The Guidance on Late Submission has been updated to clarify scenarios relating to the procedure for cases where a student receives a pass mark for an assignment (including dissertations) but then fails the unit due to the deduction of marks as a penalty of late submission (December 2023).
The Policy on Examinations has undergone minor amendments to reflect the fact that devices are now allowed near desks in examinations, as long as they are switched off and placed in the bag provided (new wording added at the end of paragraph 4.11) and the change of the wording ‘University Registration Card’ to ‘Student ID card’ (November 2023).
The Student Protection Plan - Policy on Refunds and Compensation was updated following feedback from members of TLSIG, DSE colleagues and the Legal Team. One of the elements that has been updated is more detail around the scenario of oversubscribed programmes (November 2023).
The full PDF version of the Assessment Framework has been updated to include the following: • revised Policy on Mitigating Circumstances and Coursework Extensions • revised Mitigating Circumstances Procedures • new Procedure for Extensions • revised Examinations: Guidance for Students • revised Guidance on the use of Calculators in Examinations • revised Guidance on the use of Dictionaries in Examinations In order to retain a copy of the version which was in place during 2022/23, a watermarked archived version of the Assessment Framework is available at: https://documents.manchester.ac.uk/display.aspx?DocID=68995.
Minor updates have been made to the Examinations: Guidance for Students to reflect the changes made to the Guidance on the Use of Calculators and the Guidance on the Use of Dictionaries, which were publicised in the July/August TLD Bulletin (October 2023).
Policy on Mitigating Circumstances: the policy and the accompanying Mitigating Circumstances Procedures have undergone review and have been updated for the start of 2023/24, along with the introduction of a new Procedure for Extensions. (July/August 2023)
New AI (Artificial Intelligence) Statement for Handbooks: A new statement, provided by the AI stream of the Assessment for the Future project, has been produced and is suggested to be included in programme handbooks or other information provided to student. (July/August 2023)
Policy on Recording and Monitoring Student Attendance and Engagement: The policy has been updated to include: - Insertion of a section which sets clear expectations for the attendance levels of student visa holders which will trigger escalation activities, and a high-level summary of the impact of continued non-engagement, in line with requirements from UKVI. • Insertion of a paragraph within an existing section to refer visa related queries to the Student Immigration Team. • Insertion of additional sentence to clarify the interaction between this policy and Regulation XX. • Removal of reference to Blackboard as a specific virtual learning environment (June 2023)
PGT Degree Regulations: Updates have been made to ‘Appendix A: Postgraduate Degree Classification Scheme’ under the section on ‘Consideration of postgraduate masters students within the boundary zone by mark distribution’ to remove references to all course units having to have been passed at first attempt, when considering students in the boundary zone for the award of Distinction. This was to tie in with the update made in October 2022 in paragraph J39. A new line was also added to the bottom of the section to read: “Please also see paragraph J39 for details of arrangements for programmes with specific accreditation requirements.” (April 2023)
Regulation XIX: Academic Appeals Procedure: one change has recently been agreed by Senate to Regulation XIX. This relates to an increase in the total time allocated from submission of formal appeal to completion of procedures to 90 calendar days (in line with the OIA’s Good Practice Framework). Note (x) on the first page of the Regulation contains this new statement (November 2022).
Updated Guidance on References: Members of the Teaching and Learning Delivery (TLD) team have worked with colleagues from Careers, ITL and Schools, as well as liaising with the Information Governance Office, to update the document. The updated wording has also had input from the Senior Advisers’ Network. As part of this, work also took place in producing draft templates for students to use in seeking references, which have subsequently been added to the Careers website. The Academic Advising Toolkit has also updated accordingly (November 2022).
Support for student assessments during 2022/23: We will not be issuing a set of Assessment Commitments for this academic year, as we have over the past two years as a result of the pandemic. A number of the temporary arrangements put in place have now become ‘business as usual’ and other elements are being retained for this year, with the details being communicated to students in a start of year message from Professor April McMahon, Vice-President for Teaching, Learning and Students. Please see October 2022 TLD Bulletin and the November 2022 TLD Bulletin for details.
Changes to the Academic Malpractice Procedure, specifically relating to centrally arranged examinations: The Exams Teams (Division of Student Admissions and Administration) previously detected and gathered information for allegations of examination malpractice in centrally arranged examinations. The SEP restructure has meant that the lead Authorised University Officer role (Director of Student Admissions and Administration) no longer exists in this area. This area has become part of the new Division of Student and Academic Services where responsibility for both exams and appeals, complaints and discipline rest in the Teaching and Learning Delivery Team. See June 2022 Bulletin for details.
New Policy on Student Representation: The original Principles and Guidance for Student Representation, first produced by the University and UMSU in 2013, have been updated and formed into a new Policy on Student Representation which was recently approved by Senate. The new Policy is to be implemented across the institution from September 2022, for the 2022/23 academic year onwards (June 2022).
Disciplinary appeals:Schools/Departments are asked to use the model wording in disciplinary outcome letters. They are also asked to ensure that they update their template SDP outcome letters for disciplinary appeals to reflect the correct timescale for appeal (10 working days). At present, some Schools’ templates state the timescale as being 20 working days or 15 working days or other variations and it is vital that all students across the institution are provided with a consistent message with the same deadline given (April 2022).
