TO:
Deans of Schools
Associate Deans (Learning and Teaching)
Heads of Department
School Administrators
Ms O Savina, Academic Affairs Officer of the Students’ Union
Mr L Russell-Moyle, Secretary-Treasurer of the Students’ Union
Mr D Smith, Finance and Advice Service Manager of the Students’
Union
Administrative Staff within ASSU
Mr T Squire-Watt, SAINT
Mr S Croll, The Hub
Dr J Sture, Graduate School
Ms S Marsh, Director of Learning Resources
Ms R Currant, Head of Learner Development Unit
Professor P Hartley, TQEG
Ms A Hughes, Complaints, Breaches and Appeals Officer
Ms A Darnborough, Director of Academic Administration
Professor G Layer, Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic)
FROM:
Alison J Carass, Assistant Registrar, Academic Standards and Support
DATE:
1st April 2009
Issues Relating to Undergraduate Students Undertaking Supplementary Assessment
I write to inform you of important changes to the Regulations Governing
Undergraduate Awards in relation to students undertaking Supplementary
Assessment. At its meetings in June and September 2008, the Learning and
Teaching Committee discussed proposals on several issues in relation to students
who do not meet the requirements for progression at the first attempt. This resulted
in recommendations being made which were subsequently endorsed by the Senate
in November 2008.
The changes are as follows and will be introduced in the 2009/10 academic
session. They will apply to all students registered in September 2009, on whatever
stage of a programme, thus will mainly impact at Boards of Examiners from June/
July 2010 onwards. The changes should be considered in the context of the
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University’s commitment to supporting students to maximise their chance of success
in assessment and any re-assessment.
1.
Opportunity for August Supplementary Assessment
Under current regulations, students are permitted one supplementary
Assessment as of right. Thus all students are automatically offered
supplementary assessment in the August supplementary assessment
period, regardless of the amount of credit ‘failed’ or their chances of
being successful in any re-sit attempt. This is seen as not being
effective in many cases. There was also concern that, if students with
little chance of redeeming large amounts of failed credit continued to
be given an automatic right to supplementary assessment in August,
then they were in fact ‘wasting’ one re-sit opportunity. This is of
particular significance in cases where Schools limit the opportunity
for re-assessment. The Learning and Teaching Committee has considered
the options open to a Board of Examiners in June/July in relation to
supplementary assessment. As a result, it has been agreed that students
should continue to be permitted one supplementary assessment as of right,
but that this need not be in the August supplementary assessment period
and can be with attendance.
Therefore, with effect from the 2009/10 academic year, the Regulations
Governing Undergraduate Awards will be amended as follows:
1.1. to require students with failure in more than 60 credits at the June/July
Boards of Examiners to forfeit the automatic right to re-assessment
without attendance in the August supplementary period.
1.2 to introduce the facility for Board of Examiners to require a student to
repeat the year with attendance or undertake individual modules with
attendance at the June/July Boards of Examiners.
1.3 to allow students who do not meet the criteria for progression on an
Honours degree at the June/July Board of Examiners to be permitted to
transfer at that point to an Ordinary degree programme which requires
less credit (if the School offers an Ordinary route) if they meet the
criteria.
The following algorithm has been developed to give guidance as to
whether a student with large amounts of outstanding credit at the
June/July Board of Examiners should be permitted supplementary
assessment in August. It should be adopted by all Schools for use at
their June/July Boards of Examiners, to ensure consistency of practice.
80 Credits or more at below 40% - required to repeat the year with
attendance.
70 Credits at below 40% - required to repeat individual units with
attendance during the forthcoming academic year, meanwhile not
permitted to proceed.
60 credits or less at below 40% - permitted supplementary assessment
in August with a view to proceeding on the honours course.
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Students repeating the year will be required to undertake
supplementary assessment with attendance during the next academic
session in all modules in which they have failed to obtain 40%. They
will be formally recorded as repeating the year and will be charged a
full year fee. They will also be advised to attend lectures and seminars
in modules which they have already passed but they will not be
registered on the module and are not required to undertake
assessment. Attending the module gives the opportunity to increase
their understanding and knowledge of the subject matter in order to
improve their performance on the course as a whole. This is
particularly pertinent where the student has passed but obtained a low
mark, the rationale being that it is in their academic interests to
reinforce their knowledge base further to assist them in the next and
higher stage of the course.
