretched even further than they are now as our faculty and staff are impacted. "

The university has also moved to cancel as many exams for this semester as possible. Remote proctoring for the more than 100,000 in-person final assessments "is not feasible," the university said in Thursday's motion.

Final exams will not be done through a remote proctored assessment unless approved by the dean. The deadline will allow students to make informed decisions before the revised withdrawal deadline of April 8, the university said.

"It is strongly encouraged by faculties that instructors pursue alternate forms of assessment other than traditional final examinations delivery in a remote format," reads the motion.

"It is mandated that all such final assessments and the few required final exams will be delivered remotely."

While the campus remains open, lecture halls at the Edmonton university have sat empty for days. Classes were suspended March 13 and course instruction was moved online.

At the same time, in-person exams were cancelled, following a directive issued by the Alberta government.

'Unprecedented barriers and disruption'

Thursday's motion detailed the university's rationale for the measures.

Campus officials are concerned about maintaining the health of students and staff. And with exams approaching during what could be the peak of the pandemic in Alberta, an overwhelming number of students and faculty could require special accommodations due to illness, isolation or travel demands.

"Canadian post-secondary institutions are facing unprecedented barriers and disruption to delivery and assessment of learning outcomes, and this situation continues to change rapidly," the motion said.

"Many students have already left. Our students live in many areas outside of Edmonton(e.g. International, rural and remote) and are facing significant pressures from their families to return home while they still can."

'Erase the hard work of students'

As of 1 p.m . Friday, more than 7,000 people had signed a petition calling on the university to make the new grading system optional for students, a strategy already adopted by the University of Toronto.

"The University of Alberta has made the decision to award all students the same pass or fail grade for the 2020 Winter semester," the petition said.

"This change will erase the hard work of students who have exerted their intellectual might all semester to achieve their desired mark."

Christina Kushka, who is in her final year of a bachelor of education degree, said she is concerned the changes will hurt her chances of getting into a masters or graduate program following graduation.

"It's quite daunting because my last semester was supposed to count towards how they evaluate me when I apply for grad school," Kushka said Friday.

"If it doesn't hurt my chances, it will certainly complicate it because other people will be applying who have a GPA for their last term.

"And because it was my last semester, I did work quite hard and now it's all being thrown away."

She said anxiety among students is high.

"A lot of people are very upset about this," Kushka said. "A lot of people are in a position where they do rely on their GPA and now it's all up in the air."