1. Examination Board Briefing 2017-2018
Prof Chris LANGLEY
Chair – RSC
Sarah DAVIES
Director of Quality Assurance and Enhancement
Adam HEWITT
Secretary – RSC
10th May 2018
22nd May 2018
Slide 1

2. Programme for the session
Slide 2
Programme for the session
PROGRAMME FOR THE SESSION
Introduction.
Update on RoBED Project.
Changes to Regulations for 2017/18.
Developments in
Discussion and close.
Examination Board Briefing

3. Training for Boards of Examiners
Slide 3
Training for Boards of Examiners
INTRODUCTION
Advice to Boards of Examiners.
The Senate has agreed that annual updating/training should be offered to all Chairs, Deputy Chairs and Secretaries of Examination Boards.
In the University Learning and Teaching Committee agreed with RSC that this training should be compulsory for all Examination Board Chairs.
This is to ensure that the decision-making of Boards of Examiners is consistent and in accordance with current Regulations and best practice.
Examination Board Briefing

4. Update on RoBED Project
Slide 4
Update on RoBED Project
UPDATE ON RoBED PROJECT
Changes following the RoBED consultation.
Areas of the General Regulations affected:
Classification borderlines.
Condonement.
Exceptional circumstances.
RSC has been monitoring award data and will continue to do so through
Review of relevant comments from External Examiners.
Examination Board Briefing

5. Recent Changes to CQF (1)
Slide 5
Recent Changes to CQF (1)
RECENT CHANGES TO REGULATIONS
Addition of internal and external hyperlinks to all General Regulations to improve navigation within and between documents.
Several changes and additions to the Credit and Qualifications Framework.
Introduction of the MPhys award to the University’s Qualifications Framework.
Standardisation of awarding listing terminology for programmes with a compulsory placement, study abroad or language placement year to “with Placement Year” to match standardisation exercise on student transcripts.
Addition of Chapter 5: Recognition of Prior Learning, relocated from Assessment Regulations and Policies.
Examination Board Briefing

6. Recent Changes to CQF (2)
Slide 6
Recent Changes to CQF (2)
RECENT CHANGES TO REGULATIONS
Clarification of the Pass Degree qualification:
A student who has followed an approved programme leading to a degree with Honours, but who fails to reach at least a 3rd Class Honours standard, may, at the discretion of the Board of Examiners, be awarded a Pass Degree; provided that they have achieved a minimum of 320 credits for a full-time degree, or 440 credits for a sandwich/language degree overall. There shall be no Pass Degree for programmes leading to an Integrated Master’s Degree, however a Pass Degree may be awarded as an exit award prior to commencement of Level 7 study.
References to a requirement of a 35% minimum overall average have been removed, as previous tightening of condonement limits have rendered them unnecessary.
Examination Board Briefing

7. Recent Changes to All Regulations (1)
Slide 7
Recent Changes to All Regulations (1)
RECENT CHANGES TO REGULATIONS
Definition of Deferred Assessment to all General Regulations:
Assessment in a failed module with no increment to the attempt number for that assessment. The Board of Examiners may require the student to attend the University and receive tuition.
Amendment to Regulation 2 of Undergraduate, Graduate Diploma and Postgraduate Taught Programme Regulations taking into account the phased implementation of new GCSE grading structures:
Applicants must provide evidence of proficiency in the English language as demonstrated by a pass at GCSE grades A*, A, B or C, (Grades 9, 8, 7, 6, 5 or 4 in new GCSE grading structures) or a qualification recognised by the Senate as being equivalent.
Examination Board Briefing

8. Recent Changes to UG Regulations (1)
Slide 8
Recent Changes to UG Regulations (1)
RECENT CHANGES TO REGULATIONS
The options for Placement assessment component (b) to be assessed on a Pass/Fail basis on non-numerical Grade Scale have been removed from Section References in Sections 4.3 and Section 9 to Placements that do not contribute to award classification have been removed as they no longer match current University practice.
Significant changes have been made to Ordinary Degree Regulations, particularly around the transfer of students to the pathway:
Regulation 5.2g: The following regulation has been removed: shall be required to transfer to the Ordinary Degree, where the programme specification for the programme states that it is available.
Regulation 6.2.6: Amended as follows: If a student fails repeat assessments, where these constitute the third attempt, and virtuous credit is not available or appropriate, the Board of Examiners will require the student to withdraw from the programme of study or to transfer to the Ordinary Degree, if available and if sufficient credits have been accrued.
Examination Board Briefing

