 |
|
 |
|
 |
Programme Outcomes
The purpose of assessment is to enable students to demonstrate that they have addressed the learning outcomes of the programme of study and achieved the standard required for the award they seek. All programmes of study are subject to regulations which relate the assessment requirements of the programme to its learning outcomes, and it is within these assessment regulations that examiners make their judgements on student performance.
Confirmation of standard
Assessment must reflect the achievement of the individual student in addressing programme learning outcomes, and at the same time relate that achievement to a consistent universal standard of awards. It must therefore be carried out by competent and impartial examiners and by methods which enable them to assess students fairly. In order to achieve this end, external examiners must be associated with all assessments which may count towards an award; their particular role is to ensure that justice is done to the individual student and that the standard of awards is maintained.
Examiners' judgement
Assessment is a matter of judgement, not simply of computation. Marks, grades and percentages are not absolute values but symbols used by examiners to communicate their judgement of different aspects of a student's work, in order to provide information on which the final decision of a student's fulfilment of programme learning outcomes may be based. It is particularly important for students to understand the nature of examiners' discretion and judgement when details of individual marks are available to them.
Information for students
The University or its Affiliated Institution will ensure that the assessment requirements for the programmes of study are made known to students. The assessment scheme of an individual programme of study is subject to both institution-wide regulations and regulations specific to that programme, and students will be made aware of the detailed requirements of both sets of regulations.
Assessment Boards and External Examiners
For every module of each programme of studies approved by the University Academic Board leading to an award there must be a Module Area assessment Board whose constitution and terms of reference accord with the approved regulations for the programme and which includes the external examiner(s) approved by the University Academic Board. The consitution of the Board may include provision for the appointment of subsidiary examination committees and the same Board may be responsible for more than one programme of study.
Student membership of assessment boards
No student may be a member of an assessment board or attend an examiners' meeting other than as a candidate for assessment.
Module Area Assessment Boards
Module Area Assessment Boards are responsible for:
1.
reaching decisions about the performance of candidates in
modules
2. confirming grades,
3. making decisions (where appropriate) on extenuating circumstances
relating to student performance in particular modules,
4. exercising quality control within module areas,
5. the conferment of awards.
No other body has authority to recommend conferment of an award, not to amend the decision of an approved and properly constituted Module Area Assessment Board acting within its terms of reference and in accordance with the regulations for the programmes of study.
Exceptionally the chair of a Module Area Assessment Board, with the agreement of the President or Vice-President and the Director of Business Studies or University Registrar, change a candidate's result in a module in the light of extenuating circumstances that have affected performance on the programme as a whole.
The membership of each Module Area Board will be determined by the University Academic Board and should normally include the Module Area Leader (chair), a Module Area External Moderator, module tutors, and staff teaching on the modules. A quorum for a Module Area Board shall be three members.
Module Area Boards meet at or after the end of each term.
Module External Examiners
Each module or cluster of related modules will be assigned at least one External Examiner to have oversight of candidates' performance on the programme. The Module External Examiner should normally be that Module Area External Moderator who has responsibility for those modules which serve an integrative purpose on the programme(s), for example, project, work-based modules, application modules.
No recommendation for the conferment of an award may be made without the written consent of the approved Module External Examiner(s). On any matter which the Module External Examiner(s) have declared a matter of principle, the decision of those examiner(s) shall either be accepted as final by the Module Area Assessment Board or shall be referred to the University Academic Board. Any unresolved disagreement between external examiners shall be referred to the University Academic Board.
Secretary of Assessment Boards
The University Registrar shall ensure that arrangements are made to appoint a secretary to each assessment board and shall require the secretary to maintain detailed and accurate records of the board's proceedings.
Arrangements for formal examinations and assignments
1. Examinations shall be conducted in the following manner except where the regulations of an external body specifies otherwise.
2. Invigilation is an academic duty and shall be carried out by academic staff.
3. Invigilators shall be required on the basis of one per fifty candidates with a minimum of two per examination room.
4. Candidates must be seated according to the seating plan which will have been drawn up previously.
5. Candidates should be admitted to the examination room five minutes before the examination is due to commence.
6. Overcoats, briefcases and similar items must be left in the place designated for this purpose. Apart from writing implements candidates may bring to their examination desks only such instruments, books and other items as have been specified by the examiners.
