Proposal to Remove Elevated Hurdles for Progression to Honours

Removal of Elevated Progression Hurdles in UG2 for Entry to Honours.

Removal of Elevated Progression Hurdles in UG2 for Entry to Honours

Historically, an elevated progression hurdle has been in place at the end of year 2 for entry to year 3 of Informatics Honours programmes. Teaching Committee are asked to consider if there are any academic reasons to retain these elevated progression hurdles or to accept the proposal to remove them.

Current Situation:

1. Regulations: Degree & Taught Assessment Regulations for students registered on Ordinary require a pass in all 120 credit points from the third year to be eligible for the award, there is no opportunity for credits to be awarded on aggregate as ORD students have the opportunity to re-sit in August or the following year (for example, System Design Project where a resit exam is not available). Without our current admin workaround (see section 4) this has the effect that it is more difficult to exit with an Ordinary degree than proceed to year 4.

2. Quality Assurance: The issue of programming ability of Informatics students and graduates was identified as a key issue at the latest TPR. Performance in theoretical examinations in year 2 is not a measure of programming ability or a good predictor for success at honours, especially practical project work.

3. Honours Project Supervision Impact: The number of students that conditionally progress to year 3 honours [as a result of failing to meet the elevated hurdles in year 2], that subsequently fail to meet the condition to achieve an average of at least 55% at the end of year 3 is very small and affects only a handful of students each year.

4. Administration: Students are given conditional progression decisions to honours and the decision is logged in the EUCLID Progression Comments section. However this is not visible on the student’s programme record in the EUCLID Student Hub, course lists, or the BoE reports. While administration should not dominate academic decision making, the committee should be aware that there is a risk this information could be easily missed by the student, Personal Tutor, or ITO when it comes up for discussion at the Board of Examiners the following year.

Caveats Under this proposal, the Senior Personal Tutor and Progression Officer will retain the practice of having a Progression Interview at the end of years 2 and 3 with students at risk of failing to achieve the standard required to succeed at Honours level. This is an opportunity to discuss any special circumstances, additional support for future study, or withdrawal from study before entry to year 4.

Policy Agreed: Wednesday 10th of May 2017