9. Recent Changes to UG Regulations (2)
Slide 9
Recent Changes to UG Regulations (2)
RECENT CHANGES TO REGULATIONS
Regulation 6.2.9: Amended as follows: If a student fails restart assessments, where these constitute the third attempt, and virtuous credit is not available or appropriate, the Board of Examiners will require the student to withdraw from the programme of study or to transfer to the Ordinary Degree, if available and if sufficient credits have been accrued.
Regulation 6.5.1: The Board of Examiners may require allow a student who makes representation to the Board in relation to failure (see Regulation 5.6) to transfer to an Ordinary Degree, where available, when they fail to meet the requirements for progression to the next Honours Stage. Transfer to an Ordinary Degree can only be effected by a Representations Board; Programme Boards cannot transfer students to an Ordinary Degree.
Cont’d…
Examination Board Briefing

10. Recent Changes to UG Regulations (3)
Slide 10
Recent Changes to UG Regulations (3)
RECENT CHANGES TO REGULATIONS
Regulation 6.5.2: Transfer to an Ordinary Degree shall only take place where the student, following any condonement, has accumulated 100 credits at the end of the first Stage, or at least 200 credits at the end of Stage 2… Any opportunity to apply virtuous credit regulations should be explored prior to transfer to the Ordinary Degree, and the implications of transfer to the Ordinary Degree must be made clear to the student.
The Representations Board should determine the credits and modules that the student transferred to an Ordinary Degree pathway should study in order to fulfil the requirements of the award.
Examination Board Briefing

11. Recent Changes to UG Regulations (4)
Slide 11
Recent Changes to UG Regulations (4)
RECENT CHANGES TO REGULATIONS
Boards of Examiners can now consider the degree calculations of students with ‘unspent’ Exceptional Circumstances by potentially excluding some of the affected modules rather than the previously unhelpful regulation allowing Boards to ‘increase the borderline band’ in such cases:
New Regulation 7.6: If a candidate has ‘unspent’ Exceptional Circumstances and there is evidence that their performance has been affected in these modules compared to performance elsewhere in their profile, the Board of Examiners may decide to exclude a maximum of 40 credits of final year modules affected by unspent Exceptional Circumstances from the degree classification calculation for the candidate, taking into account the learning outcomes of the programme.
Examination Board Briefing

12. Recent Changes to UG Regulations (5)
Slide 12
Recent Changes to UG Regulations (5)
RECENT CHANGES TO REGULATIONS
Part of Regulation 10.3 has been removed, removing the requirement for the University to publish alphabetical lists of students recommended for an award:
Any final award, including the degree classification of a student, is regarded as public information and may be published by the University in any form and released to enquirers on request. The results of students who have been recommended for an award shall be published in a list drawn up in alphabetical order by student name.
Examination Board Briefing

13. Recent Changes to PG Regulations (1)
Slide 13
Recent Changes to PG Regulations (1)
RECENT CHANGES TO REGULATIONS
The definition of the Dissertation Module has been amended to ensure that provision exists for students to exit with a Postgraduate Diploma where a programme’s Dissertation module is larger than 60 credits, and to specify that dissertation should normally consist of a single module, matching the definitions of MSc/MA and MBA in Section 3.1:
Dissertation Module is the term used in these Regulations for the credit Level 7 module which is normally the final component of a full Master’s programme. If a dissertation is larger than 60 credits adequate provision should be made for students to exit with a Postgraduate Diploma. Dissertations should consist of one module, subject to the requirements of professional, statutory and regulatory bodies…
Examination Board Briefing

