Progression guidance
Information about progression to the next year of study.
If you pass all 120 credits of courses in your year then you will progress unconditionally to the next year of study. If you don't pass all 120 credits of your courses you may still be permitted to progress. This page aims to help you understand the progression outcomes that are possible within the University Regulations.
All progression decisions are made by the Boards of Examiners once all of your course marks for the year are available. The Board of Examiners considers students' marks and credits achieved across all courses, in the context of any relevant valid Special Circumstances. All marks are provisional until they are ratified by the relevant Board of Examiners.
UG1 unconditional progression
For unconditional progression to Year 2 you must pass 120 credits including all required Year 1 courses on your degree programme.
UG1 deferred progression after the May exam diet
Any student who is missing credits after the May diet will receive a "deferred" progression decision in June. You must attempt the August assessment for any course you have not passed. After the August diet your progression status will reconsidered by the progression board.
UG1 progression after the August exam diet (if not progressing unconditionally)
- If you have passed INF1A and INF1B, but are missing up to 20 credits of other compulsory courses or up to 40 credits of outside courses: you will be allowed to progress to Year 2 with a "conditional progression". The progression is conditional on you taking courses to make up the missing credits, in addition to your normal Year 2 programme. In order to successfully complete Year 2 and progress to Honours, a student missing a compulsory Year 1 course must pass that course in Year 2 in addition to all other Year 2 requirements. A student missing outside courses must make up the missing credits by retaking the same or other outside courses, in addition to all other Year 2 requirements.
- If you have not passed INF1A and/or INF1B: you will not be allowed to progress to Year 2. If you are permitted to continue at the University, you must repeat Year 1 and make up the missing credits. You will be invited to a meeting with the School Progression Officer to discuss whether this programme is right for you, and if so which courses must be repeated.
- In all other cases: you will not be allowed to progress to Year 2. If you are permitted to continue at the University, you must repeat Year 1 and make up the missing credits. You will be invited to a meeting with the School Progression Officer to discuss whether this programme is right for you, and if so which courses must be repeated. Other options may include transferring your existing credits to a different University whose degree emphasizes different aspects of computing.
- The University permits a maximum of four attempts at any Non-Honours (Level 7 or 8) course over 2 years. However, students on a Student visa are limited to three attempts under current UKVI regulations.
UG2 unconditional progression
For unconditional progression to Year 3 of an Informatics Honours programme, the required minimum number of credits is 240 and you must also pass all required Year 1 and 2 courses on your degree programme. For BSc Cognitive Science students only, you must also achieve an average of 50% at the first attempt across year 2 PPLS courses taken for this degree.
UG2 deferred progression after the May exam diet
Any student who is missing credits after the April diet will receive a "deferred" progression decision in June. You must attempt the August resit assessment for any course you have not passed. After the August diet your progression status will be reconsidered by the progression board.
UG2 Cognitive Science deferred progression after the May exam diet
- Students who have not met yet met the Honours hurdle and are sitting some exams in August as a first attempt: this will only occur if you had special circumstances and received a null sit in December and/or May. You will receive a "deferred" progression decision and your progression status will be reviewed after the August diet.
- Students who have not met the Honours hurdle, but achieved all their credits: although you have passed the year, your performance is insufficient to progress to Year 3 Honours Cognitive Science. At the end of Year 3 you will either graduate with an Ordinary degree or must resit exams as necessary to achieve an Ordinary degree (see "Ordinary Degree" below).
- Students who have not met the Honours hurdle, and are missing credits: you will receive a "deferred" progression decision. Your performance is insufficient to progress to Year 3 Honours. Your progression status to the Ordinary degree will be reviewed after the August diet.
UG2 progression after the August diet
- Students who are missing up to 20 credits of courses: you will be allowed to progress to Year 3 with a "conditional progression". The progression is conditional on you taking additional courses to make up the missing credits, in addition to your normal Year 3 programme. In order to successfully complete Year 3 Honours, a student missing a compulsory Year 2 course must pass that course in Year 3 in addition to all other Year 3 requirements. A student missing outside courses must make up the missing credits by retaking the same or other outside courses, in addition to all other Year 3 requirements.
- In all other cases: you will not be allowed to progress to Year 3. If you are permitted to continue at the University, you must repeat Year 2 and make up the missing credits. You will be invited to a meeting with the Progression Officer to discuss whether this programme is right for you, and if so which courses must be repeated.
UG2 Cognitive Science progression after the August diet
- Students who have not met the Honours hurdle, but achieved all their credits: although you have passed the year, your performance is insufficient to progress to Year 3 Honours. However, you are eligible to transfer to Year 3 Ordinary BSc (see "Ordinary Degree" below).
- Students who have not met the Honours hurdle and are missing up to 20 credits: your performance is insufficient to progress to Year 3 Honours. However, you are eligible to transfer to Year 3 Ordinary BSc (see "Ordinary Degree" below). You will also be required to make up the missing credits from Year 2.
- Students who have passed the Honours hurdle, but are missing up to 20 credits: you will be given a Conditional Progression to Year 3 Honours. In order to successfully complete Year 3 Honours and progress to Year 4 Honours, a student missing a compulsory Year 2 course must pass that course in Year 3 Honours, in addition to all other Year 3 Honours requirements. A student missing outside courses must make up the missing credits by retaking the same or other outside courses, in addition to all other Year 3 Honours requirements. It is not permitted to enter Year 4 Honours with missing credits.
- In all other cases: you will not be allowed to progress to Year 3. If you are permitted to continue at the University, you must repeat Year 2 and make up the missing credits. You will be invited to a meeting with the Progression Officer to discuss whether this programme is right for you, and if so which courses must be repeated. Other options may include transferring your existing credits to a different University whose degree emphasizes different aspects of computing.
