Senate

Title: Proposals for a New Structure for Academic Regulations

Origin: Director of Registry Services

A Background

Back in 2002, discussions took place at the Programme Development and Quality Team concerning a possible major restructuring of the regulations and codes of practice for taught students to improve clarity and ease of use whilst removing duplication. Faculty Boards were consulted in the summer term 2002 concerning a number of specific proposals for change (noted below) and LTC agreed that the Regulations should be redrafted in line with these taking account of the comments received from the Faculty Boards. The Registry had hoped to bring forward proposals for a full restructuring of the regulations during 2003 for implementation in 2003/04 but pressure of work and the sheer magnitude of the task prevented this. Since then, further pressures on the staff involved, subsequent developments and further reflection on the complexity of GRUA/ARUA and GRMPA/ARMPA, particularly in relation to reassessment rights, mean we are still not in a position to provide a full set of revised regulations as originally envisaged.

However, significant progress has been made and we hope Faculty Boards, Learning and Teaching Committee and Senate will now consider a staged approach to the revision of the regulations. This will lead to some remaining duplication during the next year or two but seems the only realistic way of managing the process.

This paper summarises the key proposals and highlights major changes to the meaning of the regulations.

The proposals have been given general approval by the Programme Development and Quality Team and some of the specific items have been seen previously by Faculty Boards and Learning & Teaching Committee. Comments are now invited but it is hoped that the revisions can be approved this term for implementation in 2004/05.

B Proposed Structure for Regulations

1. General and Assessment Regulations for Awards

At this stage, it is proposed to retain GRIS/ARIS, GRUA/ARUA and GRMPA/ARMPA in largely their present forms but with the following significant amendments:

(a) Remove Academic Misconduct provisions from ARIS/ARUA/ARMPA – these are identical and are easily converted to a separate new regulation (Proposed Reg XVIII).

(b) Remove details of impaired performance procedures from GRIS/GRUA/GRMPA and from ARIS/ARUA/ARMPA and consolidate in single new regulation (Proposed Reg XVII) reflecting the outcome of the recent working party. Suitable cross references to the impaired performance regulation are inserted so the revised versions of GRUA etc. so these continue to make sense.

(c) Learning and Teaching Committee has agreed provisions for undergraduate programme board discretion with the agreement of the external programme assessor. The arrangements are incorporated into ARUA (paragraph 9) and GRUA is amended to require a minimum of 20% in all modules as agreed at PDQ on 1 March. The discretion powers will be available to undergraduate programme boards from 2004/05 whilst the 20% minimum will be applicable for students commencing Part A in 2004/05 or joining a cohort which commenced Part A in 2004/05. Further consideration will be given to discretion for postgraduate boards during 2004/05.

(d) Incorporate previously agreed changes (Faculty Boards and LTC in summer term 2002, e.g. capping of postgraduate module marks (for practical reasons to apply to all new module registrations from the 2004/05 onwards), removal of the word “Loughborough” from the titles of the PG Diploma and Certificate awards.

(e) Delete paragraphs and add references to new regulations where appropriate.

C Other Revised and New Regulations

Major revisions to Regulation VII which is currently entitled Regulations for University Examinations to become Conduct of Examinations and Assessment. The aim is to bring all rules relating to assessment processes for taught students together in one place by incorporating:

Key provisions of the coursework code of practice
Programme Development and Quality Team rules for off-site examinations
The regulations for the conduct of viva voce examinations (from GRUA/ARUA and the viva voce code of practice). Some duplication will remain pending further work and it is proposed to review the duplication with Codes of Practice etc. during 2004/05.

NB Changes are to wording and organisation of text only, not to the meaning.