14. Recent Changes to PG Regulations (2)
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Recent Changes to PG Regulations (2)
RECENT CHANGES TO REGULATIONS
Regulation has been amended to facilitate postgraduate students beginning their Dissertation Stage prior to the confirmation of all Taught Stage results being ratified by an Exam Board. If, following the Board, the student has failed more than 30 taught credits, dissertation study can be paused for referrals to be taken or the Board can recommend the referrals are taken following the students dissertation submission, at their discretion:
A student may begin their dissertation stage prior to receiving confirmation of all taught stage results, but may be required to cease work on their dissertation subject to a formal academic progress review meeting, to be held at the end of their taught study, at which point the following options become available:
The Board of Examiners may allow a student to continue with the dissertation stage trailing a maximum of 30 taught credits…
Examination Board Briefing

15. Recent Changes to PG Regulations (3)
Slide 15
Recent Changes to PG Regulations (3)
RECENT CHANGES TO REGULATIONS
A student who is found to have failed more than 30, but no more than 60 taught credits will be required to either:
Cease work on their dissertation stage and complete referrals of all failed taught modules prior to recommencing their dissertation stage. or
Continue their dissertation stage to completion, and subsequently complete referrals of all failed taught modules at the next available appropriate opportunity following the completion of their dissertation stage.
Where both of the above options are deemed equally appropriate in a particular case, the decision on which of the above options will apply will be made in consultation between the Board of Examiners, Programme Director, and the student concerned.
Examination Board Briefing

16. Recent Changes to PG Regulations (4)
Slide 16
Recent Changes to PG Regulations (4)
RECENT CHANGES TO REGULATIONS
Amendment to Regulation 8.6, regarding treatment of ‘unspent’ exceptional circumstances. Regulations allowing Boards of Examiners to ‘widen the borderline’ where a student has unspent exceptional circumstances have been removed and replaced with a regulation to enable Boards of Examiners to exclude up to 40 Taught Stage credits of modules from degree calculations that are affected by unspent exceptional circumstances:
If a candidate has ‘unspent’ Exceptional Circumstances and there is evidence that their performance has been affected in these modules compared to performance elsewhere in their profile, the Board of Examiners may decide to exclude a maximum of 40 Taught Stage credits of modules affected by unspent Exceptional Circumstances from the degree classification calculation for the candidate, taking into account the learning outcomes of the programme.
Examination Board Briefing

17. Recent Changes to PG Regulations (5)
Slide 17
Recent Changes to PG Regulations (5)
RECENT CHANGES TO REGULATIONS
The wording of Regulations 10.3, 10.4 and 10.6, regarding Masters awards ‘with distinction’ or ‘with merit’, has been amended:
10.3. The margin within which candidates are eligible for promotion for a Master’s programme of 180 credits is 0.5% or less below a Pass, Merit or Distinction grade boundary. Students within 0.5% of a Pass boundary will be promoted automatically.
10.4. …To achieve the award of distinction students must achieve an average mark of at least 70% over 180 credits. A minimum average unrounded mark of 67.50% is required…
To achieve the award of merit students must achieve an average mark of at least 60% over the 180 credits. A minimum average unrounded mark of 57.50% is required…
10.6. The margin within which candidates are eligible for promotion for Postgraduate Certificate and Postgraduate Diploma programmes is 0.5% below a Pass, Merit or Distinction grade boundary…
Examination Board Briefing

18. Changes to Exam Board Regulations (1)
Slide 18
Changes to Exam Board Regulations (1)
RECENT CHANGES TO REGULATIONS
Amendments to the General Regulations for the Conduct of Boards of Examiners, regarding External Examiner attendance and oversight, and the Abandonment of Examinations:
All University Boards of Examiners with External Examiners as part of the Board membership will request that the External Examiners endorse the decisions of the Board and the conduct of assessment processes. All Board minutes must explicitly record the views of each of the External Examiners.
External Examiners appointed to programmes are expected to attend final Programme Boards where degree classifications for the graduating cohorts are discussed and approved. External Examiners appointed to individual modules are expected to attend Module Boards where those marks contribute to the final Stage of an award.
Examination Board Briefing

19. Changes to Exam Board Regulations (2)
Slide 19
Changes to Exam Board Regulations (2)
RECENT CHANGES TO REGULATIONS
Amendments to the General Regulations for the Conduct of Boards of Examiners, regarding External Examiner attendance and oversight, and the Abandonment of Examinations:
If, due to unforeseen circumstances an External Examiner is unable to attend the meeting of the Board of Examiners they should, wherever possible, be available for consultation at the time the Board is held (e.g. by telephone). Under exceptional circumstances, for example serious illness of an External Examiner, Schools may request that the Regulation Sub-Committee waive the attendance requirement (Regulation Waivers of Regulations).
Regulation and , regarding the Abandonment of Examinations, have been conflated and amended to reflect current University Guidance to Schools on the Abandonment or Assessments.
Examination Board Briefing

