Regulations

The University’s governance webpages are the definitive source of regulations for the University. Our Regulations set out the University’s rules or standards across a range of academic requirements. The most useful for your role include:

The Regulations Governing Progression, Determination and Classification of Results: Undergraduate and Integrated Masters Programmes define the criteria for progression and Award, the classification of undergraduate and integrate masters taught Awards and the criteria for allowing student to refer or repeat their studies.  The University has harmonised Regulations, used by the Board of Examiners to make consistent decisions.   In a few instances, certain programmes have exemptions and variations from these Regulations.  If this is the case, the Programme Team will provide you with and overview of these, but you can also find details on these webpages: https://www.southampton.ac.uk/about/governance/regulations-policies/taught-students

The Regulations Governing Progression, Determination and Classification of Results: Postgraduate Master’s Programmes define the criteria for progression and Award, the classification of postgraduate taught Awards and the criteria for allowing student to refer or repeat their studies.  Again, these Regulations are harmonised with expected use by all programmes, however, some may have exemptions and variations from these Regulations and they can also be located via the link above.

The Regulations and Definitions Applying to Progression for all Credit Bearing Programmes provide a useful set of definitions, for terms used in the two sets of Regulations listed above and elsewhere across Policy and Procedure of the University.

The Regulations Governing Special Consideration (including Deadline Extension Requests) for all Taught Programmes and Taught Assessed Components of Research Degrees define the principles and procedure to be followed when students apply for Special Consideration, including requests for deadline extensions.

Assessment Policies and Procedures relating to assessment

The University Assessment Framework contains all the policies and procedures that cover assessment in taught programmes.  They are located in the Quality Handbook.

The most relevant for your role include:

Information for Students on Assessment – defines the expectations on how academic colleagues provide assessment information to students.

Anonymous Marking Policy – defines the University expectations on when marking should be undertaken anonymously, and circumstances where is not appropriate to require it.  In May 2023, the Academic Quality and Standards Subcommittee confirmed that all Boards of Examiners will take place anonymously, and all programmes are expected to adhere to this requirement.

Assessment Feedback to Students – suggests ways to managing student expectations relating to feedback on assessments and defines principles for effective feedback including its adequacy and timeliness. It also confirms the importance of giving feedback aligned to the assessment criteria.

Double-Blind Marking and Moderation Policy – defines the expectations for the marking of summative assessments for taught programmes. It describes the criteria that necessitates double-blind marking to take place, and when double marking is permissible.  It also defines the process that all programmes must follow.  Later in the Policy, the process of Moderation is defined as well as the need to provide evidence of such to external examiners.

Proof-reading of Examination Papers – defines the expectation that Schools must have in place procedures to ensure that all examination papers are checked.  It also describes that you should expect to receive such papers, as well as previous years’ papers to enable comparison.

Scaling Policy – describes the University’s expectations, and confirms that it should be an exceptional process, taking place after moderation is completed. It details the triggers that may cause scaling to be considered.

Translation of Marks Policy – describes the University expectations to manage the award of marks/credit to outgoing study abroad and exchange students at both undergraduate and postgraduate taught levels

Board of Examiners

The Policy and Procedures for Boards of Examiners for Taught Programmes – Membership, Responsibilities and Operation – sets out the University’s policy on the membership, responsibilities and operation of Boards of Examiners for taught programmes.  The role of the external examiner at the Board is also detailed in this document.  Each School is responsible ensuring that there are Boards of Examiners which are appropriately constituted and which ensures the annual consideration and confirmation of module and year results contributing to all taught programmes of study. 

As an external examiner, you are a member of the Board of Examiners.  You should expect to be notified of the dates of the Boards in good time.  You may choose whether the attend a Board physically or virtually but we ask that you arrange this with the Chair and the Examinations Officer.  If you cannot attend the Board, this Policy describes additional requirements to ensure that you are still able to be involved in verifying marking standards and confirming progression and award decisions.

Our standard agenda includes the opportunity for you to “confirm that they are satisfied with the conduct of the assessment process” and this confirmation will be recorded explicitly in the minutes.  You are not required to confirm agreement with every individual assessment decision.

Assessment Principles – set out the key aspects of assessment practice that should be reflected in all assessment practice and procedure. They help explain why we have assessment and guides the University’s approach to assessment matters.

Assessment Descriptors – are statements of generic characteristics for the range of classifications of University Honours awards. Some Schools have customised these ‘generic characteristics’ to be more appropriate to their discipline(s), or to be more useful to students on what they need to demonstrate or achieve to obtain a particular mark.