Regulation XXIII

Scope

1. These regulations provide a framework for undergraduate programmes provided by UK Further Education Colleges on a validated basis, leading to Loughborough University awards of Certificate of Higher Education (CertHE), Diploma of Higher Education (DipHE), and Degree of Bachelor (BA, BSc or BEng).

General Requirements

2. Students register:

1. as students of the College
2. for a specific programme
3. for appropriate modules as specified by the Programme Specification.

3. For each programme, the Programme Specification will specify:

1. the awards available
2. any specific requirements for admission to the programme and the rules for module selection for each Part and across the programme as a whole
3. a listing of the constituent modules of each Part of the programme
4. the requirements for progression from one Part to the next and for eligibility for awards
5. any other information which may be required in accordance with paragraphs 15 and 20 below.

4. At the start of the academic year, the College will provide Loughborough University with a list of students registered for each Part of each programme with details of the students’ modular options.

5. This is a credit accumulation scheme, in which modules are weighted according to the credit awarded for their successful completion.  In each Part of a programme, students register for modules with a total weight of 120.

6. The aims, intended learning outcomes, content, level, the semester(s) in which it is delivered, credit weighting, prerequisites for studying the module and methods of learning, teaching and assessment of each module are described in a Module Specification.

7. Credit for the module is awarded to each student who obtains a Module Mark of at least 40%. 

8. External Examiners will be approved and appointed by Loughborough University in accordance with the University’s Code of Practice for External Examining of UG and PG Taught Programmes.

9. A student who fails to complete any or all of the assessment requirements of a module, or whose performance in the assessment is significantly impaired, due to medical or other personal circumstances must declare this through the College’s Mitigating Circumstances, or equivalent named, policy. On receipt of a Mitigating or Extenuating circumstances claim, it shall be considered by the College’s Mitigating or Extenuating Circumstances Panel, which shall reach a decision on the claim in accordance with the College’s policy.

9.1  Except when the provisions of paragraph 28.1, 28.2 or 28.3 hereof apply, the student shall be given the opportunity to decide whether the repeat first or second attempts will take place either in the College’s Special Assessment Period, or equivalent named assessment period, or during the next academic year. Whilst students are not normally permitted to split their reassessments across different assessment periods, they may choose to take all of their repeat first attempts in the Special Assessment Period, followed by any repeat second attempts or resits in the next academic year.

9.2 Students may choose whether the repeat first or second attempts will take place either with or without attendance. Where students choose to register for repeat first or second attempts with attendance, they will neither be required to register for further assessments contributing to the module, nor to pay the relevant tuition fee, unless they concurrently register for assessments as second attempt resits within the same module.

Programme Board Powers

10. Decisions about the progression of students from one Part of a programme to the next and about the award of qualifications are the responsibility of a Programme Board.  The Programme Board will meet as appropriate and will receive for each eligible student the Module Marks to be taken into consideration in determining progression or awards.

The Programme Board will also review at the end of the academic year the results of any part-time students who are not under consideration for progression or for an award, in order to confirm the Module Marks and the award of associated credit in any completed modules. The Programme Board may also exercise discretion in condoning module failure to meet the requirements to pass a Part in accordance with paragraph 16 hereof.

11. The membership of a Programme Board includes:

1. named Chair and Deputy Chair
2. internal Curriculum Leaders of provision under consideration
3. one external examiner (who may also be an external examiner for modules) nominated as external programme assessor.
4. the Subject Liaison Lead of the Loughborough University School to which the programme is assigned
5. one other representative of Loughborough University, nominated by the Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Education and Student Experience).

12. The quorum a meeting of a Programme Board is:

1. the Chair or Deputy Chair
2. internal Curriculum Leader (or nominated representative) of provision under consideration
3. the external programme assessor
4. the Subject Liaison Lead of the Loughborough University School or the Pro Vice-Chancellor (Education and Student Experience)’s nominated representative.

13. The Programme Board will agree a pass list for each Part of the programme.  Its decisions will be based on:

1. the Module Marks, awarded as specified in paragraph 7
2. the decisions taken by any Mitigating/Extenuating Circumstances Panel under paragraph 9 hereof.

