F. A. Q. —  Frequently Asked Questions

We welcome questions which stem from inadequate information on our web pages. Some of your queries are so important that we wish to pre-empt them by listing some questions here with their answers. Where possible we will provide links to the existing pages provided.

We sincerely hope that all will be clear after you, the prospective student, have read these answers and the linked pages. We welcome you as student and hope to make a Calvary difference in your life!

1. What is Calvary University?

CU is a virtual platform for higher education in various disciplines. Through CU a few individual educational institutions, who are in a position to each offer a range of programmes in various disciplines, work together for the benefit of students internationally. Such institutes train individual students who are enrolled at Calvary University through Tutors who organise the students in study groups. These groups are called Calvary Groups.

2. Why should I study at CU?

You have the opportunity to get local training (wherever CU has distance agreements) from qualified and accredited organizations or individuals. You have the assurance that the educational programmes are of high quality, leading to practical outcomes and relevant qualifications.

3. Where do I study? How do I find the nearest Calvary Group?

A Calvary Group may be organized anywhere in the world. In certain countries CU has arranged for Calvary Groups in strategic places. These could be called Learning Centres, a School of Business (MBA), a Bible School (B.Min) or just a Calvary Group with an Academic Tutor who has acceptable qualifications and is accredited (registered) by CU to do a certain amount of contact work. Upon an enquiry, a student will be brought into contact with the nearest or most suitable Calvary Group.

4. How do I enrol as a student?

Enquire at the local Calvary Group or educational institution (if you know one) about the arrangements for your studies. You have to register with CU as a student on-line and then enrol for tuition, material and tutor allocation, etc. with the local Calvary Group. If you only know us through our Internet presence fill in the information request form, indicating your previous qualifications, your location, your personal details and your intended study programme. This will be sent to the appropriate faculty who will respond to you.

5. What are the fees for studying at CU?

CU can only quote you on the initial registration, since other study fees are determined by each faculty and/or each Calvary Group. An indication of course fees is, however, given below.
Initial CU fees are as follows:

• Registration               $30   (one course/module included)
• Course                     $10   (each, up to five extra courses)
• Graduation Cert.          $5   (receive at local grad. ceremony)
• Individual Postage        $5   (unless 5+ certs. together: free)
• Total (maximum):       $90   (paid direct or $85 at Calvary group)
• Graduation (optional) $100   (for local graduation ceremony)

6. What is the difference between registration and enrolling?

Registration puts your name and personal details on the CU database in order that credits, grades or pass marks can be recorded for eventual qualification by means of a graduation/qualification certificate (degree).
Enrolling is the process through which your local Calvary Group/Learning Centre (educational institution, etc.) will facilitate your learning, tell you which textbooks to get and how to obtain them, give you your syllabus, student rules, prospectus, allocate your tutor to you as well as give you any applicable RPL credit standing.

7. What is an Academic Tutor?

An Academic Tutor is appointed to assist the student in the learning process. A tutor is registered through mediation of the nearest Learning Centre as a tutor for CU. A tutor must have suitable qualifications as well as the necessary practical experience needed in the field of study. They must preferably understand the way of thinking in that field to handle their tutoring function. This function includes giving general guidance and advice, arranging regular face-to-face contact between peers for group work, being a sounding board, and facilitating all other prescribed assignments, projects and practicals and their assessment on behalf of the course professor.

8. Where do I write exams?

Most of the assessments are in the form of tests, writing assignments and the performance of practical tasks. These are handled in the following way:

• Tests are downloaded from the CU Website and can only be opened once, staying open for a limited time in order that the test may be written by the student. When completed, the test (as an encrypted file) is again uploaded to the Website and is automatically marked. The test is unique for each student (randomised in selection of questions and answer order) and cannot be re-written. Marks are logged as credits on the student’s records.
• Written assignments are sent to the Tutor for marking and comments. The comments and mark are sent back to the student and the mark is logged on the CU database.
• Tasks (practical skills assessments) are reported on by the Tutor according to a prescribed reporting schedule. When completed, the report is sent to the CU database for credits. Without these credits a learner cannot complete the course in order to graduate.

Through this system the student does not rely completely on the tutor for a grade. The highly experienced moderators of CU will ultimately determine the grade given to the student.

9. How do I get my qualification certificate?

The marks for credits are sent to the CU database to accumulate credits until they reach the level of a whole qualification. The qualification certificate is then sent to the student directly (US $5.00 postage) or to the group at no cost (5 students or more). The student must make sure that the correct names are provided upon registration as they should appear on the certificate. No nick names should be used.

10. Where do I graduate?

Depending on where you are situated, it is the local Learning Centre, a Calvary Group or educational institution who is responsible for your graduation. Should you receive the qualification certificate beforehand and you still want to attend a graduation ceremony, you only need to submit a copy to be handed out at the graduation you are invited to.

