• Policy on additional costs incurred by students on undergraduate and postgraduate taught programmes

A student must be able to complete their programme without incurring any significant additional study costs over and above the tuition fee for that programme. However, in cases where additional costs are required then information on these costs must be provided to students, in writing, in advance of the start of the programme and in the programme handbook. In such cases, Schools should endeavour to make a low cost or free option available. This Policy provides further details of these requirements.

• Academic Appeals (Regulation XIX)

It is recommended that the following text is also reproduced in handbooks:

The purpose of this regulation is to safeguard the interests of students and may only be used when there are adequate grounds for doing so which are outlined in the regulation.  It may not be used simply because you are dissatisfied with the outcome of your assessment or other decision concerning your academic progress.

Appeals based upon provisional decisions of the University cannot be considered.

In Section 6 of the Code of Practice for the Assurance of Academic Quality in Higher Education, the QAA states that 'assessment' describes any processes that appraise an individual's knowledge, understanding, abilities or skills. There are many different forms of assessment, serving a variety of purposes.

Assessment:

• provides the means by which students are graded, passed or fail;
• provides the basis for decisions on whether a student is ready to proceed, to qualify for an award or to demonstrate competence to practice;
• enables students to obtain feedback on their learning and helps them improve their performance;
• enables staff to evaluate the effectiveness of their teaching.

Students need to be made aware of:

• how their work will be assessed;
• how assessment results will be communicated;
• details of the assessment criteria and learning outcomes;
• submission deadlines;
• any rules for submission e.g. submission of 2 copies of coursework, completion of a cover sheet etc;
• penalties for late submission of coursework;
• penalties for exceeding the specified word limit.

Information should be provided about the use of Blackboard to support the traditional learning methods used at the University. Information for students on what Blackboard is and how to access it can be found at:

• Blackboard

Clause 5 of the University’s Policy on Feedback to Undergraduate and Taught Postgraduate Students states that ‘The Blackboard page for each unit should have a clear section explaining the feedback mechanism that the unit will follow.’

NB: From Semester 1 of 2017/18, access to Blackboard course units for students has changed. Students will now be able to see their own previous years' Blackboard course units. The change will not allow students to see all existing units within the School, nor allow a student who is taking a current version of a unit to see the previous year's version of that unit.

Please note that graduands (people who have completed a programme of study, but not yet had their graduation ceremony) now have Blackboard access consistent with access to other services such as email and the library. Previously, completed students retained access to Blackboard Course spaces for 30 days after their completion date, and could not access Organisation spaces. They will now be able to access both Course and Organisation spaces until the end of their graduation period, which, in most cases of June completions, will be until the end of the following July.

To try and minimise support queries resulting from students being unaware of what is required to gain access to their course units in Blackboard, the eLearning Team have again prepared some text which can be inserted into Programme Handbooks and included on School Intranets.

• Blackboard: course and enrolments

• Complaints Procedure (Student) (Regulation XVIII)

Students who have a complaint to make should raise it directly with the staff concerned at the earliest opportunity.

It is recommended that the following text is also reproduced in handbooks:

If you have a complaint it should be made as soon as possible, and in any case within eight weeks, of the events or actions (or lack of actions) which have prompted the complaint. The University will not normally consider complaints made after this period unless there is a good reason for the delay.

• Conduct and Discipline of Students Regulation XVII

Students may be liable to disciplinary action as a result of misconduct; the Regulation specifies what aspects of a student's conduct could lead to such action. The Regulation also outlines the penalties that could be applied If the misconduct or breach of discipline is admitted by the student or is found to be proved.

• Dignity at Work and Study-Procedure for Students October 2014

It is recommended that the following text is also reproduced in handbooks:

The University of Manchester does not tolerate any form of harassment, discrimination or bullying. If you believe that you are being bullied or harassed, you can contact a Harassment Advisor. Harassment Advisors provide confidential support and information to students and staff on the University’s policy and will be able to explain the options available to you. 

• Further information

It is recognised that processes will vary in Schools but in order to avoid any confusion, when you advise students to access their examination grades, they should do this through “My Manchester”.

Students need to log into My Manchester and go to the 'My Course' tab and click on 'My Exams'. On this page, they will need to click on the link 'detailed information and recent exam results' which can be found at the very bottom of the page under the heading 'Your exam results'. This link will take the students to a new window with details of the student's exams and results once they have been published.

A pdf document, outlining the process and with relevant screenshots is available at the link below:

• Supporting students in finding their exam results

Any queries about “My Manchester” should be directed to mymanchester@manchester.ac.uk

The following info should be included in student handbooks:

The examination schedule has been produced using dedicated software for which the overarching factor is the production of a timetable with no or as few as possible student clashes. Whilst attempts are made to ensure that you have a spread of examination dates throughout the examination period, in many cases this is not possible given the institutional constraints on the numbers of examination venues that are available, the number of examinations that are scheduled to take place and the options available to students on any particular programme of study. You should expect therefore to have examinations on two or more consecutive days and, potentially, have more than one examination within a single day.

