Information such as instructions for entering University Examinations, regulations regarding the use of calculators etc., is displayed as and when appropriate on the Examination notice board in the concourse of the School.
It is important that you inform the Education Office of any inaccuracies in units you are registered to take so that we can keep your registration for University examinations up-to-date. Failure to do so may result in you being unable to attend at an examination for a particular unit and you may fail your year as a result. It is your responsibility to ensure your records are accurate and kept updated.
The University Exams Office is responsible for examination scheduling, and each year the University schedules nearly 4,000 exams and uses a total of 69 different venues and 12 PC clusters for these activities to occur. The Exams Office does all it can to avoid the occurrence of back-to-back examinations (defined as either morning and afternoon on the same day, afternoon on one day and morning on the next, or afternoon on a Friday and morning on a Monday). As timetables are published well in advance of each examination period, it is the responsibility of all students to manage their revision and exam preparation time effectively.
A personalised copy of your examination timetable can be obtained via the University internet – Student Services Centre Portal. It is YOUR responsibility to obtain a personalised examination timetable and to check that there are no timetable clashes between any of your examinations and to make sure that you know where and when a particular examination will take place.
Mis-reading the timetable will not be accepted as an excuse for missing an examination and a zero mark will be entered.
You can obtain your January examinations results via the student system, usually in the first week of March. An opportunity will then be given to discuss your progress with your personal tutor. Results of May/June examinations will again be made available via the student system and details of any resits or other reasons for non-progression will be sent to you to your University email address during the Summer Vacation. Please note that staff are not allowed to reveal results to anyone over the phone.
Official transcripts bearing the University seal are available through the Student Services Centre, a small fee will be charged for this service. A transcript is normally only necessary if requested by a future employer or university.
The marking of all examination scripts is carried out anonymously. Double marking of examination scripts is implemented for all examinations.
Any discussion regarding students at Examination Boards conferring final degrees is carried out anonymously.
External Examiners are individuals from another institution or organisation who monitor the assessment processes of the University to ensure fairness and academic standards. They ensure that assessment and examination procedures have been fairly and properly implemented and that decisions have been made after appropriate deliberation. They also ensure that standards of awards and levels of student performance are at least comparable with those in equivalent higher education institutions.
Three External Examiners are appointed, each for a period of three years. They are selected from experienced academic chemists in other universities, to cover the main branches (Inorganic, Organic, Physical) of the subject.
External Examiners’ reports relating to this programme will be shared with student representatives at the Staff Student Liaison Committee (SSLC), where details of any actions carried out by the programme team/School in response to the External Examiners’ comments will be discussed. Students should contact their student representatives if they require any further information about External Examiners’ reports or the process for considering them
Please note that it is inappropriate for students to make direct contact with External Examiners under any circumstances, in particular with regards to a student’s individual performance in assessments. Other appropriate mechanisms are available for students, including the University’s appeals or complaints procedures and the UMSU Advice Centre. In cases where a student does contact an External Examiner directly, External Examiners have been requested not to respond to direct queries. Instead, External Examiners should report the matter to their School contact who will then contact the student to remind them of the other methods available for students. If students have any queries concerning this, they should contact their Programme Office (or equivalent).
For 2014/15 the External Examiners for this programme are as follows:
Professor Robert Mulvey (Inorganic)
University of Strathclyde
Professor Christopher Hayes (Organic)
University of Nottingham
Dr James Keeler (Physical)
University of Cambridge
A cross section of graduating students will be invited in advance to meet the external examiners for an informal discussion. The purpose of this discussion is to enable students to inform the external examiners about any aspect of their experiences of the degree programmes. This feedback may be very valuable when future changes to the programmes are being considered.
The School’s Special Circumstances Committee considers all mitigating circumstances based on written evidence. The Committee meets before the Board of Examiners and will make recommendations on appropriate compensation. Students should ensure that they submit a written statement of any circumstances affecting their academic performance accompanied by a certification of ill health or medical note or other documentary evidence in support of the submission to the Education Office, you should book an appointment with an Education Administrator to discuss this. This should be done, at the latest, by the Monday immediately following the relevant end-of-semester examination period in January or June.
