Awards
32.1 A student will be eligible for their intended award where they achieve the necessary credit points as set out in the University’s credit framework (see section 3) and fulfil any other requirements for award as set out in the programme specification.
Exit Awards
32.2 If a student does not obtain the necessary credit points for progression or award following application of the academic regulations or chooses to withdraw from the University, the student may receive a lower exit award according to the credit points they have obtained, as follows:
32.3 Students who wish to withdraw from an Integrated Masters degree programme following the completion of the penultimate year of study and exit with a classified Bachelors Honours degree must inform their home school no later than the day prior to the meeting of the relevant faculty board of examiners where the Integrated Masters degree would otherwise have been awarded.
32.4 If a student fails a must-pass unit in the final year of study following two attempts of assessment on a unit such that the intended degree cannot be awarded, but they otherwise attain a pass overall in assessments undertaken in the final year, then a Board of Examiners may award an alternative classified honours degree qualification, as set out in the relevant programme specification
Classification
32.5 Classification is permitted on honours degree programmes; however, unless provision is made within this Code, non-degree undergraduate modular awards are not classified. These awards are made where a student achieves the credit points for them with an overall mark of 40 out of 100 or more.
32.6 Guidance is provided for faculties on making an award where a student is unable to complete all the required assessment for honours classification.
32.7 No further regulations or rules will apply for the calculation of the degree classification following application of the common algorithm (i.e. the primary and secondary rule).
32.8 Rules which are inherent to the design of the programme, such as a requirement for the student to pass a project in order to graduate, must be approved and be described in the relevant programme specification, and be implemented before the algorithm is applied.
32.9 Bands of marks for use in final degree classification in undergraduate modular programmes are as follows:
All Faculties
First Class Honours 70 and above
Second Class Honours, First Division 60-69
Second Class Honours, Second Division 50-59
Third Class Honours 40-49
Fail 39 and below
An Ordinary degree can be awarded if a student has successfully completed at least 300 credits with a minimum of 60 credits at level 6.
Primary Rule for calculating the final programme mark and degree classification
32.10 First year (undergraduate) marks will not contribute to the calculation of the final programme mark and/or degree classification. Additionally, units in any year of study that are pass/fail only will be disregarded in this calculation.
32.11 All units taken in the years of study that contribute to the final programme mark and/or degree classification will count towards the weighted average final mark. See the guidance where students are given exemption from units, due to prior learning.
32.12 The weightings apply to years of study, not to the level of the units taken by a student within the year.
32.13 The default position is that within each faculty a single weighting rule for the years of study will apply, unless a faculty is able to demonstrate, to the satisfaction of the University Education Committee, that more than one weighting rule is required because of the major differences between subjects within the faculty and/or professional body accreditation requirements. See the agreed weightings for the programmes within each of the faculties.
32.14 Within each year of study the weighting given to the unit mark, in relation to the mean ‘year mark’, will correspond to the credit point value of the unit, e.g. the mark for a 20 credit point unit would be 1/6 of the whole year mark, if the student has to achieve 120 credit points during the year.
32.15 For the purposes of applying the primary and secondary rules, the final programme mark is calculated as a weighted average of the year marks for those years of study that contribute to classification.* The result of the calculation should then be rounded to the nearest integer. This must be done PRIOR to determining whether the final programme mark is within the classification boundary range, as defined in 32.13.
* For any student who first registered on their intended programme of study prior to the 2022/23 academic year, a check will be undertaken at the point of classification to guide the relevant exam board in ensuring that the change in the methodology for calculating degree classification (using the rounded year mark to calculate the final programme mark, rather than the actual year mark) does not disadvantage the academic outcome of any student, with the higher classification being awarded, where applicable. This check will be undertaken until the eligible student cohorts have completed their intended programme of study, as below:
32.16 The classification boundary ranges for bachelors honours programmes are based on marks out of 100 and are:
If the final summative programme mark falls within the range of one of these classification boundaries, the secondary rule will apply.
32.17 The classification boundary ranges for integrated masters programmes are based on marks out of 100 and are:
If the final summative programme mark falls within the range of one of these classification boundaries, the secondary rule will apply.
Secondary Rule
32.18 If the final summative programme mark falls within the range of one of the classification boundaries, as set out in 32.12 and 32.13, the higher degree classification will only be awarded if 50% or more of the rounded individual unit marks, weighted by credit point value and year of study,which contribute to the degree classification are achieved at the higher class or classes, otherwise the lower class will be awarded. The 50% threshold is absolute in applying the secondary rule (i.e. the outcome of the calculation is not rounded).
32.19 It is the responsibility of the School Board of Examiners to consider and determine between classifications on the basis of the secondary rule.