7. Candidates should be informed when they are under examination conditions and that all conversation must cease. The candidates should then sign answer books.
8. Question papers should be issued reverse side up and when they are all issued the examination should be commenced. Where a number of different examinations are being held in the same room all must be started at the same time and be of the same duration.
9. Candidates should be checked by the invigilators against the eligibility lists so that attendances may be noted.
10. No candidate should normally be allowed to enter an examination after the first house has elapsed. Where a late arrival is the result of unavoidable delay the invigilator-in-charge may allow the candidate to sit the examination.
11. The answer book should be appropriately endorsed and a report should be made to the University Registrar, who should be consulted before any extension of time is allowed.
12. Where unfair conduct is detected or suspected the invigilator should so endorse the candidate's answer book, attaching a report and informing the University Registrar as soon as possible after the examination. The endorsed book should be withdrawn at once and a new one issued.
13. The invigilator should require a candidate who, after being warned, persists in conduct disturbing to others to leave the examination room. The answer book should be so endorsed and an immediate report be sent to the Academic Registrar.
14. Candidates wishing to leave the examination temporarily for personal reasons may do so under escort. The escort may be either an invigilator or a member of staff summoned for the purpose.
15. Except in an emergency a candidate should not be allowed to leave the examination room permanently during the first hour or the last twenty minutes of an examination session.
16. At the close of the examination the necessary paper should be collected from candidates and no conversation between the candidates should occur until all answer books are in the invigilators' hands.
17. The invigilator should then arrange for the answer books to be conveyed securely either to the appropriate internal examiners in the case of a University examination or to the appropriate external examiners.
18. The
Affiliate Institutions are subject to the University's regulations
governing the assessment processes, module specific regulations
and the rules of external examinations. They are responsible
for the marking and internal moderation of all their assessments'
outcomes and forwarding the results and a representative
sample of scripts to the University Registrar who will include
them in the University's internal and external moderation
and examination processes.
Viva Voce examinations
External moderators and examiners have a right to examine any student viva voce in addition to the assessments specified in programme regulations. This form of assessment may be used:
1. To determine difficult or borderline cases; such additional
assessment is used only to raise and not to lower a student's
marks;
2. As an alternative or additional assessment where valid reasons for poor performance have been established.
Valid reasons for poor performance
If it is established to the satisfaction of an assessment board that a student's absence, failure to submit work or poor performance in all or part of an assessment for an award was due to illness or other cause found valid on production or acceptable evidence, the Board shall act as follows:
1. Recognise the student's right to be reassessed as if for the first time in any or all of the elements of assessment, as specified by the Assessment Board. If an assessment affected by illness was itself a second attempt the student shall be permitted to resit as if for the second time.
2. Where a Module Area Assessment Board is satisfied that there is sufficient evidence of the student's achievement, or this evidence is subsequently obtained, the student may be recommended for the award for which he or she is a candidate, with or without classification or distinction as appropriate. In order to reach decision a Board may assess the candidate by whatever means it considers appropriate.
3. An Aegrotat award may be recommended, where it is available, when the Module Area Assessment Board does not have enough evidence of the student's performance to recommend the award for which the student was a candidate or a lower award specified in the programme regulations, but is satisfied that but for illness or other valid cause the student would have reached the standard required.
4. Before an award resulting from a recommendation under the paragraphs 2 or 3 is conferred, the student must have signified that he or she is willing to accept the award and understands that this implies waiving the right to be reassessed under the paragraph 1.
Disability
If a student is unable, through disability, to be assessed by the normal methods, examiners may vary the methods as appropriate, bearing in mind the learning outcomes of the programme and the need to assess the student on equal terms with other students.
Grading Scales
British
Published Grade |
% Mark |
| A - (Outstanding) | 80 and above |
| 75 - 79 | |
| 70 - 74 | |
| B - (Above Average) | 67 - 69 |
| 64 - 66 | |
| 60 - 63 | |
| C - (Average) | 57 - 59 |
| 54 - 56 | |
| 50 - 53 | |
| D - (Satisfactory) | 47 - 49 |
| 44 - 46 | |
| 40 - 43 | |
| R - (Refer) | 37 - 39 |
| 34 - 36 | |
| 30 - 33 | |
| F - (Fail) | Below 30 |
| G - (Fail due non-submission) | 0 |
Resources