20. Recent Changes to Assessment Policies (1)
Slide 20
Recent Changes to Assessment Policies (1)
RECENT CHANGES TO REGULATIONS
A new Assessment Policies document, replacing Assessment Regulations and Policies. Significantly reconfigured, the Policy contains the following sections:
Marking Policy
Definitions of Marking Practices
Generic Marking Scales
Late Submission of Work and Penalties
Recycling of Assessment Content
The Examination and Class Test Regulations for Candidates and Invigilation Procedures for Examinations have been updated to reflect current Student and Academic Services practice on the provision of calculators for examinations, limiting student calculators to the Casio FX-83, Casio FX-85, HP10s or HP10s+ series, and that calculator provision is no longer guaranteed. Class tests are now explicitly covered in these regulations following their renaming.
Examination Board Briefing

21. Recent Changes to Assessment Policies (2)
Slide 21
Recent Changes to Assessment Policies (2)
RECENT CHANGES TO REGULATIONS
Rounding of marks means changing fractional marks to the nearest whole number.
The University’s student records system displays marks to two decimal places, and stores marks to a greater number of decimal places.
A module mark of for 40% pass Level 4, 5 and 6 mark schemes, and for a 50% pass Level 7 mark scheme, will be counted in the student records system as a pass and the credits will be awarded on the examination board report.
Rounding of marks is therefore unnecessary and should not normally occur, except where averaging of marks for examination scripts with more than one answer results in a fractional mark for the assessment as a whole. On such occasions the actual number should be recorded to two decimal places.
Undergraduate Module Boards may choose to moderate module marks of 39 to either 38 or 40, based on academic judgement of whether all learning outcomes have been achieved.
Postgraduate Module Boards may choose to moderate module marks of 49 to either 48 or 50, based on academic judgement of whether all learning outcomes have been achieved.
Examination Board Briefing

22. Recent Changes to Assessment Policies (3)
Slide 22
Recent Changes to Assessment Policies (3)
RECENT CHANGES TO REGULATIONS
Two regulations have been removed from the Invigilation Procedures for Examinations as they no longer reflect University practice:
Regulation 12c: When appropriate (once a week for each examination session) lilac coloured examination answer booklets have been used.
Regulation 41: At the end of the examination, the Invigilator shall remind the candidate that a report will be made to the University Disciplinary Officer (acting as nominee of the University’s Chief of Operations and Estates). The candidate should also be informed that he or she should see the Academic Registrar as soon as possible.
RSC has developed Guidance for Schools on the Abandonment of Assessment, providing options and actions that might be taken in the event of an examination or other in-situ assessment being abandoned.
Examination Board Briefing

23. Recent Changes to Discipline Regulations (1)
Slide 23
Recent Changes to Discipline Regulations (1)
RECENT CHANGES TO REGULATIONS
Regulations on Student Discipline now includes the categories of sexual violence, harassment, and hate crime in the list of disciplinary offences covered by the regulations.
Regulation B2.4 has been removed:
Where the University considers it possible that a criminal offence has been committed the University Disciplinary Procedures will not be used as an alternative to criminal proceedings.
A UUK Taskforce Report on violence against women, harassment and hate crime explicitly saw this and similar regulations as problematic. The University is able to invoke disciplinary proceedings on the balance of probability, but cannot determine criminality.
Examination Board Briefing

24. Recent Changes to Discipline Regulations (2)
Slide 24
Recent Changes to Discipline Regulations (2)
RECENT CHANGES TO REGULATIONS
Student and Academic Services have developed the Aston Student Code of Conduct and associated Precautionary Exclusion Risk Assessment forms to support existing Regulations on Student Discipline.
Level 0 offences have been removed from the Tariff of Penalties for Academic Offences, with the definition of Level 0 penalties amended to “No penalty to awarded mark. A warning will be given. A Level 0 penalty can only be arrived at through mitigation.” Level 0 offences were by definition not construed as offences and were therefore removed from the tariff.
The definition of repeat offences has been amended to specify that an offence is only classed as repeated in an assessment submitted after a student has been notified of their initial offence.
Examination Board Briefing

