Agreement of Temporary Exceptional Regulatory Amendments

This article details amendments to existing regulations and procedures made by the Academic Board following a meeting on the 27^th March to facilitate the continued operation of UALs academic offer.

The University is committed to supporting students to complete their studies and achieve their full potential during this challenging time. It is envisaged that the Summer term will be severely affected by the Coronavirus which will cause disruption to the planned delivery and assessment of units. It will also impact on student access to the resources needed to complete assessments. During this period the University has allowed the following amendments to be made.

Summary of Amendments

Extenuating Circumstances Procedures

• No evidence will be required for ECs relating to the Coronavirus.

Level 4 Assessment and Progression

• All remaining unit assessment will move to Pass/Fail based on the existing or revised assessment tasks.

Level 5, 6, and 7 Assessment 

• There are no alterations to existing rules. However, changes to course delivery and assessment should adapt to online remote learning. Under these arrangements assessment will be carried out but will be amended where necessary to adapt to online learning. It is permissible to change assessment from elemental to holistic, or the other way around.

Time Out Rules

• No change to the Time Out rules; students may not request a time out from study after the start of the Summer Term and this rule has not changed. 

Approval of Curriculum changes, Delivery and Assessment changes

• Changes to the curriculum can be made including temporary amendments to unit learning outcomes, the way the course is delivered and how the course is assessed if the course learning outcomes will continue to be met.

• The Course learning outcomes cannot be changed.

Incomplete Units

• While full delivery and completion of all units is the current aim, it is possible that some units will not be able to complete fully by the end of the academic year, and it is possible that some students will not be able to complete. Plans to address this will become clearer once the timeline of return to normal on-site learning becomes clearer.

External Scrutiny

• Course external examiners will be kept informed of all changes, and asked to approve changes to unit level outcomes, or assessment, at levels 5, 6 and 7.

Summer Term Extension

• The Summer term has been extended by 4 weeks to allow students to complete their studies. The Summer term will now end on Friday 17^th July and exam boards have to be completed by this date. 

• Course teams can use the extra 4 weeks but do not have to.

All changes to units and assessment, based on these amended regulations, are in the process of being approved by College Quality Committee and students will be written to this week to inform them of the revisions to their teaching and assessment next term.

This information is a summary of the agreements made by the Academic Board on the 27^th March 2020.