11. How do I get my textbooks?

Every faculty and/or department will prescribe its own textbooks for each subject or module. Where these are published books, you will be given details of the most convenient place to obtain the books. Some centres will even have them on sale for your convenience. You may also try one of the following:

• A1 Books
• Amazon.co.uk
• Barnes & Noble
• BiggerBooks
• Blackwell's
• BookByte
• Books-A-Million
• buy.com
• Christianbook.com
• Classbook.com
• e-Campus
• Pickabook.co.uk
• TextbookX
• Total Campus

They each have their own arrangements for payment and delivery to your doorstep.

12. Where do I find extra reading material?

The Internet is the playground of information. Millions of documents are available. It is part of your academic training to develop the ability to discern between the relevant and the irrelevant. Libraries also provide a wealth of information. The best source will be new books we recommend. Every scholar should build up his own library which will become one of the most valuable assets in his or her life.

13. How do I find the recommended reading?

We will direct you to some of the worthwhile material on the Internet by providing links. When books or resources on the Internet are recommended by the course professor in his Course Guide, a link will be provided to enable you to find it or to purchase it outright. The Course Website is especially prepared to link you to a host of reference material. Try some of the search engines such as www.google.com to find the information or use a programme such as Coppernic which uses several search engines at the same time to find sites and web pages. Some of the Learning Centres will build up a suitable library with the recommended books being available.

14. Where is the Library?

These days the library is not necessarily in one place. It is can be called a virtual library. Several sites on the Internet call themselves Virtual Library. We will provide a portal to these plentiful virtual shelves as more sites become available and known to us. Some of the sites offer information for free while others charge for their service.

15. Who runs the virtual library?

Many of the universities and some individuals do all in their power to establish virtual libraries. There are whole projects, costing millions of dollars, which steadily place books on digital record for you to download. Some of this is also available on CD-ROM and will save you a lot of down-loading time, especially if you have a slow connection. The local Calvary Group will be informed as such CD's become available from CU.

16. How do I get practical experience?

It is a requirement for many of the courses and programmes that you can place yourself in an environment where you are able to gain practical experience in the chosen field of your training. You may for example be studying for an MBA and be employed as supervisor or a manager. Failing such, you should have close contact with an experienced person who can advise and be a mentor to you - an academic tutor.

17. How can my favourite tutor become my CU tutor?

If such a person has suitable qualifications and sufficient experience to act as your Tutor, he or she may register as an accredited tutor at Calvary by obtaining application forms through a Calvary Group or Learning Centre. It is the requirement that every student has contact with an academic tutor who in turn belongs to a Learning Centre/Calvary Group or other educational institution.

18. Who will mark my assignments?

On some attendance courses on Certificate and Diploma level the local entity will be allowed to do the marking. In the case of a Tutor (single person learning arrangement) the applicable Learning Centre will moderate the assessment on practical skills which is handled by the Tutor. The Course Professor is the on-line moderator for those assignments students are required to submit to the tutor. Each faculty may adjust these arrangements to suit the specific programme.
On higher graduate level the assignments are marked by the CU Course Professor and on post-graduate level (especially M and D) the convention is that a promoter and an external moderator are appointed to guide you towards your qualification.

19. What kind of guidance will I get?

The Course Professor, your local study group and especially your Academic Tutor will give you the most feedback. Let us specify the kind of feedback you can expect:

• It is required that you have an Academic Tutor. This is to ensure that you have contact with someone who will provide a sounding board while you study. The Tutor will also arrange opportunities for group discussions (in a study group format) giving the invaluable input that mentoring can provide in such an arrangement.
• This local study group with whom you may have regular contact (optional) will normally interact with you as co-students. If the group is well organized, Tutors with appropriate qualifications will be able to give you expert advice. During group discussions you will get valuable feedback from the group.
• The Course Professor moderates your work, including the marks for the written assignment submitted with detailed comments by the Tutor. All your marks are available to the professor and he/she is able to ask for any of your assignments to be sent in if needed. Any questions directed to the professor are posted on the web with their answers.

CU will provide you with guidelines as to what is expected from you when you do your written assignments. (academic reports or essays). Feedback on assignments will be based on these expected guidelines. Look out for the marking schedules and the learning hints on our website. Guides are provided on report writing. Web pages helping you to better understand language and grammar are also either linked or available on the CU site. See the grammar links page.

20. When do I write exams?

CU favours the concept of tests in combination with practical tasks and written assignments. These three main elements, together with the learner's ability to take part in a group discussion, and a mark for the workfile determine the grade and credits a student earns for each course in the programme. The number of credits will determine how many tests will be written for a course and how many assignments must be handed in. Examination is therefore not a once-off challenge at the end of the academic year. We believe in the modern trend of continuous assessment on a range of skills, abilities, attitudes and cognitive retention.

21. How can I get a bursary?

Enquire at the local Calvary Group. It really depends on whether they have secured funding from a foundation or other source for a grant. They may have a policy in place to benefit certain students with special circumstances for which they will allocate bursaries. CU will not answer any direct bursary requests since this function is decentralized.

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