25. Recent Changes to FtP Regulations (1)
Slide 25
Recent Changes to FtP Regulations (1)
RECENT CHANGES TO REGULATIONS
Regulations on Fitness to Practise have been amended to clarify that a nominee designated by the Executive Dean of the relevant School may act in the absence of the appointed Fitness to Practise Officer, or in cases where a conflict of interest may have arisen. Regulation B2.1 now reads:
A member of staff will be appointed to act as Fitness to Practise Officer (FPO) for each School containing programme(s) and/or subject(s) which are subject to Regulations on Fitness to Practise. FPOs should not be in a position where he or she may also need to provide pastoral support to students involved in disciplinary or fitness to practise cases. In these instances, or in the prolonged absence of the Fitness to Practise Officer, an appropriate nominee designated by the Executive Dean of the relevant School should act as the Fitness to Practise Officer.
Examination Board Briefing

26. Slide 26
Future work for RSC (1)
DEVELOPMENTS IN
RSC has a number of working groups continuing from :
Regulations on the placement year – Working group to look at the regulations for the placement year. Final proposals due to be discussed at November LTC meeting. Chair – Dr Carol MARLEY (Vice-Chair RSC).
General Regulations for Flexible Programmes – Continuing work on the flexibility of University Regulations to more easily accommodate the growing volume of ‘non-traditional’ programmes. Chair – Professor Chris LANGLEY (Chair, RSC).
RSC also has plans for several further working groups in :
Credit Standardisation – Considering the regulatory implications of the University-wide move to a 15/30 credit module structure.
Examination Board Briefing

27. Slide 27
Future work for RSC (2)
DEVELOPMENTS IN
ECAPS – Fit to Sit Policy and information provided to ECAP panels.
Chair – Alison LEVEY
Assessment Word Limits – What to do when a student gains an advantage from deviating significantly from an assessments set word count. Chair – Chris LANGLEY
Prerequisite and Co-requisite Definitions – Adding a definition for each term to General Regulations to promote consistency of usage.
Chair – Adam HEWITT
Options in the Case of Failure Tables – Updating of tables in other sets of General Regulations to match the layout and usability of the table in the General Regulations for Undergraduate and Integrated Masters Programmes.
Examination Board Briefing

28. Waivers of Regulations and Exemptions
Slide 28
Waivers of Regulations and Exemptions
DEVELOPMENTS IN
Examination Board Review:
Do Schools know how to get advice on applying for Waivers?
Do Schools know what information is required to apply for a Waiver, who can do it and where it goes?
Review and monitoring – RSC reviews requests for Waivers of Regulations and suggests changes to the General Regulations if a particular Regulation is causing a problem.
Exemptions to Regulations – Exemptions to Regulations are granted on a programme-by-programme basis and are considered by RSC via the online submission form.
An exemplar of how to record Exemptions to Regulations within Programme Specifications is now available in PASC guidance on Programme Approval and Development.
Examination Board Briefing

29. Slide 29
Other activity
DEVELOPMENTS IN
Consideration of guidance or policy on the marking of assessment scripts where a student has attempted more than the required number of questions.
The first ‘X’ questions answered (where ‘X’ is the number of answers required by the assessment) only should be marked, and the method used to determine the answers marked reported to the appropriate Examination Board.
Would clarification within the University’s Assessment Policy be useful?
Consideration of the Exceptional Circumstances process, how EC’s feed into academic penalty mitigations, and School ECAP meetings.
Continued monitoring of the effect of RoBED changes.
Examination Board Briefing

30. Programme for the session
Slide 30
Programme for the session
PROGRAMME FOR THE SESSION
Introduction.
Update on RoBED Project.
Recent changes to Regulations.
Developments in
Discussion and close.
Examination Board Briefing

31. Examination Board Briefing 2017-2018
Prof Chris LANGLEY
Chair – RSC
Sarah DAVIES
Director of Quality Assurance and Enhancement
Adam HEWITT
Secretary – RSC
10th May 2018
22nd May 2018
Slide 31