Students who are undertaking supplementary assessment in individual
modules in 70 credits will not be advised to attend lectures and
seminars in modules which they have already passed.
It should be noted that no cognisance has been taken in the algorithm
of whether any marks below 40% fall within the compensatable range.
It is felt that this would overcomplicate matters. In determining whether
or not it is feasible for a student to make good deficiencies, the most
important thing is to determine in how many modules the student has
failed to reach the basic pass mark. Failure in 80 credits or above has
been used as the amount at which students are not permitted
supplementary assessment without attendance in August as this
represents the sector definition of a full-time course. Students in this
category have failed two thirds of one stage of their programme.
2.
Number of Attempts/Provision of Third and Fourth Attempts
Under current regulations, as stated previously, a student has the automatic
right to one supplementary assessment, however, the provision of third and
fourth attempts is at the discretion of the Board of Examiners. The Learning
and Teaching Committee had considered whether or not to grant third and
fourth attempts and, if so, under what circumstances. Concern had been
expressed that even when third and fourth attempts were given, students
were still failing so the current system was clearly not working.
It is at the September Board of Examiners where the profiles of students
who have had an opportunity to make good at supplementary assessment
are considered. In determining whether or not to offer a third or fourth
attempt, the overriding principle should be the academic interests of the
student. This could mean limiting the number of supplementary
assessments if it was considered unfair to academically weak students to
permit them to keep re-taking modules. This is a sensitive area but it was
felt that the institution might not always be able to justify routinely giving third
and fourth attempts.
The following have been agreed with effect from the 2009/10 academic
session:
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2.1
that the number of permitted attempts continue to be at the discretion
of the Board of Examiners, up to a total of four, as at present;
2.2 that the current regulation which states that if a third attempt is
permitted then the student must be permitted a fourth be de-linked, to
permit third attempts without offering a fourth, if this was deemed
academically sound. In future, Schools will no longer need a waiver to
regulation in respect of offering only third attempts. It is recognised
that Schools are often governed by the requirements of Professional
and Statutory bodies in determining the number of permitted attempts;
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3.
that individual Boards of Examiners develop their own guidance for the
granting of third and fourth attempts at September Boards of
Examiners, for approval by the School Board and the Learning and
Teaching Committee.
Supplementary Assessment Without Attendance
Under our current Regulations, students who do not meet the progression
requirements at a September Supplementary Board of Examiners, after one
attempt at re-assessment, may be permitted by the Board to undertake
further supplementary assessment without attendance.
It was felt that there did not appear to be a strong case for continuing to
offer supplementary assessment without attendance since such students
had already been identified as weak and in need of more, not less, support if
they were to succeed in subsequent attempts. It was also felt that it was not
helpful to students re-sitting without attendance to ‘disengage’ from their
course and that even if they did manage to pass at fourth attempt, they
would continue to struggle academically in the next year.
From the 2009/10 academic session, therefore, it has been agreed that the
facility to undertake supplementary assessment without attendance, as a
third or fourth attempt, be removed from the Regulations, following one
unsuccessful attempt at supplementary assessment.
In future, students may only be permitted to repeat the year with attendance,
or individual modules with attendance. Students may have the right to one
attempt at supplementary assessment in August, which is 'without
attendance' but if, after this, they fail to meet the progression requirements it
is clear that they need more support to maximise their chance of passing.
The University does not wish to be seen to be setting students up for failure
and therefore it will be the policy that students must re-sit with attendance,
re-studying the subject with quality teaching input from staff and access to
the full support facilities available in the University to enable them to be
successful.
There are sound educational reasons for proposing this, not least that it
would provide the obviously needed support to enable a student to be
successful in subsequent attempts. Students will be charged the
appropriate fee and would automatically be entitled to access all learner
support services including full library borrowing rights, IT access and
enrolment on Blackboard.
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In a situation where a module has been withdrawn from a programme or is
unavailable during the next academic year when a student undertaking
supplementary assessment with attendance needs to study it again, the
student will be required to undertake the replacement module or substitute a
different module, as appropriate, and be assessed in that module as a third
or fourth attempt and capped at 35%.
4.
