Examination Boards and Academic Appeal Regulations

The School’s programmes lead to various undergraduate and postgraduate awards. Required credits are as follows:

These awards can also be given as exit awards if the student meets the required credits and outcomes.

The Examination Boards must:

• Ensure the School’s qualifications meet sector-recognised standards
• Verify compliance with academic regulations, including the Module Results and Award Conferment Regulations, and scrutinise module marks
• Ensure overall consistency, decide on progression, and confer awards
• Address issues like extenuating circumstances, academic misconduct, and exclusions where necessary 
• Collaborate with external examiners
• Discuss sector and industry matters relevant to assessments
• Monitor KPIs and other indicators
• Ensure continuous improvement
• Report to the Academic Board on standards 

Chairs of the Module Examination Board and Programme Examination Board must submit an annual report to the Academic Board covering:

• Compliance with academic regulations
• Quality and standards
• Analysis of results, progression, and awards
• Issues, such as misconduct 
• Necessary regulation and policy changes
• Review of external examiner feedback
• Student and stakeholder engagement
• Industry and sector trends and analysis
• Continuous improvement observations
• Factors affecting award standards

After external examiner scrutiny, the module leader must:

• Discuss draft marks with programme leaders
• Prepare marks and lists for the Module Examination Board (MEB)
• Obtain Director of Education approval
• Submit final marks and lists to the MEB at least 3 working days before the meeting
• Attend the MEB or appoint a suitable substitute if unavailable
• Present final marks, relevant information, reports, and reassessment arrangements to the MEB for confirmation

The MEB, with delegated authority from the Academic Board, must ensure:

• Assessments follow academic regulations and standards
• Academic misconduct and extenuating circumstances are addressed
• Summative assessment marks are valid and reliable
• Ratification of progression
• Consultation with external examiners and stakeholders
• Consideration of industry and sector trends
• Maintenance of standards over time
• Proper student profiles proceed to the Programme Examination Board

The MEB membership consists of:

• Director of Education (Chair)
• All module and credit-bearing short course leaders
• Approved external examiners

The MEB meets twice per semester:

• After initial assessments
• After defer, refer, and retake assessments

The MEB requires a 75% quorum, including the chair and at least one external examiner.

All module leaders should also attend; if unavailable, they can nominate a team member approved by the Chair.

The MEB agenda must include:

1. Introduction: Chair's introduction, apologies, confidentiality, conflict of interest check, terms of reference overview.
2. Previous Minutes and Actions: Discuss previous minutes and Chair’s actions. 
3. Confirmation of Standards: Director of Education to confirm assessment process. 
4. Ratification of Marks and Progression: Module leaders to present marks to MEB, noting of issues, corrections, and confirmation of marks.
5. Defers, Academic Misconduct, and Cases: Discuss and ratify individual student issues, noting in minutes.
6. External Examiner Report: External examiners’ comments and actions discussed.
7. Trend Analysis: Compare KPIs and marks with previous years.
8. Industry and Sector Analysis: Discuss relevant industry trends.
9. Continuous Improvement: Note measures and suggestions for Academic Board. 
10. Conclusion: Chair’s summary, any other business, action summary, procedural compliance statement, next meeting date set.

The MEB Chair is responsible for:

• Ensuring all necessary information is provided beforehand
• Circulating the agenda and sending invites
• Noting minutes and actions
• Recording all marks, changes, and progressions accurately
• Sharing action lists and sending them to appropriate staff
• Tracking progress on actions
• Processing final marks and progression decisions on the AGS
• Reporting on minutes and actions at the next MEB

Once the MEB ratifies final module marks, programme leaders must:

• Use these marks, regulations, and the School’s algorithm to determine awards and classifications, noting defers, retakes, withdrawals, or expulsions
• Produce a list of provisional awards and classifications
• Obtain Director of Education approval for this list
• Submit final marks and lists to the PEB at least 3 working days before the meeting
• Attend the PEB or appoint a substitute if unavailable
• Present provisional awards and classifications to the PEB
• Report pertinent information, including academic misconduct, as needed

After MEB ratification, the leader of a credit-bearing short course must prepare a final list of marks and students for the PEB to ratify awards.

