Assessments and Awards

Your module/year of study leader sets and publishes assessment deadlines.

It is your responsibility to submit work by the correct deadline, in the correct place and format.

For written assessments, at the scheduled first sitting, the University will accept Late Submissions where the submission is received within five working days of the original deadline (aside from where PSRB requirements preclude this). Late Submissions will be subject to the normal capped mark for reassessment.

Work handed in late without approval through a Deferral, Extension or authorised Late Submission will be marked at zero.

Any referred or deferred assessments must also meet set deadlines – these are normally in August. Your end of year online results transcript includes the resubmission dates for your specific assessments.

You will be expected to adhere to the submission deadlines for all forms of assessment. However, each programme has at least one nominated tutor who has the authority to agree extensions. Details of the nominated tutor for your programme are in the departmental handbook or at your departmental office.

Should you experience difficulties that affect your ability to submit work, it is your responsibility to contact the relevant tutor as soon as possible to discuss your position and possible options.

All policies are guided by the University’s common principles. These include expectations that:

• You will meet all deadlines for submitting coursework, unless there are valid reasons why this is not possible
• You make any extension applications in advance of the assessment’s due deadline, as specified by the department
• All applications for an extension are, wherever possible, accompanied by documentary evidence

We do not grant extensions where the circumstances are due to your own negligence, carelessness or failure to plan appropriately.

Failure to submit an assessment without good reason results in a zero mark.

We offer you one reassessment opportunity if you are unsuccessful in any of your academic modules during the year. Reassessments take place during a specified period – normally in August.

The University has the discretion to offer a second, final, attempt at the module, if your first reassessment is unsuccessful. 

Please note: you will be failed if your second attempt is also unsuccessful.

We cap reassessment marks at 40%.

The nature and timing of reassessment is at the discretion of the relevant assessment board.  Assessment boards can also exercise discretion in light of an individual student’s overall profile and evidence of engagement with studies during the year.

Further details of the nature and timing of your reassessment are available with your end of year results.

At Edge Hill we recognise the great value of student participation in activities that are complementary to academic study. These include sport, volunteering and other extracurricular engagement.

In common with other UK universities and colleges, Edge Hill reserves Wednesday afternoons  as a common period for extracurricular activities. As a result, we try to limit teaching hours on Wednesday afternoons. Exceptions are:

• teaching which absolutely must be held during this block 
• optional modules
• teaching that is also available elsewhere on the timetable

If your extracurricular activity clashes with a scheduled Wednesday afternoon teaching session, we will accommodate you wherever possible.

You must consult your module leader at the earliest opportunity so that they can make appropriate arrangements to accommodate your absence.  If your absence compromises any externally-controlled element of your programme, we will try to ensure you have the opportunity to catch up on any sessions missed.

You should submit a Personal Circumstances application if you are unable to complete an assessment at the scheduled point and this can’t be resolved via your Departmental extension scheme. Please read this guidance document to understand all of the options available to you. An approved Personal Circumstances form will not mean you can progress to the next year of study or be given your final award. Your assessment will be moved to the next assessment point without penalty.

More information on the Award and Progression Regulations are available online.

Please contact the Assessment and Awards teams for information on:

• When your next assessment deadline is
• What impact a Personal Circumstances application would have on your progression or award completion

Arts and Sciences students: [email protected]

Education students: [email protected]

Health, Social Care and Medicine students: [email protected]

In line with OIA guidance, we will accept Personal Circumstances applications for the following circumstances:

• Serious short-term illness or injury
• Worsening of an ongoing illness or disability, including mental health conditions
• Symptoms of an infectious disease that could be harmful if passed on to others
• Death or significant illness of a close family member or friend
• Unexpected caring responsibilities for a family member or dependant
• Significant personal or family crises leading to acute stress
• Witnessing or experiencing a traumatic incident
• A crime which has had a substantial impact on you
• Accommodation crisis such as eviction or your home becoming uninhabitable
• An emergency or crisis that prevents you from attending an exam or accessing an online assessment
• A technical problem that prevents you from accessing online teaching or assessment
• Safeguarding concerns

Circumstances which are not normally classed as exceptional include:

• Holidays, house moves, or events that were planned or could reasonably have been expected
• Minor illness such as common colds or hay fever, unless the symptoms are particularly severe
• Having assessments scheduled close together
• Misreading of an assessment submission deadline or examination timetable
• Poor time management
• Minor transport disruption
• Computer or printer failure where you have failed to back-up your work
• Normal exam stress
• Minor life events, unless these have had a severe impact on you

OIA guidance outlines that supporting evidence can be provided by yourself and other sources. This means you need to include the following information on your Personal Circumstances form.