Referral in Up to 20 Credits
The Learning and Teaching Committee considered the current facility within
the Regulations for referral in up to 20 credits into the next stage of the
course. The provision is at the discretion of the Board of Examiners in
exceptional cases.
It was agreed that the facility for referral in up to 20 credits be retained and
that, in such cases, students would not be required to re-study the module(s)
in question but would undertake the supplementary assessment without
attendance, as is currently the case. Such student will have access to all the
usual student services since they will be continuing on a full-time course. It
was felt that this could be justified on the grounds that students are only
exceptionally referred and have the advantage of continuing to engage with
their School and the subject matter of their discipline in the stage into which
they have been referred
Although a student would not be required to re-study the module(s) in
question, they would not be prevented from so doing if they so wished and
timetabling allowed. If a student chooses to re-study a module (s) an
appropriate fee will be charged.
However, it was further agreed that, in order to try to ensure that referred
students also had the best possible chance of being successful in their
supplementary assessments without attendance, the regulation relating to
referral would be ‘tightened-up.’ Given the context of the current debate, it
was now the view that the current flexible approach was not always in the
student’s interests and that the University should go back to a more stringent
application of the referral regulation. Thus, to counter the current trend for
relatively weak students to be referred, it was agreed that, from the 2009/10
academic session, students be referred to the next stage of the course only
where the actual number of credits below 40% was no more than 20 credits
in total.
5.
Ordinary Degree Students
All students who enrol on a degree course are registered on the Honours
programme in the first instance. They may elect or be required to transfer to
an Ordinary route (if one exists) at the end of the first or second stage and will
remain on the Ordinary route until the end of the programme. There is a
facility for such students to ‘top-up’ for honours on successful completion of
the Ordinary degree.
Ordinary degree students study fewer credits (80) than honours degree
students but the principle behind the restriction on the amount of credit which
can be failed before supplementary assessment in the August re-sit period is
forfeit should still be applied to them at the June/July Board of Examiners
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which considers their progression.
Thus, using similar proportions to the requirement for a student on the
honours programme, the following will apply:
Students with 60 credits or more below 40% will be required to repeat the year
with attendance.
Students with 50 credits below 40% will be required to repeat individual
modules with attendance during the forthcoming academic year, meanwhile
not permitted to proceed.
Students with 40 credits or less at below 40% will be permitted supplementary
assessment in August with a view to proceeding on the Ordinary degree
course.
5.
Part-Time Students
Students who are studying part-time study fewer credits per year. It is current
practice is to offer such students the opportunity to undertake supplementary
assessment at the first opportunity following confirmation of marks by the
Assessment Committee. It is not necessary to wait until they have reached a
formal progression point as the potential time lag between first and second
attempts would be disadvantageous to part-time students. Schools should
continue this practice under the revised regulations but should adhere to
principle that if a student fails their first attempt at supplementary assessment
then any further re-assessment should be undertaken with attendance ie re
study the module to maximise chance of success. Students will be charged
the appropriate tuition fee for re-studying the module.
As part of the discussion on the above changes, it was agreed that very clear
guidance would be provided for Boards of Examiners and Schools on the changes to
the Regulations. In particular, this would cover mitigating circumstances
and the charging of fees. Such guidance is attached as Appendix I.
It will be vital to carefully monitor students in relation to the number of attempts since
more students could be out of the usual synchronisation in future as a result of the
above changes.
It should be noted, in response to concerns expressed by the Students’ Union, that a
student who is required at the June/July Board of Examiners to repeat the
year/individual modules with attendance would still have the facility to appeal against
this decision, as with all decisions of the Board of Examiners, on the provision of
evidence as to why the decision is unsound and should not have been made.
It is recognised that some Schools operate to non-standard semester
dates and have student intakes at different time of the year so the actual months
mentioned above may not be applicable. Such Schools should adhere to the
principles of the new regulations, albeit with different dates.
Students on Postgraduate course programmes are unaffected by the above
changes.
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In addition to this memo, all staff will be informed of the changes via the Staff
Briefing and all undergraduate students will be informed via the University’s student
e-mail contact list.
If you have any queries or require further information please do not hesitate to
contact me at a.j.carass@brad.ac.uk or ext: 3897.
An electronic version of this consultation can be found on the ASSU website at:
http://www.brad.ac.uk/admin/acsec/
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