Guidance on Examination Boards: The temporary document entitled ‘Guidance on Examination Boards (COVID 19)’ produced in May 2020 and updated in April 2021, to provide guidance on different operational arrangements for Examination Boards taking place during the pandemic, has now been stood down. The original Guidance on Examination Boards should now be used again (March 2022).
Statement on Periodic Review: for details of the current arrangements for Periodic Review, which have been suspended for the last couple of years, please see the February/March 2022 TLD Bulletin (March 2022).
A new email address of teaching-policy@manchester.ac.uk has been introduced and will, over time, be printed on all of the teaching and learning policy and procedure documents produced by Teaching and Learning Delivery (TLD). This email address will be used as the main point of contact for any queries relating to TLD owned policy documents (January 2022).
Updated Procedure for Student Self-Certification of Absence from Learning for 2021/22, including clarification that students are expected to submit their self-certification form as soon as possible, but normally within two working days of the end of their period of absence; Schools should monitor the number of self-certification forms a student submits and should contact the student to speak to check if there are any support needs if they submit multiple requests; if international students are absent from study for 10 days without the knowledge or permission of the University, the institution is legally required to inform the Home Office (UKVI), which could result in the student’s visa being rescinded (December 2021).
Updated Guidance on Mitigating Circumstances related to IT Issues including the following: clarifying the support available for low income students who do not have access to Wi-Fi facilities or if their IT equipment breaks, etc.; a link to the new ‘help with exam and assessment issues’ support web page;clarification that, if a student has continuous or multiple IT issues (e.g. regular disruption of their internet provision), they should contact their School at the earliest convenience to discuss;confirmation that a screenshot or photograph of any error message is preferable to a video of IT issues students are facing (December 2021).
The Basic Guide to Mitigating Circumstances has been updated to reflect the arrangements put in place for the 2021/22 academic year (e.g. removal of references to the Assessment Pledge, which has now been replaced by the Assessment Commitments) and more information for students on possible outcomes from a request for mitigation (December 2021).
Assessment commitments 2021-22: the University has agreed additional assessment measures for all students this year to account for any ongoing effects of the pandemic, to cover the 2021-22 academic year (October 2021).
The Guidance for Assessed Student Group Working has been refreshed to take into account updated definitions and details about collusion, as well as bringing some other points up to date (September 2021).
A new Policy for Placement Learning and an accompanying Guidance for Staff on Placement Learning have recently been published. These replace the original Principles and Procedures for Student Placements on Taught Programmes (August 2021).
Updates to Interim Programme Amendment form - to include a new signature box for UMW programmes or units; prompt to check that all necessary resources are in place (March 2021); more information on resources, including a new appendix, have been added, for those programme amendments that require it (April 2021)
The Student Protection Plan has recently been revised and approved. Student Protection Plans are a requirement on HEIs from the Office for Students and contain an assessment of risks to continuation of study for students, including measures to mitigate risks and links to refund policy. The recent revisions include updates relating to dates and statistics, web links, and providing more detail. The updated Student Protection Plan can be found at: http://documents.manchester.ac.uk/display.aspx?DocID=37878. (December 2020)
Degree outcomes statement webpage: The UK Standing Committee for Quality Assessment recommends that every higher education provider across England should publish a Degree Outcomes Statement analysing their degree classification profile and providing the results of an internal institutional review of their arrangements for teaching, learning and assessment of students, academic regulations, and academic governance. The Degree Outcomes statement has now been set up on the website. (December 2020)
Minor updates to the Undergraduate and Postgraduate Degree Regulations: A new set of Procedures for the Award of Posthumous and Aegrotat Undergraduate and Postgraduate Taught Degrees have recently been introduced, which replace information about posthumous and aegrotat degrees that are contained within the Undergraduate and Postgraduate Taught Degree Regulations. The Degree Regulations have therefore been updated to reflect the new procedures. (December 2020)
Guidance on late submission (to accompany the Policy on Submission of Work for Summative Assessment); a minor update has been made to paragraph 5. (December 2020)
Updated Regulation XVII (Conduct and Discipline of Students), managed by the Division of Campus Life; a new addendum has been introduced in relation to Covid-19 and Student Conduct Academic Year 2020/2021 (November 2020)
The Basic Guide to Mitigating Circumstances (http://documents.manchester.ac.uk/display.aspx?DocID=23886) has been updated so that it is now an easy to follow one page ‘factsheet’ and its style is consistent with the other Basic Guides (on Academic Appeals and Complaints). (April 2019)
The Policy on Additional Costs has been updated, with the revised version to be implemented from now on (April 2019)
Updates to Regulation XVIII (Student Complaints Procedure) (February 2019) - The Procedure has been amended to accommodate changes to the Policy on Dignity at Work and Study, which were approved by HR Sub Committee in October 2018. These amends withdrew the Dignity at Work Procedure (for Students) and recommended that student complaints, under the Policy on Dignity at Work and Study were dealt with via Regulation XVIII. See Student Complaints Procedure for the updated version.
The Assessment Framework has been updated to take into account recently updated policies, including the new Guidance on Moderation, Fairness and Consistency in Marking, and amended weblinks (July 2018)
New documents from the Disability Advisory and Support Service (DASS) regarding mitigating circumstances and automatic extensions (June 2018):
Relaunch of the Advising Toolkit - resources for Academic Advisers (February 2018)
