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EXAMINATION & ASSESSMENT
REGULATIONS: MODULE ASSESSMENT
BOARDS
1. General
1.1. The Head of Department shall ensure that all modules within the Department are assigned to the authority of a Module Assessment Board. 1.2. The Module Assessment Board will meet once each academic year and additionally shall hold a sub-committee meeting to consider both Referral and Deferral assessment. The dates for these will be set annually by Academic Council. 1.3. Module Assessment Boards held to consider the outcome of Level 7 modules shall meet in accordance with 1.ii and may also be convened at other times throughout the year as appropriate to the structure of the course. 1.4. Modules on courses with non-standard academic years and/or exemptions from the requirements of the academic year structure may have their Boards or additional Boards at other times and dates, but must advise students and Department of Student and Academic Administration of the dates that will apply. 1.5. A sub-committee of the Module Assessment Board will review statistical information that allows comparison of the cohort with previous cohorts, other modules in the “cognate group”, and between cohorts of students on the same module but from different pathways or courses. This meeting is convened between the end of Referral Assessment Period and the start of the next academic year. 1.6. Heads of Department will ensure that all assessments and marking schemes are approved by both the Module Coordinator and the assessment moderator(s) before the start of the teaching block in which they are given to students. The Head of Department will appoint the assessment moderator(s) for each module. The assessment moderator(s) may be one of more individuals or it may be an assessment approval panel. The assessment moderator(s) will scrutinise the assessment to ensure that it is of the appropriate level, matches the module descriptor and enables the relevant learning outcomes to be demonstrated. 1.7. The Module Assessment Board shall oversee the assessment of modules, confirm marks or grades and assign credit to students studying modules within its purview in accordance with approved module descriptions. 1.8. In exercising the powers provided by these regulations, the Module Assessment Board shall have due regard to academic standards and to the identified aims, objectives and learning outcomes of the module/s.
2. Membership
2.1. In respect of each module in the group for which the Module Assessment Board is responsible, the following have membership rights: a) Chair; b) Module Coordinator; c) All members of staff responsible for the teaching and assessment of the module; d) Head(s) of Department(s); e) Associate Deans of the Faculty; f) Academic Registrar or her or his appointed representative; g) Subject External Examiners. 2.2. The Chair shall be appointed on the authority of the Head of Department and shall be accountable to Academic Council for ensuring that the Module Assessment Board fulfils its responsibilities in accordance with these regulations. 2.3. No student of the University may be a member of the Module Assessment Board, save that a member of staff who is coincidentally registered as a student of the University shall not be disqualified from discharging normal examining commitments. 2.4. The Module Assessment Board shall be quorate to consider each module with the following membership: a) Chair; b) the Module Coordinator for the module or a nominee appointed by the Head of Department, who would normally have been involved with assessment of the module; c) the Head of Department/School or an appointed nominee. d) the Subject External Examiner Where, exceptionally, the nominee has not been involved in the assessment of the module, the reasons for the appointment shall be recorded in the minutes. 2.5. The role of the Subject External Examiner and the associated rights and responsibilities are described in the document "External Examiners: Regulations and Procedures". 2.6. If, exceptionally, the Subject External Examiner is unable to attend the meeting, she or he shall: a) as far as possible, make her or his views known to the Module Assessment Board before it meets; b) after the Module Assessment Board has met, write to the Chair of the Board stating the extent of any involvement with the modules during the year and signifying satisfaction with the processes of assessment. The letter shall not be considered to signify agreement with every decision of the Module Assessment Board.
3. Process and Powers
3.1. The Module Assessment Board shall receive: a) the minutes of its previous meeting and any intervening sub-committee(s); b) notification of actions taken under delegated authority from previous meetings; c) the current approved module description of each module; d) the examination papers, course work and other assessments used;
d) make decisions in relation to each student; e) confirm the marks or grades for each candidate in each module; f) assign credit to individual students on the basis of the confirmed marks or grades; g) assign credit to individual students for other good reason agreed; h) determine the Referral assessment requirements for those students who have not passed; i) determine whether to defer confirmation of a mark or grade and the assignment of credit until specified conditions, within a specified time scale, have been met; j) authorise the publication of confirmed results to students; k) consider the annual report of each Subject External Examiner and report to the Head of Department in which each module resides for consideration at the Departmental or School's Annual Subject Review; l) consider the adequacy of examination papers, course work and other assessments used in each module and make recommendations for future assessments; m) consider and approve criteria for the analysis of marks and grades.