If you do not achieve the minimum standards required in year 1 or year 2 of your programme of studies, you are required to take resit examinations in those units that were failed at the next available opportunity, which is normally in August. You will be charged a Re-examination Fee for resitting examinations, unless failure was due to illness, backed up by appropriate certification, at the time of the examination.
Resits are not an automatic right. Examination Boards have the right to refuse an individual a resit opportunity if there is documented evidence that work and/or attendance has been unsatisfactory, and if the student has received a formal warning and subsequently not shown significant improvement.
Special Circumstances are unforeseen or unexpected personal or medical circumstances which might adversely affect your performance and/or prevent you from completing an assessment. In these cases you must complete and submit a special circumstances form and submit this along with an appropriate form of evidence (such as doctors' note, letter from counselling service, death certificate). Please note that you are expected to submit circumstances which may have affected your performance before an examination period takes place. Only circumstances which take place during an examination period should be submitted after the period begins.
You should only present a case to the Special Circumstances Committee if you consider it serious enough, and the timing critical, to have affected your performance in your assessed work and examinations.
The examinations timetable may result in the bunching of your examinations, or your coursework submission deadlines may fall around the same time. This is part of the assessment process and not a special circumstance.
Having to undertake paid employment should not be presented as a special circumstance.
Stress and anxiety for which you are not receiving medical treatment and long term medical conditions do not usually constitute mitigation.
Other circumstances that would not normally merit consideration include: holidays or other events that were planned or could reasonably have been expected; misreading the timetable for examinations or otherwise misunderstanding the requirements for assessment; inadequate planning or time management; failure, loss or theft of a computer or other equipment, including inability to print off work for whatever reason.
If you suffer from anxiety during examination periods, we would advise you to attend the University Counselling Service’s sessions on coping better with academic pressures. Telephone them on 275 2864 or internally on 52864, or visit their website.
If you have a long term medical condition that you believe has an adverse effect on your performance you should speak to the Disability Support Office as soon as possible. Telephone them on 275 7512 or internally on 57512, or visit their website.
If for any reason you are unable to attend or complete an examination, or feel that your performance has been adversely affected by circumstances beyond your control, you should immediately contact your Personal Tutor/Education Office and, if appropriate, the Student Health Service.
Failure to attend a formal assessment due to illness must be corroborated with a medical certificate. If you have any other circumstances which you think have had an adverse effect on your examination performance, you must inform your Personal Tutor and ensure that full documentation (medical notes and relevant correspondence) reaches the Education Office in time to be taken into consideration by the Board of Examiners. Note: The Special Circumstances Committee and Examination Board reserve the right to not accept post-dated medical certificates.
The School will publish deadlines for the submission of mitigating circumstances applications prior to each University assessment period. Submissions after published deadlines will not be considered unless there is a credible and compelling explanation provided for late submission.
The University’s policy on Mitigating Circumstances can be found here.
The following are extracts from the University’s relevant documentation.
Grounds for Appeal:
a) There is no provision for appeal against the academic judgement of the examiners.
b) An application for an appeal may be made only on grounds alleging:
Review Procedure:
1. Prior to taking a final decision as to whether to request an appeal or not, a student is advised to contact his or her Personal Tutor or their Programme Director or the Director of Undergraduate Studies informally to attempt to resolve the issue at School level.
2. If the student decides to make a formal request for an appeal, an application shall be submitted in writing with supporting evidence to the Academic Registrar as soon as possible and not more than one month after the publication of the student's examination results.
3. The student shall specify the ground(s) upon which it is made and contain full particulars of the student’s case. If a request for review is advanced under (b), the student shall state the reason for not making the evidence known in time for the Examiner’s meeting.
4. On receipt of the application the Academic Registrar (or nominee) shall decide whether sufficient grounds for a review are established. In doing so he/she shall undertake such enquires as may seem appropriate to reach a decision.
5. If, in the opinion of the Academic Registrar, no prima facie case for review is made or the matter complained of did not materially affect the Examiners’ decision, the Academic Registrar shall inform the student accordingly in writing normally within one month of receipt of the written application and shall give reasons for the decision. Where the decision is to reject the request for a review there shall be no further appeal within the University.