Major revisions to Regulation IX currently entitled Transfer between Programmes to become Regulation on Registration, Attendance, Leave of Absence, Withdrawal, Transfer. The changes include the following:

Incorporation of GRUA/GRMPA paragraphs relating to registration, leave of absence etc. with no change of meaning
Clarification that only Loughborough credit counts towards degree class where a student has transferred from another institution (PDQ recommendation)
Incorporation of custom and practice, e.g. with respect to effective date of transfer to a new programme, effective date of withdrawal from the University, withdrawal from modules
Provisions to allow registration and credit accumulation by module at postgraduate level as previously agreed (LTC, 2001)
Inclusion of PDQ and Senate agreed policies concerning attendance requirements – it is proposed that further work be done next year on procedures to allow termination of studies for failure to attend

Again some duplication may be generated but this will be reviewed next year.

New Regulation XVI Tuition Fees and Payments for Other University Services

The majority of this is new except for a few paragraphs taken from the existing General Regulations. There is no change to the definitions of the obligations which must be discharged before progression or eligibility for an award. The wording sets out:

That fees are fundamentally the responsibility of the student
The dates applicable in relation to payment of fees when a student withdraws early, takes leave of absence, transfers programme etc.
Powers to permit suspension of students who have not paid all tuition fees by the end of week 11 of Semester 2. Such students will have their studies terminated if they have not paid or agreed an instalment plan by 31 July. This provision is largely intended as a threat and is not expected to be applied to many individuals. It will not be applied where the debt is small but progression to the following year would not be permitted as now. Extenuating circumstances will be considered and the student has a right of appeal to the Registrar. The powers are requested to increase the leverage of the Finance Office in dealing with significant debts accumulated by a small number of international students.

New Regulation XVII Impaired Performance and Project Extensions

As noted above, this incorporates relevant provisions of the General and Assessment Regulations for each type of award plus the outcome of the recent working party to establish Impaired Performance panels etc. to make recommendations to Programme Boards.

New Regulation XVIII Academic Misconduct

As noted above, the paragraphs are identical to those currently repeated in ARIS, ARUA and ARMPA. An initial sentence has been added to make clear that the provisions apply only to taught students.

New Ordinance XXXIX Ownership and Commercial Exploitation of Intellectual Property – at the request of the Intellectual Property Office (IPO) to bring our policy for students into line with typical practice in the sector. Whilst arrangements vary, the IPO advises that the commonest pattern (where there is no over-riding external contract etc.) is for intellectual property generated by research students to be owned by the University and that generated by taught students to be owned by the student. Our current regulations provide for all student-generated intellectual property to be owned by the University.

The proposed draft Ordinance aims to briefly summarise the position in one place for staff and students and to provide a route of appeal should a dispute arise between a Department and taught student over ownership. If the student remained dissatisfied with the decision of the appeals Committee he/she would have the right to refer the matter to the Office of the Independent Adjudicator who, pending further legislation, will advise the Visitor on the fairness of the decision. Whilst it is somewhat unusual to link research students to Conditions of Service for staff, they are currently treated in the same way by the IPO and so this wording seems the most economical.

If the proposals are approved, the following should be deleted.

GRUA : Paragraph 37

GRMPA: Paragraph 26

Regulations for Higher Degrees by Research: paragraph16

Comments have been received from Personnel and the Intellectual Property Office and incorporated into the current draft. The proposals were approved by the Research Committee at its meeting on Thursday 20 May 2004.

Senate

Subject: Revised Academic Regulations

Origin: Unconfirmed Minutes of Learning and Teaching Committee on 3 June 2004

The Committee considered proposals for the restructuring and revision of academic regulations. It was noted that the changes had been considered in detail by Ordinances and Regulations Committee on 28 May 2004. Whilst recommending the proposals to Senate, O&R Committee had made a number of minor amendments. The Committee had also asked LTC specifically to consider whether it was desirable to include the statement ‘the candidate has otherwise a good pattern of marks’ in ARUA (new para 9(iii)) as one of the conditions for condoning a failed mark.

The Committee RECOMMENDED to Senate that the statement be deleted.

It was RESOLVED to inform Senate that the Committee ENDORSED the restructuring and revision of regulations proposed.

It was noted however that there remained some concerns about the equity of the reassessment regulations and it was suggested that in the course of 2004/05 there should be a further debate on the proposition that students who were reassessed should carry forward only their original mark.

Author: R A Bowyer

Date: June 2004