The PEBs, under the Academic Board's authority, must:

• Determine programme awards and classifications, and ratify credit-bearing short course results
• Ensure awards and credits are valid, reliable, and meet sector standards
• Use MEB-ratified module profiles for award classification and credit decisions
• Decide on withdrawals and expulsions
• Ensure compliance with academic regulations
• Ratify exit awards
• Consult external examiners and stakeholders
• Consider industry and sector trends
• Maintain consistency and standards over time

The PEB consists of:

• Director of Education (Chair)
• Relevant programme leaders
• Approved external examiners

The PEB meets twice per semester:

• After initial assessments
• After defer, refer, and retake assessments

The PEB requires a 75% quorum, including the chair and at least one external examiner. Programme leaders must attend in person; if unavailable, they can nominate a module team member, subject to Chair approval.

The PEB agenda must include:

1. Introduction: Chair introduces programmes, notes apologies, states confidentiality, checks for conflicts of interest, and covers terms of reference.
2. Previous Minutes and Actions: Discuss previous minutes and Chair’s actions.
3. Confirmation of Standards: Director of Education confirms programme leaders' lists comply with regulations.
4. Ratification of Lists: Programme leaders and short course leaders present provisional lists; PEB checks award algorithms and logs corrections.
5. Conferment: PEB ratifies and confers awards, agreeing on final credit-bearing short course results to form a conferment list.
6. Defers, Refers, Fails, and Special Circumstances: PEB prepares a list of students not receiving awards due to defers, etc., and note other matters.
7. Exit and Other Awards: PEB considers and ratifies exit awards for inclusion in the conferment list.
8. Withdrawals and Exclusions: PEB decides and ratifies withdrawals and exclusions, noting them with follow-up actions.
9. External Examiner Report: PEB invites external examiners to comment, discuss, and note actions and comments.
10. Trend Analysis: Compare KPIs and awards with previous years to identify trends.
11. Industry and Sector Analysis: Discuss relevant industry trends affecting standards.
12. Continuous Improvement: Note measures and suggestions for improvement.
13. Conclusion: Chair summarises; discuss any other business; actions summarised; state procedural compliance; set next meeting date.

The PEB Chair is responsible for:

• Ensuring all necessary information is provided beforehand, including from programme and other leaders
• Circulating the agenda, information, and sending invites
• Noting minutes and actions
• Accurately recording all lists, including conferments, exit awards, and exclusions
• Sharing action lists and sending them to appropriate staff
• Tracking progress on actions
• Entering and processing final awards and decisions into the AGS
• Reporting minutes and actions at the next PEB

No student may be a member of or attend an examination board meeting, except:

• When, as a qualified leader or examiner, they are a student on a separate programme and pose no conflict of interest; 
• For their own viva voce or oral examination

The Director of Education chairs all examination boards (EB) by default, ensuring efficient operation and fulfilment of duties. Chairs must:

• Ensure all necessary information is submitetd beforehand, including from module and programme leaders 
• Circulate agendas, information, and sending invites
• Open meetings
• Brief members
• Validate quorum for legitimacy
• Submit an annual report to the Academic Board on EB work
• Handle declarations of personal interest
• Appoint a deputy in their absence
• Ensure trends, insights, and continuous improvement are discussed and reported on 
• Convene additional meetings 
• Note minutes and actions
• Record marks, changes, progressions, awards
• Share action lists, sending them to staff
• Track progress on actions
• Process marks, changes, progressions, awards on the AGS
• Report on minutes and actions at next EBs

Deputy Chair:
A Deputy Chair is appointed for all EBs. In the Chair’s absence, the Deputy assumes responsibility. Any instance of the Deputy Chair leading an EB must be formally recorded and ratified by the Chair of the Academic Board. If both Chair and Deputy Chair are unavailable, a replacement is designated by the Chair of the Academic Board.

All examination board members must declare any conflicts of interest, particularly concerning students. If no declaration is made, it is assumed that no conflicts exist.

The rules on quorum for each board are set out in these regulations. Exceptionally, the President may make a decision if either Board is inquorate, provided that the Director of Education has approved that all academic regulations have been followed.

All members must keep information and proceedings confidential per School privacy policies. The Chair is responsible for securely storing minutes and actions, following retention policies, and using the AGS as needed.

Chairs must manage and process actions including progressions, defers, retakes, academic misconduct, awards, short course results, withdrawals, and expulsions. They must enter decisions into the AGS and notify relevant staff. They must monitor progress, and update at the next examination board meetings.

The Chair is responsible for taking minutes and managing actions, including recording module marks, progressions, and conferment and exit awards in the AGS.

