Home · Guides · KNUST First Class: 70 or 80?
Is First Class at KNUST 70 or 80?
Ask the internet and you will get both numbers, confidently stated. One of them is in KNUST's Regulations. The other is not — and planning your degree around the wrong one either frightens you unnecessarily or, worse, relaxes you at exactly the wrong moment.
The answer: 70. §12(ii) of KNUST's Regulations for undergraduate degree programmes classifies a degree on the Cumulative Weighted Average, and First Class is a CWA of 70% or above. No 80% First Class threshold appears anywhere in the Regulations.
What §12 actually says
| Class | CWA |
|---|---|
| First Class | 70% or above |
| Second Class (Upper Division) | 60–69.99% |
| Second Class (Lower Division) | 50–59.99% |
| Pass | 45–49.99% |
And §12(i)(b) sets the graduation minimum at a 45% average — the floor of the Pass band, not 40%.
Where does 80 come from?
The 80 figure is taught by at least one widely read KNUST guide, which gives First Class as "80.00+" and a Pass band starting at 40.00. Neither figure matches §12. The likely confusions are visible in the Regulations themselves: 70 is also the bottom of the A letter band for a single course, and in GPA-based universities (UG, UCC) an A starts at 80 — a student reading across systems can easily import UG's A-band into KNUST's class table. Whatever its route, for a KNUST undergraduate degree the figure is not the rule: the Regulations govern, and they say 70.
Why the wrong number hurts in both directions
- If you believe 80 and you are sitting at 71, you may conclude First Class is gone and stop defending it — when in fact you already hold it and every mark now protects it.
- If a guide's softer Pass line (40) is what you trust, you may read 43 as a Pass when the Regulations place 40.00–44.99 in the probation band (§10) and set the graduation minimum at 45. That error costs more than the First Class one.
Check your own position in the CWA calculator — it reads your band from §12, and the planner will tell you what your remaining credits must average to reach — or to protect — the 70 line.