Criteria for Passing a Part

14. Students shall be deemed to have passed a Part of a programme if they have:

accumulated a minimum of 100 credits from the Part

and

fulfilled any additional requirements (as detailed in paragraph 15 below) for their specific programme

and

achieved a module mark of at least 30% in all modules in the Part.

15. Programme Specifications may specify any or all of the following as additional requirements for passing a Part in accordance with paragraph 14 above:

15.1 Where it can be demonstrated that there is a Professional, Statutory or Regulatory Body requirement:

15.1.1 A minimum mark in one or more specified modules.

15.1.2 A minimum mark in unspecified modules up to a specified total modular weight.

15.1.3 Additional requirements specified by a Professional, Statutory or Regulatory Body.

16. The Programme Board may exercise discretion and classify students who have not met the requirements detailed in paragraph 14 hereof as having passed a Part when all of the following conditions are met:

16.1 The student has already undergone resits or the marks under consideration are the initial results achieved in the final Part of the programme. For final Part students, Boards should not condone marks where this would result in the student losing an opportunity to improve their degree classification through resits.

16.2 The module or modules involved have a total weight of not more than 20 credits in any Part of the programme.

16.3 The module or modules involved normally have a mark of at least 20%.

16.4 The marks to be condoned were not for an assessment in relation to which the student had been found guilty of an offence of academic misconduct under the College’s applicable Academic Misconduct policy.

16.5 For students in Parts B and C, the condonement has the approval of the appropriate External Examiner, having regard to national standards in the discipline.

16.6 The reasons for the exercise of discretion are recorded in the Programme Board report.

Criteria for Progression and Awards

17. Students shall be eligible to progress to the next Part of a programme when a Programme Board has determined that they have met the requirements to pass the previous Part.

18. Students shall be eligible for an award when they have met the following requirements:

18.1 Degree of Bachelor - Pass Part C

18.2 Diploma of Higher Education - Pass Part B

18.3 Certificate of Higher Education - Pass Part A

19. Students shall normally be eligible for the award of only one University qualification from any particular programme of study.

20. Where the Degree of Bachelor is to be awarded, a Programme Mark will be determined for the purposes of classifying the degree, as specified in the Programme Specifications, by combining the average percentage marks for Parts B and C in a specified ratio. The Programme Board will determine the Honours classification of each BA, BSc or BEng Degree awarded according to the following scheme:

21. At the discretion of the Programme Board, any or all of the relevant Programme Mark thresholds in paragraph 20 above may be lowered by not more than 2 percentage points. In such a case, the revised threshold(s) shall be applicable to all students under consideration by that Programme Board.

Resit Rights

22. Re-assessment rights shall be granted as follows:

Full Time students

22.1 Students registered on a full-time programme who have failed to pass the Part will be eligible for reassessment on one occasion only in order to meet the requirements of the Programme Regulations.

22.1.1 The following criteria will be applied to the student's profile of marks to determine which modules are eligible for reassessment.

22.1.1.1 Module assessments may be repeated in any module in which the student has failed to gain credit.

22.1.1.2 Module assessments may be repeated in any module in which the student has gained credit but has failed to meet module mark requirements set out in the Programme Regulations.

22.1.2 It shall be at the student’s discretion whether or not take second attempt module assessments in excess of the minimum requirements to pass a Part. The College will publish a deadline by which students should register for second attempt module assessments. Students will not normally be permitted to make changes to second attempt module assessment registrations after the published deadline.

22.1.3 No further reassessment rights will become available (except where a Mitigating or Extenuating Circumstances Panel permits a student to repeat a module assessment in accordance with the College’s policy).

Part Time Students

22.2 Students registered on a part-time programme who have failed to gain credit in a module at the first attempt are eligible for reassessment in that module.

Any Module Assessment taken under the provisions of paragraphs 22.1 and 22.2 shall hereinafter be referred to as a second attempt module assessment.

23. Students who have registered for second attempt module assessments in accordance with the provisions of paragraph 22 above may repeat any or all of the modules with attendance, subject to the payment of tuition fees, if the module is available and if they first obtain permission from their College. In such a case, students will be required to produce new work in every assessment contributing to the module, notwithstanding any decisions made by a Programme Board in accordance with paragraph 24 below.

24. The Programme Board shall receive recommendations from the relevant Internal Examiner(s) for each student and shall, for each module, determine which of the student's present marks may without further assessment be carried forward in the re-assessment process should the student choose to repeat the module without attendance. Notwithstanding this decision, students may opt to undergo any component of the module's assessment.