MEB/PEB minutes must include:

• Attendance list and capacity of attendees
• Apologies for absence
• Statement of confidentiality
• Amendments to previous minutes
• Report on matters arising and actions
• Confirmation of standards from the Director of Education
• Ratified marks, progression decisions, awards, and any changes with reasons
• Decisions on extenuating circumstances, academic misconduct, and exclusions
• Exercise of discretion
• Comments from external examiners
• Trend analyses
• Comments on standards and improvement
• Closing remarks from external/internal examiners and the Chair

After ratification by the boards, Chairs must upload all module results, progression, programme and short course conferment lists, and decisions on retakes, defers, withdrawals, and expulsions to the AGS.

Modules: After the MEB ratifies and uploads module and short course marks and progression decisions to the AGS, module leaders should check and confirm these to the Director of Education. who will then notify programme leaders that they can be used to produce lists for the PEB. 

Programmes and Credit-Bearing Short Courses: After the PEB ratifies awards and classifications and uploads them to the AGS, programme and course leaders must check and confirm the accuracy of these for the purposes of issuing transcripts and certificates. The Director of Education will verify this before they are used to produce transcripts and certificates.

After the Director of Education's approval, students will receive an email to log onto the AGS to check decisions, transcripts, and certificates. They may contact the School with any questions.

Students can access their transcripts only after fulfilling contract conditions, including fee payment and compliance with academic regulations and policies.

Please see the Module, Progression, and Award Regulations for further information on the contents of transcripts and certificates. 

The Module Examination Board and Programme Examination Boards, authorised by the Academic Board, decide on extenuating circumstances, ratify module marks, progression, refers and retakes, exclusions, and awards. Challenges to these decisions must be made through an academic appeal, based only on procedural irregularity.

An academic appeal addresses final decisions from the Boards. It differs from a complaint about the School’s processes and an application for extenuating circumstances. See the Student Complaints and Academic Appeals Policy for more details.

Students must submit an academic appeal within 10 working days of the Board’s decision by emailing the Student Wellbeing Team, which will forward it to the chair of the Academic Board. Appeals should include a statement and supporting evidence on procedural irregularity. The chair may extend the deadline in exceptional circumstances.

Upon receipt of the statement and evidence, the chair will either investigate or appoint another Academic Board member (not involved in the Board in question) as the 'investigator.' The investigator will review all materials to determine if procedural irregularity exists.

A. If no reasonable evidence is found:

• The Student Wellbeing Team will notify the student and inform them of the right to a panel hearing.

If reasonable evidence is found:

• The investigator will refer the statement, evidence, and decision to the chair of the relevant examination board.

This must be completed within 10 working days.

B. The chair will review the materials and consult with an external examiners present.

Following consultation, the chair will either:

• Implement a change, inform relevant parties, and document the decision, including in their report
• Reject the change in writing, informing the Student Wellbeing Team, who will notify the Academic Board and student, and inform the student of the right to a panel hearing

This must be completed within 10 working days.

Students must request a panel hearing within 10 working days of the decision by writing to the Student Wellbeing Team, including a statement and any evidence of procedural irregularity. The chair of the Academic Board may extend the deadline for exceptional circumstances.

The Chair of the Academic Board must convene a panel within 5 working days. The panel will consist of:

• A senior staff member at Head of Department or above, not involved in the matter (Chair)
• 2 senior academic staff members, not involved in the matter
• A member of the Student Wellbeing Team (Secretary)

The Secretary will notify members and the student, providing at least 5 days' notice. The student may bring a staff member or fellow student. The Secretary will record evidence, keep records, and document decisions.

During the meeting, the panel will review the student's statement, evidence, academic records, and minutes. The student may address the panel. The Board's Chair may submit a written statement. The panel will decide at the meeting or within 3 working days.

A. The panel's decision will be made by simple majority vote and communicated to the student in writing as soon as possible. In case of a tie, the student receives the benefit of the doubt.

• If no reasonable evidence is found:
  • The Secretary will notify the student and advise that the decision is final.
  • Provide information on engaging the Office of the Independent Adjudicator.
• If reasonable evidence is found:
  • Refer the decision to the Chair of the relevant Board.

B. The Chair of the relevant Board will review the statement and evidence, consult with the external examiners, and then:

• If agreeing with the change:
  • Implement the change, inform the student and relevant staff, and document it in minutes and actions, and note it in their reports.
• If rejecting the change:
  • Notify the Student Wellbeing Team in writing. They will inform the Academic Board and the student and advise on the Office of the Independent Adjudicator.

The President may overturn the Chair's decision to reject a change if deemed manifestly unreasonable, at their discretion.

The Student Wellbeing Team must keep students informed of actions taken, collect data on complaints and appeals, and submit regular reports to the Departmental Director, who will report to the Executive Committee and Academic Board.