It is important to manage students’ expectations with regard to feedback.  They need to be made aware of what constitutes feedback, how and when they will receive it and who to contact if they have any problems with the feedback provided.

Students should be made aware of what opportunities are available to them to ask further questions about the feedback received and their work. 

The University has a Policy on Feedback to Undergraduate and Taught Postgraduate Students which can be found at:

• Policy on Feedback to Undergraduate and Postgraduate Taught Students

Clause 5 of the Policy states that ‘Information must be provided in programme handbooks, unit outlines and course materials to inform students of the mechanisms by which they will receive feedback and the forms it will take for both formative and, where appropriate, summative work.’ 

Clause 8 of the Policy states ‘Students should be given clear information on the assessment process and the grading criteria applied to each assessment.’

Clause 9 of the Policy states ‘Feedback must be timely and students must be made aware of the timetable for submission deadlines and dates on which feedback will be returned for each unit.’

Clause 11 requires Schools to have ‘a clear policy to handle feedback on late submissions’.

It is also recommended that the following (or similar) is reproduced in handbooks:

• Feedback

Schools must publish their Feedback Policy.

It is a now a Quality Assurance Agency requirement that information about Programme External Examiners (name, position & institution) and Programme External Examiner reports are shared with students.

It has been agreed that from 2013/14 The University of Manchester’s approach will be to:

• publish the Programme External Examiner details (name, position & institution) in programme handbooks (or equivalent);
• share the Programme External Examiner reports with student representatives at the staff/student liaison committee, programme committee or another appropriate forum (for the School to decide). Any actions carried out by the programme team/school in response to the External Examiners' comments will also be discussed in these fora.

Templates and suggested wording for programme handbooks can be found at the link below:

• Templates and suggested wording for Programme Handbooks regarding the sharing of External Examiner details and reports with students

• The date for submission of dissertations (or equivalent) for full-time students who commence their Masters' level programme in September 2019 is the beginning of September 2020, the actual date is specified by the School.
• The date for submission of dissertations (or equivalent) for part-time students who commence their Programme in September 2019 is the beginning of September at the end of their second year of study i.e. September 2021, the actual date is specified by the School*

*The 27 month submission of the dissertation option for part-time Masters study is no longer available; submission must be within 24 months.

The expected responsibilities of the supervisor, student and School in relation to the dissertation/project element of a degree programme should be outlined in the handbook. 

• Current Health and Safety Policy

All taught students (UG & PGT) are required to undertake and complete an online health and safety course unit, delivered via Blackboard. Information on how they access the unit should be provided. It is good practice to include a reminder about the completion of the unit in any Welcome Week timetable you produce.

Additionally, students should be informed that they must familiarise themselves with the procedures for dealing with an emergency, including what to do on discovery of a fire, and fire exit-points and that they are required to familiarise themselves with the Health and Safety at Work regulations (extracts of which are usually posted in all buildings).

Students should be informed as to how they can contact one of the first aiders situated in the building (their names and telephone numbers are posted in commonly used areas).

It is recommended that the following (or similar) is also reproduced in handbooks:

• Interruption

You should also include information on where advice can be obtained from e.g. academic advisor, programme director, PSS staff etc.

The University's Principles for granting interruptions to an undergraduate or taught postgraduate programme of study, as well as guidance to students can be found at:

• Interruptions - Guidance for staff on Interruption to UG and PGT Taught Programmes of Study

The University has Guidance on late submission which accompanies the Policy on Submission of work for summative assessment’.  Updates have been made to both of these documents for implementation from September 2019 and will be published to the TLSO website and the University Documents system in the summer, using the existing url addresses (replacing the current versions that are now showing – May ‘19)’.

My Manchester is now the single gateway for current students to access key tools, services and information to support their student experience. Students can access all the information and online services they are likely to need on a day-to-day basis e.g. email, Blackboard, eLearning system, library account, student record etc.

Information should be provided on the services that can be accessed via My Manchester e.g. exam results, replacement swipe cards, etc.

A quick overview of what My Manchester is can be found at:

• My Manchester: in-depth guide to what students see

• Policy on Mitigating Circumstances

You should describe your School's procedure for submitting mitigating circumstances.

The full regulations and guidance documents, including statements for inclusion in student handbooks, can be found on the Teaching and Learning Support Office.

