New assessment regulations approved by UCL Education Committee

Following approval in principle, UCL’s new assessment regulations will be made available to staff at the beginning of December. UCL Education Committee (EdCom) business also included clarifications on late summer assessment, considerable discussion on condonement, honours classification models and the progress on delivery of UCL Education Strategy 16-21.

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• First Look: A brief summary of all Major Changes for 2018-19 Regulations

Changes to the qualifications and credit framework

The Academic Regulations and Quality Assurance Sub-Committee (ARQASC) proposed changes to the UCL Qualifications and Credit Framework, designed to ensure that terminology was clearly defined and standardised across the regulations and systems. EdCom welcomed the opportunity to clarify definitions and terminology, approving the proposals in principle. EdCom noted that the course unit system would also be fully replaced from 2018-19 onwards, with all UCL programmes operating under the UK-standard modules, credits and academic levels. The current Programme Summaries exercise will give Departments the opportunity to discuss the implications for their programmes in detail.

Clarifications on late summer assessment (re-sits)

EdCom approved a recommendation from the Academic Regulations and Quality Assurance Sub-Committee (ARQASC) for an amendment to the new Consequences of Failure regulations for programmes within the UG Harmonised Scheme of Award: if a UG non-finalist fails at the first attempt, they will be offered the opportunity to re-sit. This amendment will apply for 2017-18; further changes are planned for 2018-19 (see below). The regulations for Taught Postgraduate and Graduate programmes remain as published. This includes applying the condonement criteria if a student fails at the first attempt, together with the removal of the cap on classifications for students with a resit or condoned mark in their profile.

ARQASC also clarified the position for 2016-17 students who had been asked to resit in the summer of 2018: the new regulations apply to all UG and PGT students who are fully enrolled on the 2017-18 academic session. Students who were enrolled on the 2016-17 academic session, and who have been asked to re-sit in the summer of 2018 either with or without tuition (including those who opted out of the LSA Pilot), will still be ‘enrolled’ on the 2016- 17 academic session for those modules and therefore subject to the 2016-17 regulations.

New assessment regulations approved

EdCom approved in principle the new Assessment Regulations, proposed by ARQASC after a full two-year review. The new Assessment Framework for Taught Programmes will apply to all taught students fully enrolled on the 2018-19 academic session, with the exception of Undergraduate Classification which would be phased in. The extensive consultation process, involving staff and students from across UCL, has resulted in a single set of regulations for all UCL taught programmes, balancing the maintenance of academic standards with ensuring that all students are treated equally. The consultation process had included many conversations with individual Faculties and Departments currently holding Derogations and Variations, as well as detailed discussions about local practices. Having gained EdCom’s approval in principle, Academic Services will consult with Faculties and Departments on the final set of proposed changes.

The new regulations will also inform the Programme Summaries data collection over the coming months, giving programme leads the opportunity to consider the changes in detail and request permitted variations which will be formalised in the Programme Summaries.

Honours classification models

In July 2017, EdCom had agreed three Honours classification models, and asked Faculties to take the schemes back to their Teaching Committees for discussion and agreement on which model would be used. It was suggested that Scheme A should be the default as it was designed to align with the changes to the regulations on condonement and capped resits, but that Faculties could use Schemes B or C if professional bodies placed heavy restrictions on the use of condonement on a programme. EdCom stated a preference for faculty-wide decisions to give as much consistency as possible.

EdCom agreed the Honours Classification Schemes for each Faculty, apart from Engineering Sciences, Institute of Education, Mathematical and Physical Sciences (to follow shortly).

Institutional position on condonement for 2018-19

Following an extended debate, EdCom agreed that, from 2018-19, students at all levels of study who meet the condonement criteria at the first attempt will be condoned and will not be required or permitted to re-sit. The proposals also included provisions for programmes to make one or more modules ‘Non-condonable’ if certain learning outcomes were essential to the award of a qualification with a particular field of study. Where a module was not essential to achieving the programme learning outcomes, condonement after the first attempt helped to reduce the assessment burden on students, who could progress or be awarded a degree without having to re-sit non-essential material. The added benefit of this change is that it encourages students to experiment with their module choices and widen their education without impacting on their overall achievement.

Condonement after the first attempt will also help to reduce the burden on departmental academic and professional staff in terms of writing and marking Late Summer Assessment papers and processing LSA results. There would be a negligible impact on UCL Examinations in terms of exam timetabling and managing exam halls, as these processes would have to be undertaken regardless.

The Late Summer Assessments pilot had an approximate 70% attendance rate. It is thought that many students will have chosen to be condoned instead of resitting. Non-attendance was higher amongst overseas students, suggesting that the cost and inconvenience of resits were important factors for students.

The Students’ Union representative also suggested that students place most value on their classification rather than the progression and award requirements or transcript. The new UG classification Scheme A has been specifically designed to mitigate the impact of condoned and resit marks, allowing students to drop their worst 30 credits in years one and two. The cap on PGT classifications had also been removed for students with resit or condoned marks in their profile.

Education strategy update: annual report 2016-17

The committee received a report on progress against UCL’s Education Strategy (2016-2021), setting out how UCL was delivering Principal Theme 2 of UCL 2034: “A global leader in the integration of research and education, underpinning an inspirational student experience”. The report had been submitted to recent meetings of Academic Board and Council who had noted progress against the primary objective: supporting students to succeed in their studies, to enjoy their experience at UCL and to secure a great start to their careers. The report also highlighted areas of continuing difficulty.

Council had been particularly keen to see less variability in NSS and PTES results across programmes, to understand how the Connected Curriculum was being embedded and to see evidence of deliberate steps to transform institutional cultures. It was noted that one of the defining features of programmes with top NSS results was that students were placed at the centre of the programme’s thinking. The strategy included measures to share this good practice across a wider range of Departments. The Students’ Union was also leading a number of initiatives, championing issues such as assessment and feedback via Staff-Student Consultative Committees.