4. Moderation of Marks
4.1. Moderation of marks relates particular assessment artefacts, and the results may apply to some or all of the students attempting the assessment. Moderation may alter the module mark, which must be re-calculated following moderation. 4.2. Module Assessment Boards may moderate marks as a collective decision, with the agreement of the Subject External Examiner, and after reviewing the full range of information in the following circumstances if: a) the pass threshold has been incorrectly applied; b) or the marks do not fall within the expected mark distribution. 4.3. In addition Module Assessment Boards may moderate marks as a collective decision, with agreement of the Subject External Examiner, and after reviewing the full range of information, if a course management issue has disadvantaged students as detailed at section 8 below. 4.4. Moderation may take the form of discounting an assessment artefact and extrapolating a module mark from the remaining artefacts, re-weighted accordingly. 4.5. The Chair of the Module Assessment Board must ensure that any moderation, and the reason for it, is recorded in the minutes and is made known to all Boards of Examiners that receive marks or grades in respect of that module. 4.6. The Head of Department in which the module resides must inform students in writing of the reason(s) for any moderation and of its impact.
5. Extenuating Circumstances
5.1. At the first sitting, where extenuating circumstances have been found valid, Module Assessment Boards may:
a) deferred the missed examination artefact as a Deferral until specified dates; b) permit the assessment of the missed examination artefact by means of different assessment artefacts as a Deferral, which must be defined and made known to the student, to be submitted by the end of the Referral Assessment Period; c) where valid extenuating circumstance has prevented the student from completing the assessment artefact but sufficient evidence can be adduced that the learning outcomes of the module have been met from at least two other completed and unaffected assessment artefacts contributing to the final mark of the module, extrapolate an overall mark for the module from completed and unaffected assessment artefacts. d) where the student is not eligible for Referral but has a valid extenuating circumstance, if the student cannot pass the module solely on the Deferral, then the Module Assessment Board can set aside the extenuating circumstances and change the decision to Repeat. 5.2. At the Referral and Deferral sitting, where extenuating circumstances have been found valid, Module Assessment Boards shall make the decision of Deferred Repeat.
6. Decisions
6.1. The mark reported to students and to the Board of Examiners shall be a integer as follows: a) a decimal of .5 or greater shall round up to the next integer; b) a decimal of .4 or less shall round down to the integer; c) module marks ending in a 9 after rounding will be rounded up to the next integer. 6.2. For honours degree courses, students will also be allocated a Grade Point for each overall module mark. The Grade Point is given to two decimal places according to the following table:
6.4.2.2. The purpose of the Deferral is to allow a student who has not attempted an artefact at the normal attempt and has submitted extenuating circumstances which have been found valid to have the opportunity to achieve the credit required to complete that stage and make normal progress, or satisfy the credit requirements for an award, without having their mark for the artefact capped. 6.4.2.3. The Deferral shall take the form of assessment(s) determined by the Module Assessment Board. 6.4.2.4. Academic Council shall fix the dates by which Deferrals must be completed. The Board of Examiners shall not permit a student to undertake a Deferral Assessment after the expiry of the dates for Deferrals prescribed by Academic Council. 6.4.2.5. The Deferral Assessments will be marked as if it were submitted for the first time and will not be capped. 6.4.3.REFERRAL 6.4.3.1. Referral confirms that the student may be eligible for Referral and that the requirements have been determined. 6.4.3.2. The purpose of the Referral is to allow a student who has failed a module or modules at the first attempt, or after repeat assessment, to have the opportunity to achieve the credit required to complete that stage and make normal progress, or satisfy the credit requirements for an award, without having to repeat the module(s) in full. 6.4.3.3. The Referral shall take the form of assessment(s) determined by the Module Assessment Board for failed assessment artefacts within the module. The student shall be deemed to have failed an assessment artefact in any failed module if they have not achieved a mark of 40% in the artefact. The Module Assessment Board may prescribe either a single re-assessment task that allows the student to demonstrate achievement of the module’s learning outcome or assessments arising from the failed assessment components. 6.4.3.4. Academic Council shall fix the dates by which Referrals must be completed. Student will not be able to undertake a Referral after the expiry of the dates for Referral prescribed by Academic Council. 6.4.3.5. The Referral will be marked with the artefact mark capped at the pass mark of the module. The overall module mark will be recalculated with the capped Referral marks but the overall module mark will not be capped. That mark shall be annotated on the transcript with the legend "Passed after Referral”. Where the Module Assessment Board has prescribed a single re-assessment task that allows the student to demonstrate achievement of the module’s learning outcome, the capped Referral mark will be used for all the failed assessment artefacts. 6.4.3.6. Should the combined number of Referral modules which include all modules with the following Module Assessment Board decisions: a) Referral b) Combined Referral Deferral
