University of Bedfordshire - Regulations 2009-10

UNIVERSITY OF BEDFORDSHIRE

REGULATIONS 2009-10

Revised, approved and authorised by the Academic Board and the Vice Chancellor September 2009

CONTENTS

1Preamble

2Definitions

3Regulations for taught courses

3.1General regulations for taught courses

3.2Regulations specific to taught undergraduate courses

3.3Regulations specific to taught postgraduate courses

4Regulations for research degrees

5General student regulations

1PREAMBLE

Constitutional matters

1.1The University of Bedfordshire is vested in the University of Bedfordshire Higher Education Corporation, created under the terms of the Further and Higher Education Act of Parliament, 1992. The Higher Education Corporation's members are the University's Board of Governors.

1.2The University of Bedfordshire has been granted degree-awarding powers by the Privy Council. The degree awarding powers have three principal aspects:

• the power to establish academic awards (degrees, diplomas and certificates) and distinctions, and to determine the terms and conditions for granting and conferring such awards and distinctions;

• the power to confer academic awards and distinctions on candidates who have pursued approved courses of study and who have passed such examinations or other assessments as required by the University;

• the power to confer honorary awards on selected persons of distinction.

1.3The University must ensure that the Degrees, Diplomas, Certificates and other academic awards and distinctions granted and conferred by it are comparable in standard with awards granted and conferred throughout the university sector in the United Kingdom; courses approved by the University must be of such an academic standard as to fulfil these requirements. Accordingly, the University subscribes to the UK’s Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA) and pays due regard to the QAA’s Academic Infrastructure in the management of the academic quality and the standards of its awards.

1.4In accordance with its Instrument of Government, the University is required to observe all relevant national legislation and regulations.

1.5The University’s current vision, mission and values statements are set out at

Applicability of the academic regulations

1.6These Regulations apply to students registering for an award of the University of Bedfordshire from September 2008 onwards with the exception of the Foundation Degree in Travel Operations Management; a course delivered by a consortium of Universities and for which the Academic Board has agreed, exceptionally, the regulations of the University of Wolverhampton shall apply. All queries relating to the Regulations should be directed to the Registrar, through the relevant Faculty Manager.

1.7Students should refer to the appropriate course handbook for full details of the learning and assessment structures of their course.

1.8The Regulations are subject to review by the University’s Academic Board. Any changes will normally come into effect at the start of the subsequent academic year.

1.9The Regulations are supported by detailed codes of practice available in the Quality Handbook.

2DEFINITIONS

Organisational framework

Regulations: Regulations denote the governance of the University of Bedfordshire’s academic provision, as approved by the Academic Board. Unless the context indicates otherwise, references to regulations and standing orders are to those currently in force. Regulations may cover matters including admissions, teaching, assessments, research, conditions of study, qualifications for degrees, distinctions and prizes, fees, and ceremonies, the management and use of learning resource centres and libraries, academic dress and discipline.

Standing Order: A standing order is an order made by the University for the purpose of governing its procedure or the procedure of its boards and committees.

Academic Year: The academic year of the University shall run from 1 August to 31 July. For undergraduate students this is based on a term structure as published annually in advance by the University. For postgraduate students dates of attendance are published in course handbooks.

Term: A block of teaching, learning and assessment weeks, normally 10 in number, within the academic year.

Faculty: A defined grouping of cognate academic departments and divisions established by the Academic Board to lead, organise and oversee teaching, research and engagement with external stakeholders.

Faculty Board: A committee accountable to the Academic Board for the standards and quality of the academic provision in the departments and divisions for which it is responsible.

Academic School, Department (or Division): A grouping of academic staff located within a Faculty to deliver teaching, research and advanced professional practice and to oversee fields of study.

Field: A subject-based group of units, located in a department or division and led by a field chair, from which courses are formed.

Collaborative provision: Acourse leading to an award of the University that is delivered in partnership with an external provider on the basis of a contract between the University and the provider.

Associate college: The generic term for external collaborative providers.

Accredited college: An external collaborative provider that has been approved by the Academic Board as an institution which has the characteristics of an academic community. The University’s two accredited institutions during 2007-08 are the British School of Osteopathy and Majan College (University College).

Staff

Vice Chancellor and Chief Executive: The principal academic and chief officer of the University, and chair of the Academic Board.

Registrar: The senior administrative officer of the University responsible for student affairs, including the maintenance of the Register of Students and the Register of Graduates.

Dean: The head of a faculty, who manages the faculty, provides academic leadership to it, and chairs the faculty board.

