This table provides the full detail of all changes to the University's suite of General and Academic Regulations, Policies and Guidance for 2023/24:
The following amendments have been made to strengthen the messaging around academic integrity, particularly in relation to the use of artificial intelligence (AI) by students in assessment:
- The statement on Academic Integrity has been updated to specify that students must acknowledge the use of contributions by AI tools in their work.
- The definition of plagiarism has been broadened to include presenting work generated by AI tools as one's own without proper acknowledgement.
- A statement has been added to indicate that the University will not accept a lack of understanding regarding the need to acknowledge the work of others and/or content generated by AI tools as a legitimate defence for academic misconduct.
- In recognition of understanding how academic integrity has been breached, students who admit to academic misconduct before a formal hearing will receive a reduced penalty.
- A new penalty, Penalty A, has been established for students admitting to a first offence of plagiarism.
For students starting their courses at Level 3 or Level 4 in 2023-2024, we will not round up or down your final classification calculation mark which is used to determine the classification of your award. This means that if your final mark is 59.65, it will remain as 59.65 and will not be rounded up to 60.00. The borderline zone has been extended from 1% of the classification boundary to 1.5% of the classification boundary. For more information on the borderline zone regulations see AR2 Undergraduate Regulations, AR3 Postgraduate Regulations or AR10 Degree Apprenticeship Regulations for 2023/24.
For all other students, the Undergraduate, Postgraduate or Degree Apprenticeship Regulations for the academic year you first enrolled on your course will explain the rounding and borderline zone regulations that we will apply when working out your award classification. For example, if you first enrolled on an undergraduate degree in 2021/22, you can refer to the undergraduate regulations for that year to learn more about the award regulations that will apply to you.
Direct entrants to higher levels in 2023/2024 will fall under the same regulations as the rest of their cohort.
New regulation formalising the academic criteria for progression to a professional placement:
‘To progress to the professional placement stage of a course, a student must have successfully achieved at least 90 taught module credits in the preceding academic year. This is known as "trailing credit". Where progression with 90 credits is not permitted, for example due to an approved variant to the Regulations, this will be stated in the programme specification.'
New regulations confirming the reassessment principles for professional placement modules:
Para 65. ‘Following failure at the first attempt, students may be permitted a reassessment by retake in the professional placement module, reassessment by repeat or replace is not permitted.'
Para 66. ‘Failure of the professional placement module at second attempt will normally result in students being assessed for a non-placement award.'