To progress from Year 3 to Year 4 of the Bachelor's Honours degrees, you must achieve an overall mark in third year of 40 or more and pass at least 80 credits of courses at level 9 or 10 at the first attempt.
If you meet these criteria, but fail some courses, you will receive the credits for the failed courses "on aggregate". You may not resit these courses.
If you fail these criteria, you will be allowed to take re-sit exams to try to achieve an Ordinary degree.
BEng Computer Science students must meet professional accreditations requirements as specified in the Degree Programme Table. If you do not meet the professional accreditation requirements but do meet the criteria to progress to year 4 BSc Computer Science, you will be transferred to the BSc Computer Science programme.
To progress from Year 3 to Year 4 of the MInf degree, you must achieve an average mark of at least 55% at the first attempt across courses taken in Year 3. If you do not, you will be required to switch to a suitable Bachelor's degree before progressing to Year 4.
If you do not pass at least 80 credits of level 9/10 courses at the first attempt, or your average is below 40%, or you are missing credits, you will not receive credits on aggregate. You may be permitted to resit failed exams but will need to pass all 120 credits of level 9/10 courses, and 360 credits in total, to achieve the Ordinary degree. You cannot transfer back onto an Honours degree if you have taken resits to pass your courses.
If you are a Student visa holder, your ability to resit exams will depend on UKVI regulations, you should check current requirements with the Student Immigration Service.
To graduate with a Bachelor's Honours degree, you must achieve an overall mark in Year 4 of at least 40% and pass at least 80 credits of courses at level 10 or 11 at the first attempt.
If you meet these criteria, but fail some courses, you will receive the credits for the failed courses "on aggregate". You may not resit these courses.
If you do not meet these criteria, you will receive an Ordinary degree.
Your BSc or BEng degree classification is based on the weighted average over the 240 credits taken in honours years 3 and 4.
| above or equal to 70% | 1st class |
| 60%- 69% | 2.1 (upper second) |
| 50% - 59% | 2.2 (lower second) |
| 40%-49% | 3 (third) |
| <40% | an Ordinary |
The Boards of Examiners use the following School policy when considering borderline cases :
To progress from Year 4 to Year 5 of the MInf degree, you must achieve an overall mark in Year 4 of at least 40% and pass at least 80 credits of courses at level 10 or 11 at the first attempt. You must also achieve a pass in the MInf Project (Part 1).
If you meet these criteria, but fail some courses, you will receive the credits for the failed courses "on aggregate". You may not resit these courses.
If you fail to meet these criteria, you may be eligible for an appropriate BSc award or you will receive an Ordinary degree.
To graduate with an MInf degree, you must achieve an overall mark in Year 5 of 40 or more and pass at least 80 credits of courses at level 11 at the first attempt.
If you meet these criteria, but fail some courses, you will receive the credits "on aggregate". You may not resit these courses.
If you do not meet these criteria, you will receive an appropriate Bachelor's Honours degree, with an Honours classification assessed as usual for that degree, i.e. on the basis of the weighted average over the 240 credits taken in honours years 3 and 4.
Your MInf degree classification is based on ug3average*0.2 + (ug4average + ug5average)*0.4
| above or equal to 70% | 1st class |
| 60%- 69% | 2.1 (upper second) |
| 50% - 59% | 2.2 (lower second) |
| 40%-49% | 3 (third) |
| <40% | an Ordinary |
The Boards of Examiners use the following School policy when considering borderline cases :
Decisions about progression to the project phase of the MSc are made according to the assessment regulations described in the Assessment section of the taught MSc handbook.
Depending on your situation, you may wish to consider whether continuing on the degree is the right choice for you. Other options may include transferring to a different University whose degree emphasizes different aspects of computing. Our degrees are more mathematical and theoretical than those at some other universities, so if those aspects are giving you the most trouble, another University may offer you a more appropriate programme. You may be able to transfer credits from your degree here.
The Board of Examiners considers borderline cases as described in the Taught Assessment Regulations. Borderline marks are defined as marks from two percentage points below the class or grade boundary up to the boundary itself, e.g. 58.00% to 59.99% for an undergraduate 2.1 classification or 38% to 39% for a pass in a course.
Borderline decisions may take into account the following factors:
- cases in which a student has performed better in courses at a higher level
- cases where the amount of credited assessed work to be used for classification or award decisions is less than the norm (e.g., where credits have been awarded for progression purposes only in recognition of special circumstances)
- individual student profiles of performance
MSc Award Borderlines
MSc Merit and Distinction borderlines are described in the Assessment section of the taught MSc Handbook.
CSE Approach to Borderline Honours Classifications (as agreed by CLTC December 2019)
The overall proportion of credits in the higher class will be calculated using the same weighting that is used to calculate the overall average mark in the degree. The higher degree will be awarded where the greater proportion of marks falls into the higher class (e.g. 50% or above). In practice, this should be interpreted as follows:
- Borderline classification is based on the proportion of credits with marks at a class above that indicated by the mean mark. This proportion is derived from a weighted average across all Honours years.
- For degrees with two honours years (with the exceptions in Biological Sciences and Chemistry outlined in Taught Assessment Regulation 55), the proportion of credits in each honours year are weighted equally.
- For IM degrees with three honours years (with the exceptions in Biological Sciences, Chemistry and GeoSciences outlined in Taught Assessment Regulation 55) the proportion of credits for the three honours years are weighted respectively 20, 40, 40 (in percentage terms).
- Where 50% or more of the credits are in a class above that indicated by the mean mark, the class above that indicated by the mean mark must be awarded.
- Where more than 50% of the credits are in or below the class indicated by the mean mark, the class indicated by the mean mark must be awarded.