Faculty Manager: The senior administrative officer of a faculty, responsible for implementing policy and ensuring student support.

Academic staff: Academic staff are the teachers of courses, and include professors, readers, senior lecturers, lecturers, visiting lecturers and research staff on academic conditions of service, whether they are funded by the University or by outside bodies.

Students

Student: A person registered by the University for a course of study or for a degree by research.

Student status
Student status is acquired on registration and terminates in the event of any of the following:
a) receipt of the academic award for which the student is registered
b) the end of the period of study permitted for the course, excluding periods of suspension and including periods of extension, which have been approved by the University
c) the student being required to withdraw from the University, whether for academic or disciplinary reasons, save that he or she will retain student status pending any properly-raised appeal
d) the student otherwise leaving his or her course.

Registration: a binding undertaking by a person to pursue a course at the University and to pay the tuition fees due.

Applicant: a person applying to the University for registration for a course or for a degree by research

Sabbatical office: Any office held by a student and so designated from time to time by the Students' Union and the Vice Chancellor.

Awards

Award: The academic distinction to which a course leads which is conferred on any student who successfully completes such a course. Awards are either Postgraduate or Undergraduate. Examples of awards are Bachelor of Arts with Honours (this is an Undergraduate award) and Master of Science (this is a Postgraduate award).

Academic (named) Award: The name of the degree for which a student is registered. The University will grant an academic award to any student who has fulfilled all the conditions prescribed by regulations.The University may accept a request from any person to resign an academic award or distinction, and may restore an academic award to a person who has been deprived of it or has voluntarily resigned it.

Classification: A means of distinguishing between the differences in achievement by individual students of the intended learning outcomes of a course.

Courses

Course: A prescribed set of units that leads to a named academic award of the University.

Programme of study: An individual student's selection from the units available within a course.

Unit: A discrete component of a course having stated intended learning outcomes, teaching and learning opportunities designed to achieve those outcomes, and assessment tasks and prescribed attendance requirements designed to enable students to demonstrate achievement of the outcomes. Units are allocated academic credit values and have a defined level. The standard unit size is 30 credits, but units may be worth 15 credits or a multiple thereof, or, in the case of units designed for continuing professional development, fractions of 15 credits.

Credit: A numerical value assigned to each unit as a measure of the effort required to fulfil the unit's intended learning outcomes, in accordance with the credit tariff adopted by the University reflecting the national Framework of Higher Education Qualifications. For every single credit, a student is expected to spend 10 notional learning hours in a combination of programmed activities, private study and assessment. Credit is awarded to a student for the achievement of a set of specified intended learning outcomes.

Level: A description of the academic standards and intellectual demands of Units and courses of study. A Unit will be ascribed a level through the validation process.

Level descriptors: A description of the defined standard at whichthe intended learning outcomes of units at a particular level areset, using the QAA’s Framework of Higher Education Qualifications as the external benchmark.

Stage: For undergraduate courses, a sub-division of a courseequivalent to one year of study for a full-time student. Postgraduate courses are divided into two stages: the taught component; and the dissertation. At the end of each stage, each student’s entitlement to progress, or eligibility for an award, is determined by a board of examiners.

Taught element: Any part of a taught course or professional doctorate other than the Honours project or dissertation.

Honours Project: A substantial, sustained and independent piece of work that demonstrates a student’s attainment of the Honours level descriptors.

Dissertation: A substantial, sustained and independent exercise in research or scholarship forming part of the masters course for which a student is registered.

Taught course: A course consisting predominantly of learning through taught units, albeit with an Honours project or a Dissertation as an integral element.

Research degree: A course which consists predominantly of the proposal, development, writing and defence of a research thesis, and which may include specified taught components as an integral element.

Course handbook: The document, provided to students in paper or electronic form, describing significant elements of their course, including syllabi, assessment arrangements, academic staff, and students’ obligations.

Course specification: The description of a course, approved at validation, which forms the University’s record of the curriculum.

Unit specification: The description of the units forming a course.

Validation: The process of peer group review, external to the course team and often including representatives of the wider academic and/or professional communities, leading to the approval, or not, of a course on academic grounds.

PSRBs (Professional, Statutory and Regulatory Bodies): External authorities which accredit the University’s courses on an individual basis, entitling students who successfully complete the courses so accredited to be admitted to membership of a profession.

mode of study: Registration as a full-time student, or as a part-time student

Assessment

Assessment: A generic term for a set of processes that measure the students’ achievement of the intended learning outcomes in terms of knowledge acquired, understanding developed, skills gained and attributes demonstrated. Assessments may include written, aural and oral examinations, essays, class tests, other course work, dissertations and practical activity.

