18. Setting of assessment

18.1. Any assessments or activities that are required to be undertaken or completed for the award of credit in a unit (i.e. for a unit to be ‘passed’) must be set out in the unit specification.  

18.2. Assessment must take place during or at the end of the teaching block in which the unit is run, except for agreed exceptions (e.g. reassessment or supplementary assessment). 

18.3. Assessment deadlines should be planned such that they do not fall on weekends, public holidays in England or University closure days. The deadline within the day of submission should be between 10.00-16.00 on Monday-Thursday, and 10.00-12.00 on a Friday. 

Written examinations 

Written examinations are timed-constrained assessments that are invigilated. They may be held on campus or online. 

18.4. Examinations are normally set within the University’s assessment periods: 

• at the end of Teaching Block 1 (the ‘winter assessment period’), 

• at the end of Teaching Block 2 (the ‘summer assessment period’) and  

• following the summer exam boards for reassessment and supplementary reassessment examinations (the ‘summer reassessment period’).  

The exact dates for the assessment periods each year are provided in the University’s key dates.  

18.5. Examinations in units that run on a non-standard basis or a shorter period of time (i.e. TB1A and TB2C) may be set outside these assessment periods. Examinations may also be held in-class during term-time. 

18.6. Where there is good academic reason to hold a summative examination outside of the above periods,  the programme director presents a case to the relevant Faculty Associate Pro Vice-Chancellor (Education and Students) or delegate for consideration. 

18.7. Examinations within the non-modular programmes in Medicine, Dentistry and Veterinary Sciences are arranged as closely as possible to what is outlined in 18.4.  

18.8. Examinations have a set start time and duration. Information on starting an examination, permitted items and the submission of answers for in-person and online examinations are provided in the Assessment Conduct Procedure. 

18.9. Students taking unseen written examination under exam conditions are expected to take their scheduled examinations in venues arranged by the University of Bristol. In exceptional cases, however, permission may be sought to take an examination at an approved institution outside of the University of Bristol. Further information is provided in the Assessment Conduct Procedure. 

Timed assessments 

Timed assessments are online assessments that need to be completed and submitted within a specified period of time. 

18.10. Timed assessments should be submitted within a period of three days (four days for students with alternative exam arrangements). 

18.11. They are released on a specific date and time, and normally accessed via Blackboard. Students are given guidance as to the amount of time to spend completing the assessment and may choose when to complete the assessment within the given time period for submission.  

18.12. An extension to the deadline for submission is not available and a late submission is not accepted in timed assessments. Students may not self-certify absence from a timed assessment but may present exceptional circumstances. 

18.13. Information on starting and the submission of a timed assessment, as well as student conduct during the assessment is provided in the Assessment Conduct Procedure. 

Coursework and similar forms of written summative assessment 

Coursework is a written summative assessment such as an essay, assignment, creative writing or other task that is completed outside timetabled classes in the students' own time, normally within a longer timeframe. 

18.14. Students should be provided with a clear timetable at the start of the unit (or year of study for a programme, if appropriate) as to when coursework will be set, when it should be submitted and when they will receive feedback on it.  

18.15. Students should be given a reasonable amount of time for planning, writing and reviewing their work before the submission date, relative to the learning on the unit and their overall workload for the programme. Within this, coursework should be set at the commencement of the unit, unless there is good academic reason otherwise. 

18.16. Coursework will have a stated date and time by which it should be submitted. The submission deadline can be any time during the running of a unit.  

18.17. Information on the submission of coursework, as well as student conduct during the assessment is provided in the Assessment Conduct Procedure. 

Oral examinations of individual students (‘vivas’) 

Oral examinations might include individual or group conversations, discussions, debates, presentations, poster presentations, and contributions to seminars and spoken language assessments. 

18.18. Oral examinations should only be used to test an intended learning outcome in a unit. An oral examination is not permitted as a means of moderating a student’s final result or degree classification. 

18.19. Two examiners should be present during oral examinations. If this is not possible then the event is recorded. 

Pass/fail assessments 

18.20. A unit may contain summative assessments with both pass/fail and graded marking schemes, in which case the pass/fail assessment must be passed for the award of credit for the unit. A mark for the unit will be generated on the basis of the graded assessments. 

