Section 1: Introduction

UCL’s Short Courses include the following: 

• non-credit-bearing Continuing Professional Development (CPD) courses, some of which may provide hours or points of verifiable CPD;
• credit-bearing modules from UCL degree programmes offered as standalone short courses for personal learning, continuing education or CPD;
• credit- and non-credit-bearing evening classes, online courses and summer schools and programmes;
• credit- and non-credit-bearing academic and commercially focused executive education courses and other bespoke offerings for organisations;
• non-qualification-bearing graduate preparatory courses offered by the UCL Centre for Language & International Education (CLIE).

Each new Short Course must have a course specification that is derived from the Course Initiation Questionnaire (CIQ). Unless the activity is a bespoke closed course*, the details of the activity should be made available on the central UCL Short Courses website and/or the relevant UCL departmental webpages. 

*A ‘bespoke closed course’ is any course provided by UCL for a fee to an external client, where the content is specifically designed for that client and the participants are nominated by the client. Consequently, the course is not open to any suitably qualified candidate.

To ensure that the expectations of Faculties, Departments, learners and staff are clear, the following verbs are adopted consistently throughout these Regulations:

• Must: indicates a regulation that will be adhered to in all circumstances. Deviations from such regulations would only be granted by UCL Academic Policy and Quality Assurance on behalf of the Vice-Provost (Education & Student Experience) in exceptional circumstances. For example “applicants must satisfy any entry requirements for admission that are specified in the course specification (CIQ) and indicated in the description of the activity provided on the central UCL Short Courses website and/or the relevant Department web pages”.
• Should: indicates a regulation that should be adhered to unless sound pedagogical, professional or practical reasons prevent this. For example “A variety of assessment methods should be used across the short course to test different knowledge and skills”.
• May: indicates where an action or regulation is permitted but not mandatory, and where there might therefore be variations across programmes and modules. For example “Information may be provided in a number of formats including learner handbooks, Moodle sites and the UCL intranet”. Where ‘may’ regulations are used, the specific arrangements in place on the activity must be explained clearly in the course specification (CIQ).
   

These Regulations shall not apply to:

• any UCL programme of study leading to a UCL qualification, or to any UCL Students or Affiliates registered on these programmes. Regulations applying to UCL programmes of study leading to a UCL qualification are set out in the UCL Academic Manual.
• any bespoke closed UCL short courses or (see footnote 1 above). 

All those admitted onto Short Courses shall be assigned a Short Course status as follows (unless they already hold UCL Student or UCL Affiliate status, in which case they will retain that status):

A UCL Associate Student is:

(a) any person registered on one or more credit-bearing Short Courses provided by UCL and opting to take the assessment;
(b) any other person whom the Registrar declares to be a UCL Associate Student. 

A UCL Attending Student is:

(a) any person registered on one or more credit-bearing Short Courses provided by UCL and attending without opting to take the assessment;
(b) any other person whom the Registrar declares to be a UCL Attending Student. 

A UCL Visiting Student:

(a) any person registered on one or more non-credit bearing Short Courses provided by UCL;
(b) any other person whom the Registrar declares to be a UCL Visiting Student.