Element of assessment: The points of assessment within a unit that are entered on a student’s record, and which contribute to the unit grade overall.

Component of assessment: the individual assessment tasks which, when aggregated, constitute an element of assessment.

Scripts: The work submitted by students in response to assessment tasks.

University Common Scale: A scale for assigning grades to scripts. The scale defines the range of, and criteria for the award of, grades to be given students’ work, and is designed to ensure consistency and fairness to students across all Units.

Examination: A time-constrained form of assessment sat under controlled conditions, governed by published rubrics about students’ conduct and access to materials.

Assignment: An assessment which is not an examination.

Resit: The means by which a student may attempt to retrieve failure in an element of assessment by examination.

Referral: The means by which a student may attempt to retrieve failure in an element of assessment by assignment.

Retake: The means by which a student, having failed to pass on initial registration for the unit, attempts to retrieve failure byreregistering for a unit and taking again the teaching and learning opportunities, assessment tasks and other prescribed requirements of the unit concerned.

Examiner: an individual appointed by the University to assess the work submitted by students in fulfilment of the intended learning outcomes of their courses. Examiners for taught courses are nominated by field teams and approved by the Faculty Teaching Quality and Standards Committee and Quality Directorate. Examiners for research degrees are appointed by the University Research Committee on the recommendation of the director of studies and the head of the relevant research institute.

Internal examiners: academic staff who set and grade student assessments.

External examiners: staff from the external academic community or from the community of advanced professional practice who are appointed by the University to approve assessment tasks and moderate the grading of students’ scripts. They are members of boards of examiners and contribute to student progression and award decisions.

Boards of examiners: Committees of internal and external examiners, deriving their authority from the Academic Board, responsible for taking decisions about the progression of, and conferment of awards on, individual students. They are chaired by senior members of the academic staff not having a direct subject interest in their area of responsibility.

STAR (Student Attainment Review) Boards: Calendared meetings of internal examiners in a field to monitor students’ progress and to initiate action to support students at risk.

Extenuating circumstances: Claims by students, approved by the University, for exceptional consideration in the submission of assessments on the grounds of unfavourable personal circumstances

CAAS (Corporate Academic Advisory Service): The University's agency responsible for agreeing claims by students for extenuating circumstances.

Research degrees

Research topic: The subject of a student’s research

Project approval: A process, governed through the University Research Committee and the Registry, whereby an applicant’s proposed research topic is determined. An approved topic has a defined duration.

Thesis: A written exposition of the outcome of a student’s research, conforming to scholarly conventions and of an appropriate length, which is submitted to the University for examination.

Candidate: A research student who, having completed his/her thesis to the satisfaction of his/her supervisors, has submitted it to the University for examination.

Collaborating establishment: An institution external to the University which, subject to the University’s approval, provides the student with supervision, facilities and/or other resources that contribute to his/her research.

Research institute: an organisational unit of the University, established by the Academic Board, which provides students with an scholarly environment for their research, and which considers the ethical implications of research.

Published work: work printed or otherwise reproduced and traceable through catalogues or bibliographies and available to the general public through normal channels either at the time of application or in the past.

3REGULATIONS FOR TAUGHT COURSES

3.1General regulations for taught courses

3.1.1Award and credit frameworks

3.1.1.1A list of the awards, approved by the Academic Board, to which taught courses may lead is held at

3.1.1.2The undergraduate academic year for full-time students comprises 120 credits. The postgraduate academic year for full-time students comprises 180 M level credits.

3.1.1.3The academic standards of all awards, and their constituent levels, are benchmarked against the QAA’s Framework of Higher Education Qualifications.

3.1.1.4The following tables summarise the number of credits within the full-time and part-time courses leading to the awards specified:

Undergraduate awards and courses

Postgraduate awards and courses

3.1.1.5Credit-rated short courses lead to awards as follows:

3.1.1.6A Certificate of General Credit may be awarded, in conjunction with a transcript, where individual Units have been taken and passed separately.

3.1.1.7The curricula of courses may include practice-based learning, entailing theory-based learning and assessment interspersed with learning and assessment in practice-based settings.

3.1.1.8In conformity with the QAA’s Qualification Benchmark for Foundation Degrees, the curricula for foundation degrees must include elements of work-based learning, and employers must be involved in their design and monitoring.

3.1.1.9The named award to which a course leads reflects the level, nature and subject focus of the course, is determined at validation, and is included on the award certificate.