18.21. If the assessment within a unit is solely marked on the pass/fail marking scheme, the unit will not contribute to the year or programme mark. Units with assessments that are solely pass/fail are not permitted in the final year of a modular undergraduate programme. 

18.22. Programmes should be mindful of the cumulative impact of units that are solely marked on the pass/fail marking scheme (i.e. where a unit mark is not generated) in a year of study/taught component given their impact on the weighting of other units for calculating the year / taught component mark and programme mark for both progression and classification purposes. 

18.23. Summative assessments that are pass/fail should have more than one opportunity for students to pass the assessment in-unit. 

Group assessments 

18.24. In respect of group assessment, it is desirable to award both a group and individual mark, to ensure individuals’ contributions to the task are acknowledged. The weighting of the group and individual mark and how the marks are combined should be set out in the unit specification. 

Other activities for the award of credit in a unit 

A unit may require a student to complete specific activities to be awarded credit. These activities link to the unit’s intended learning outcomes.  

18.25. These activities may constitute:  

• a binary measure of learning, such as demonstrating a specific competence or skill  

• a requirement to engage in collaborative learning, which credit depends upon the student’s contribution;  

• a task that must be completed or reasonably attempted* to show engagement with the learning. 

*In this context, ‘reasonably attempted’ means that the student has made a genuine effort to complete the activity in the academic judgement of the relevant Unit Director, or nominee, and confirmation by the relevant exam board.  

18.26. Students are required to undertake or complete the activity by a specified date within the unit. Where the student has not completed the activity by this date, they will be given the opportunity to do so before the relevant exam board at which their progression or award is due to be considered.  

18.27. A student who does not satisfactorily undertake or complete the activity before the relevant exam board at which their progression or award is considered, will be deemed to have failed the unit and required to undertake reassessment, where eligible.  

18.28. A unit mark is not capped if a student completes the activity by reassessment. 

Dissertations in taught postgraduate programmes 

18.29. The deadline for submitting the final assessment within a dissertation (or equivalent project) unit is the end of week 51 of the academic year.  The Faculty Associate Pro Vice-Chancellor (Education and Students) or delegate  may agree to alter this deadline date for programmes that are studied part-time or Masters programmes with an approved non-standard start/end date, in which case the relevant school will inform the student of the submission procedure and deadline.  

18.30. The dissertation must be a student’s own work. A student may not include in any dissertation (or equivalent), material previously submitted and approved for an award of a degree at this or any other university. A student must have gained ethical approval prior to undertaking their research, where applicable.  

18.31. Schools will set the maximum word length for the dissertation of between 10,000–15,000 words, except for a dissertation based on laboratory work which will have a maximum word count of between 6,000–10,000 words.  References and lists of contents pages may be additional to the word limit, as can appendices if allowed (although these should be reasonable in length).  

18.32. A school may set a maximum word count that is different from 18.12, where: 

• it enables students to meet the learning outcomes for the programme and demonstrate the characteristics of a Master’s graduate (ref QAA Characteristics Statement)  

• consistent with the student input and workload for a 60 credit point unit 

• students are supported to write in a way that is consistent with the maximum word count 

• it meets any PSRB requirements and the relevant QAA subject benchmark statement. 

Any proposed different word count must be approved by the relevant Faculty Associate Pro Vice-Chancellor (Education and Students) or delegate and the exact requirements specified in the relevant unit specification for the dissertation and communicated to students. 

18.33. Students will submit their dissertation in the provided format. Schools will provide students with information to enable them to prepare and submit the dissertation in the correct format and advise them of any specific requirements. 

18.34. If the school mandates the use of Turnitin for submissions, the student or supervisor may initiate a request for an exemption from the Turnitin requirement. The supervisor is responsible for submitting all requests to the relevant Faculty Associate Pro Vice-Chancellor (Education and Students) or delegate. If the request is approved, the dissertation supervisor will undertake a manual check on the dissertation in relation to academic integrity and plagiarism and will inform the school when the check has been completed.