General Regulation V - Academic Progress

1. All students engaged in full or part-time study (excluding those registered on a Continuation Fee basis) are required to fulfil their academic commitments.

(a) To that end undergraduate and taught postgraduate students shall, as required by the regulations governing the degree or other programme or module for which they are registered:

(i) attend courses of instruction in the University in each of the subjects required to the satisfaction of the Heads of Departments or Schools responsible for those subjects;
(ii) fulfil all academic obligations, including registration and those obligations defined (in the relevant module outline as published in either the Faculty Handbook or Postgraduate Module catalogue as appropriate) as being required to demonstrate academic progress in the modules for which they are registered to a standard satisfactory to the Heads of Departments or Schools responsible for the subjects.

(b) Postgraduate students are required to engage in research and/or advanced study to a standard satisfactory to their supervisory team or Course Director.

(c) A student who, because of illness or other good cause, is unable to fulfil his/her academic commitments may, as a matter of grace, be regarded as having met his/her academic commitments by concession. Normally such a concession will not be granted on more than one occasion in a single academic year, and it will normally be for no more than five weeks. Additionally, concessions for 'grace periods' must specify the alternative summative assessment arrangements which replace any standard summative assessment requirements for any modules which cannot be fulfilled during the 'grace period'. Whenever possible the student will be required to make up the work missed in his or her own time.

(a)   If satisfied that a student appears, after appropriate departmental warnings have been issued, to have failed to fulfil his/her academic commitments as defined in 1 above, the Head of Department or School responsible for the commitment in question shall request the designated officer to formally issue an Academic Progress Notice (APN) letter to the student. The designated officer should normally be the Head of the Faculty or a deputy to the Head of the Faculty. The designated officer must not be a member of the Board of Studies or the Board of School which made the original request for an Academic Progress Notice to be issued, and in the case of a student studying a Combined Honours or Natural Sciences programme the designated officer must not be the member of University staff responsible for the management of the programme. If a Deputy to the Head of the Faculty is unable to serve the Head of Faculty shall appoint an alternative designated officer to act.

(b)   The request shall specify the grounds for requesting that an APN letter be issued and the academic requirements of Boards of Studies or Boards of School which must be satisfied according to a stated timetable within a period of not less than four weeks, or by the end of the remainder of the student’s period of study, if shorter. In the case of undergraduate students the period of four weeks shall be in term time and may extend over two terms, but may not include the pre-examination period of the Easter Term. In the case of postgraduate students the period of four weeks may not extend beyond four weeks prior to the deadline for the submission of the dissertation. The APN letter shall state that unjustified failure to satisfy the specified academic requirements may result in the student being required to withdraw from the University.

(c)   The APN letter shall also specify that prior to the end of the penultimate week of the APN period the student must make any and all relevant information of mitigating circumstances known to the relevant Heads of Departments or Schools (or in the case of students studying a Combined Honours or Natural Sciences programme the Programme Director). The student may also make an appointment to see the designated officer to offer such information to him or her.

(d)   In the case of undergraduate students, copies of the APN letter shall be sent to the Heads of Departments or Schools concerned with that student, to the Director of the degree or other programme when appropriate and to the Senior Tutor of the College of that student. In the case of postgraduate students, copies of the APN letter shall be sent to the Heads of all Departments or Schools concerned, the Supervisor or Course Director, to the Head of the Faculty concerned and to the Senior Tutor of the College concerned (if applicable).

a) At the end of the specified APN period the designated officer shall on the basis of the reports from the Boards of Studies or the Boards of School decide either:

(i) That the student's performance has improved sufficiently to have fulfilled the conditions of the APN.
or
(ii) That the student has not met the conditions of the APN and therefore should be asked to withdraw

In exceptional circumstances, the designated officer may decide to extend the period of the APN for a specified period (normally not more than four weeks). An APN may not normally be extended on more than one occasion before a decision is made as to whether to require the student to withdraw from the University.
This decision should normally be taken within two weeks and normally during term time in the case of an undergraduate student.

(b) A decision to require a student to withdraw must be made not later than the first week of the Easter Term (for undergraduates) and four weeks before the submission date for the dissertation (for postgraduates). After this, the student’s progress will be determined on the basis of the outcomes of his/her examinations and assessed coursework.

(c) The student shall be informed of the decision in writing; with copies sent as in 2(d) above. Where a student is being required to withdraw from the University, the letter shall also give information on appeal procedures.

4. A student may appeal to the relevant Head of the Faculty against a decision of a designated Officer taken under the Regulations for Academic Appeals: see General Regulation VII below