2020 Academic Updates (COVID-19)

Below is information regarding how Academic programs are adapting at HEC given the COVID-19 pandemic.

General Information
Classes will  not  resume in class for the rest of the school year, per the president's orders during the speech on 13 April. The school, even though a non-profit, not a public university, is still an institution of higher learning and must comply with the president's statement.

Per instructions from the French government, professors cannot teach a physical course. Even without a legal issue, the experience for online courses would be diminished if the professor were to do online and physical courses at the same time.

Professors are being asked to adjust grades and participation issues based on the virus. Classes will be recorded and available for months.

4G works well - if your internet fails, you should be ok with your phone as a WiFi router until the other system is restored.

P/F idea: it's an option to students in other schools. HEC hasn't decided to do that entirely. Reason: there's concerns for the bar (the F bar will be moved to a C level at that point, so that you get a P if you earn enough points for an A or B, for example). Keeping the academic rigor and value of HEC is a priority. Some of you came to HEC for a reason; part of that reason is that HEC is a good school. You can't be good if you don't have a good academic program. It's a challenge.

Guidance given to professors regarding exam formats. The professors are permitted to chose the format of their testing (Blackboard for 1 hour, take home for 24 hrs etc) - they only have one objective: test the learning outcome of the course.

M1 - Participation Grade
Participation will not be taken into for grades due to the number of students who had to leave campus and were outside of France.

M2 - Gap Year/Internship Requirements
Options to delay graduation are being considered and studied in order to ensure students can complete requirements. Students have 4 years (per French law) to complete their masters, which may cause some students to have unfulfilled requirements

HEC will soon communicate official statements about gap-years and internship requirements for graduation. Graduation requirements for Masters are partially dictated by the Ministere de l'Education Nationale, not HEC, and so these must be considered.

If a student must postpone or delay their graduation to meet their requirements, HEC is looking into the financial impact (registration fees etc.) for that. 

MSc & Grande Ecole - Juries
There are discussions to include more than one jury per year for these programs given the situation.

Students may extend their juries to meet the internship requirements.

MBA - Leadership Credits
New Info: They are being addressed by the MBA admin and a communication will be sent out.

The Leadership Seminar may be done on HEC campus in the event it is not permitted to travel to the originally planned site.

J-20 MBA - Core Term Alternative Dates
Contact the J20 Student Life Reps for details.