25. Any student permitted to repeat any or all parts of a Module Assessment on a first attempt basis, following the decision of a Mitigating or Extenuating Circumstances Panel under paragraph 9 above may also be permitted, although not obliged, to repeat concurrently other Module Assessments on a second attempt basis. Where a student exercises this option, further second attempt Module Assessments may become available, in accordance with the provisions of paragraph 22 above, once the final Module Marks for all first attempt Module Assessments are known. Where a student exercises the right to complete Module Assessments on a first and second attempt basis concurrently in the same module.

25.1 The module will be recorded as a second attempt, but second attempt Module Assessments may become available in the Module Assessments repeated on a first attempt basis only, in accordance with the provisions of paragraphs 25 and 22.2 hereof.

25.2 The resit fee will be charged on the full credit weight of the module.

25.3 The Module Mark will be capped in accordance with the provisions in paragraph 30 hereof.

26. Reassessment should normally take place no later than during the academic year immediately following that in which the failure occurred.

27. The college shall determine and publish the dates of a Special Assessment Period each year falling between the end of Semester Two and the beginning of the next academic year. 

28. Except when the provisions of paragraph 28.1, 28.2 or 28.3 apply, re-assessment may take place, at the option of the student, either in the Special Assessment Period or during the next academic year. Full-time students who have the option must decide whether to take their re-assessments entirely in or entirely after the Special Assessment Period.

28.1 Full-time students who have achieved less than 60 credits at the first attempt shall not usually have the option to take reassessment in the Special Assessment Period unless a Waiver of Regulations is proposed by the College and approved by Loughborough University.

28.2 Where module specifications exclude individual modules from reassessment in SAP.

28.3 In a project or dissertation module, where a student achieves less than 30%.

29. Failure to attend, or submit work for, a module reassessment for which a student has registered will result in a mark of zero being recorded for the assessment component concerned.

30. In the case of a student who undergoes re-assessment in accordance with paragraph 22, the percentage marks obtained from the re-assessments will supersede those received for earlier assessments for the purpose of determining Module Marks. However, in the case of modules taken by students on Parts B and C of their programme, Module Marks awarded following re-assessment will be capped at 40% for the purpose of calculating the Programme Mark and determining the degree classification in accordance with paragraph 20.

30.1 Where a Module Mark higher than 40% is required by Programme Regulations, the Module Mark awarded following re-assessment will be capped at the mark required by Programme Regulations.

31. A Programme Board shall normally terminate the studies of a student who, following a second attempt Module Assessment, has failed to meet the requirements to pass the Part, as outlined in paragraphs 14 and 15 above. The only exceptions to this rule shall be where the student is permitted to take repeat second attempt assessments by a Mitigating or Extenuating Circumstances Panel under paragraph 9 above.

32. Where a student’s studies are terminated in accordance with paragraph 31, the following scheme shall be applied to determine whether the student is eligible for the award of a lesser qualification.

32.1 Where a student registered for a Bachelor’s Degree has previously passed Part A, they shall be eligible for the award of Certificate of Higher Education.

32.2 Where a student registered for a Bachelor’s Degree has previously passed Part B, they shall be eligible for the award of Diploma of Higher Education.

33. Where a student is eligible for a lesser award in accordance with paragraph 32 hereof, the Programme Board shall make the appropriate provisional award. The award will be subject to the approval of the External Programme Assessor, who shall be provided with all relevant marks and other information, and to the college confirming to the University that the student does not intend to transfer to a different programme.

34. Once a lesser qualification has been confirmed, the student concerned shall not thereafter be permitted to transfer any Module Marks or Part passes to a new programme.

35. The College will provide Loughborough University with reports on the proceedings of all Programme Boards.

36. The Programme Specification and Module Specifications will be subject to update and renewal and approval by the University on an annual basis.

Aegrotat Degrees

37. Students who have been registered for a degree, have progressed to the Final Part and have been prevented from obtaining a degree as a result of illness or other sufficient cause may apply in writing, or in exceptional circumstances have a written application made on their behalf, to the Senate for the award of an aegrotat degree. The Senate may award such a degree upon the recommendation of the relevant External Programme Assessor.