Senate

Subject: Assessment of Students

Origin: Unconfirmed Minutes of the Meeting of Learning and Teaching Committee on 8 November 2007

The Committee considered, on the advice of the Programme Quality Team, amendments to University assessment procedures as described in the AQPH. These related to procedures for double marking and internal moderation, and followed from a review of the revised section of the Code of Practice on the Assessment of Students published by the QAA. There had up to now been no stated requirement within the University for the internal moderation of coursework, and PQT considered it important that this issue was addressed.

The import of the contents of paragraph (x) of the revised procedures was discussed and attention was drawn to the practical difficulties of acting on issues that did not manifest themselves until module marks were brought together in readiness for the programme board, such as where the marks for one module were found to be markedly out of line with the marks for other modules. It was noted that student work marked by probationary staff would be covered by the sampling procedures in preceding paragraphs, and that scripts containing widely fluctuating marks were not out of the ordinary.

The threshold for internal moderation of pieces of coursework other than projects and dissertations in paragraph (ix) was also discussed.

In the light of the discussions, it was RESOLVED to RECOMMEND to Senate that the revised procedures as set out in the agenda paper be approved, subject to

(a) the addition of ‘and borderline cases’ at the end of paragraph (vii), and

(b) the deletion of paragraph (x) in its entirety.

Author – Robert Bowyer

Date – November 2007