exceed the limits allowed by the Board of Examiners , the Board of Examiners shall change the decision for the modules with the decision of Referral to Repeat. The student will no longer be entitled to undertake the Referral Assessment element. 6.4.4.COMBINED REFERRAL DEFERRAL 6.4.4.1. Combined Referral Deferral confirms that the student has not completed one or more the assessment of the module for good reason and that conditions and a time scale have been set for the student to undertake the assessment or further assessment of the module and that the student has failed one or more other assessments and may be eligible for a Referral Assessment. 6.4.4.2. Section 6.2 details the process for the artefacts(s) that are Deferral and section 6.3 details the process for the artefacts(s) that are Referral. 6.4.4.3. Should the combined number of Referral modules which include all modules with the following Module Assessment Board decisions: a) Referral b) Combined Referral Deferrals exceed the limits allowed by the Board of Examiners , the Board of Examiners shall change the decision for the modules with the decision of decision of Combined Referral Deferral to Deferral Assessment. The student will no longer be entitled to undertake the Referral element. 6.4.5.REPEAT 6.4.5.1. Repeat confirms that the student is not eligible for Referral Assessment or has failed either their Referral Assessment or Deferral Assessment and that credit has not been assigned. The student may be eligible to repeat the module in the next academic year. 6.4.6.DEFERRED REPEAT 6.4.6.1. Deferred Repeat confirms that the student has submitted valid extenuating circumstances for their Referral and/or Deferral (or any subsequent attempts within the same academic year.) The student will be normally eligible to repeat the module at the next available assessment. The Board of Examiners will determine: a) whether it is with or without attendance b) whether the student has to repeat the whole module or just one of more failed artefacts. 6.4.7.DECISION PENDING 6.4.7.1. Decision Pending confirms that the Module Assessment Board has been unable to confirm the mark and assign credit because of some procedural delay.
d) the full circumstances in which the Module Assessment Board considered it necessary to exercise the discretionary power under this regulation; e) the reason why the Module Assessment Board considered it necessary to exercise the discretionary power under this regulation including specific mention of the consequences of the both exercising and not exercising discretion for the student. 9.4. The Chair of the Module Assessment Board shall send a copy of the minute to the Academic Registrar.
10. Disclosure of Marks and Grades
10.1. At the end of each Module Assessment Board, the Chair shall sign a list of the confirmed marks and the decisions of the Module Assessment Board and publish them within 3 working days. 10.2. This does not negate a student's right to discuss their studies with their personal tutor.
11. Delegation of Authority
11.1. The Module Assessment Board shall delegate, by resolution, to a sub-committee its authority for the confirmation of marks and the assignment of credit following Referral, Deferral and Pending decisions. The resolution must define the membership and quorum of the sub- committee and prescribe the reporting arrangements to the Module Assessment Board. 11.2. The Module Assessment Board shall delegate, by resolution, to the Chair its authority in relation to the confirmation of marks arising from Deferral or pending decisions. The resolution shall require the Chair to document the decision, the reasons for the decision, and the extent of any consultation and report the decision to the next meeting of the Module Assessment Board. 11.3. The Module Assessment Board shall delegate, by resolution, to the Chair its authority in relation to the confirmation of marks and grades in order to correct decisions based on erroneous or incomplete information. Chairs must ensure the possibility of such action does not remove a student's right of appeal against decisions of a Module Assessment Board. The resolution shall require the Chair to document the decision, the reasons for it, and the extent of any consultation and report the decision to the next meeting of the Module Assessment Board. 11.4. The Module Assessment Board can not otherwise delegate its authority.
12. MINUTES
12.1. The Chair of the Module Assessment Board shall appoint a Minutes Secretary to draft the minutes of the Module Assessment Board and of any sub-committee. 12.2. In the case of the exercise of discretionary powers under these regulations, the minutes shall reflect the discussion at the meeting and record the reasons for the decision to exercise discretion or not to do so.
12.3. The Chair of the Module Assessment Board shall ensure that approved draft minutes of meetings are issued to members within a reasonable time period.
Navigating this document
This extract comprises one element of the University's Examination and Assessment Regulations. The overarching Examination and Assessment Regulations document and index is available at Examination and Assessment Regulations.
Links to useful documents
Marking and Feedback Extenuating Circumstances Boards of Examiners Academic Appeals Code of Student Behaviour