The following points of standard application were agreed at the Faculty's Teaching and Learning Committee (4 July 2012):

Undergraduate Degree Regulations

• K52 Classification of Integrated Masters Programmes - Agreed: Level 4 (year 1) will not be included in the degree average calculation of Integrated Masters Programmes.
• K53 Classification of Integrated Masters Programmes - Agreed: Mark Review will not include the use of viva voce examinations.
• L55 Classification in Bachelors Programmes - Agreed: Level 4 (year 1) will not be included in the degree average calculation of Bachelors Programmes.
• L58 Classification in Bachelors Programmes - Agreed: Mark Review will not include the use of viva voce examinations.

Postgraduate Taught Degree Regulations

• Agreed: The award of distinction is based on the overall average of the programme (typically 180 credits).
• Agreed: For MRes programmes (which typically have a greater research element), the award of distinction is based on the overall average of the programme (typically 180 credits).

Schools must have appropriate procedures in place for dealing with work exceeding the required length and must publicise it to students at the start of each semester.  See the Policy on Submission of work for summative assessment

• Procedure for Handling Academic Malpractice Cases

It is essential that students are made aware of what is acceptable and unacceptable practice in terms of completing assignments that are a product of their own study and research (as they may have been used to different conventions in their prior educational experience).

Students should be informed:

• of why referencing and bibliographic citation is undertaken;
• when sources should be cited;
• the preferred way, in the discipline, to reference sources;
• how to cite correctly;
• that bibliographic citations and references must be consistent throughout the work;
• that ignorance of the of the regulations can not be used as a defence for plagiarism or some other 
• form of academic malpractice;
• the penalties for academic malpractice.

The following statement should be reproduced in student handbooks:

• Submission to Turnitin

The University's Teaching and Learning Support Office defines personal development planning as 'a structured and supported process undertaken by an individual to reflect upon their learning, performance and achievement and to plan for their personal, educational and career development'.

The Faculty recommends that the relevant handbook contains information about the approach and structure for personal development for students on the programme.  The information should make clear the components that together comprise the personal development framework, what students are expected to do by/at what stage, and what the support/interaction with staff is expected to be in relation to the components.

It is recommended that the following (or similar) is reproduced in handbooks:

• Presentation of Dissertations

The Guidelines can be found at:

• Guidance for the Presentation of Taught Dissertations for UG and PGT provision

NB: The expectation across the University is that dissertations are produced and submitted electronically.  However, should a School consider online submission inappropriate and require the hard copy binding of dissertations, the costs of doing so must be borne by the School concerned and students must be made aware of the requirement.  Channel binding/spiral binding would be sufficient for the purposes of marking and Schools should not require their students to conform with the requirement for a hard/soft bound copy; if a student wishes to hard/soft bind their dissertation then that is their choice.

It is a requirement, that all programme specifications are accessible to students.  This can be done by reproducing the document in the relevant publication(s) or by placing them on your website and providing the URL address in the handbook.

• Student Representation

Students should first be made aware of the roles, responsibilities and resources of representatives along with information on the place and time of the election. This information should not be given at the same time as when the election is to take place, and should ideally take the form of something written or a web-reference. Students should also be directed to University of Manchester Students' Union to find out about wider representation and minimum standards.

It is recommended that the following (or similar) is reproduced in handbooks:

• Student Representation

You should provide further information on the activities and structures within your School/discipline.

The University's Teaching & Learning Group are currently discussing this fee.

• Regulation XX - Monitoring Attendance and Wellbeing of Students

All Schools must have in place systematic and robust arrangements for recording and monitoring the attendance of all students.

In accordance with Regulation XX Schools must ensure that attendance requirements for students are clearly specified in programme handbooks; this must take the form of a School policy on attendance requirements, monitoring, recording and review. Schools must determine points of contact within a programme of study that will enable them to monitor a student's engagement with their programme.

Schools should make it clear to students:

• which aspects of the programme students are expected to attend, and how attendance will be monitored;
• at what point action will be taken with regard to poor attendance;
• at what point the student should contact the School to notify/explain absence;
• how and with whom contact should be made;
• whether there are any differences in requirements between disciplines for students on Joint Honours programmes;
• what the consequences of non-attendance are.

Whilst students must be informed that their attendance will be monitored and recorded, it may not be possible to inform them at the same time of the specific method(s) of doing so, as these are influenced by the learning environment, which will not be known until the timetable has been completed. Where possible, once the method of monitoring and recording attendance has been decided, it should be communicated to students.

Schools should employ the most appropriate method(s) of monitoring and recording attendance, taking account of the learning environment, the nature of the programme in question, and the effectiveness of the overall approach in providing at least a monthly check during teaching semesters. Where there are additional professional and regulatory body requirements, these must be met.

There must be a mechanism in each School by which a monthly review of student engagement with the programme is undertaken to determine whether appropriate action needs to be initiated. Schools must have a procedure by which they follow up on continued unauthorised absence and non-engagement with the programme, which must be clearly stated in programme information for students.

Students should be informed how their attendance will be monitored whilst on distance learning programmes; fieldwork; joint programmes; study abroad; work placements (if required).