• A factual statement detailing the reasons for your Personal Circumstances claim. The statement should provide context on how your circumstances have impacted your assessment submission.
• A form of independent supporting evidence including:
  • Doctor’s letter or fit note
  • Statement from a counsellor
  • Hospital appointment letter
  • Crime reference number
  • Eviction notice
  • Bereavement evidence (eg notice of service, obituary, news report, letter from Personal Tutor, family member or friend)
  • Letter from domestic violence services
  • Letter from Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) programme
  • Letter from Edge Hill University mental health adviser
  • Letter from Edge Hill University Disability adviser
  • Letter from Personal Tutor

We understand that in some cases it may not be possible for you to obtain supporting evidence. For example, if you have had a short illness that had a significant impact on your exams or assessment but did not require medical intervention. In these cases, you should provide the details in your factual statement.

If you are being considered under the malpractice regulations for the same assessment that you are intending to submit a Personal Circumstances application for, it is your responsibility to ensure your tutors for the assessment are aware of your mitigating circumstances.  This will allow your tutors to take your mitigating circumstances into account as part of the malpractice investigation.

If you already have an approved Personal Circumstances form but are subsequently considered under malpractice procedures – please note, the outcome of any malpractice investigation supersedes any local activity around the Personal Circumstances form. It is therefore advisable to disclose your circumstances to the investigating tutors who may not be aware of any prior Personal Circumstances application.

Assessment Officers in Academic Registry review all applications.

If your application and supporting evidence relate to the circumstances recommended by the OIA, your application will normally be approved.

If your circumstances do not meet those listed by the OIA or you have no supporting evidence, your application will be referred to a Personal Circumstances panel for a decision.

We will email you to confirm whether your application has been approved or to let you know that your application is being considered by a Personal Circumstances panel.

Personal Circumstances panel

The panel includes

• Senior and Assistant Registrars from the Assessment and Awards team
• The Faculty Assistant Registrar from each of the three faculties
• A representative from Student Services

In addition to making decisions on Personal Circumstances applications, the panel will also decide whether students require additional support. For example, if a student has submitted multiple Personal Circumstances applications in the same academic year.

Decisions on personal circumstances applications will be made available to your Department so that the correct decision can be made at assessment boards and reflected in your results when they are published. All students will have another opportunity to submit a Personal Circumstances application within 10 working days of their results being published.

You can apply for exam modifications at any time during your studies and we consider requests three times per year.  For information on submission deadlines, please contact the Inclusion or SpLD teams.  If your form is received after the deadline, we cannot guarantee your modifications will be in place for the next exam period. This does not affect the modifications put in place for future examinations.

Academic Registry will confirm the venue in advance of each examination. If you have not received written confirmation seven days before the examinations, you must email the examination modifications officer.

Module tutors co-ordinate any in-class tests which take place outside the main examination periods. If you have an agreed examination modification you should contact your module tutor and ensure they are aware of your requirements.

Examinations are defined as formal, timed assessments of any duration that are subject to continuous invigilation.

You must abide by the University’s code of conduct for examinations.

It is your responsibility to ensure you know the time and place of your examinations. Misreading published information is not an acceptable reason for absence at an examination.

Please adhere to the following guidance when attending your exam:

• Arrive at the examination venue in sufficient time. You can only enter the venue up to 30 minutes after the start of the examination.
• You will not have additional time to complete your examination if you are late. 
• We aim to schedule all examinations within standard lecture times for a particular module, however this is not always possible. Consequently, examinations may take place after 5pm or on weekends during examination periods.
• If you are unable to attend an examination due to illness or any other mitigating circumstance, you must contact Academic Registry immediately. If you are ill, you must also consult your doctor immediately and follow the University’s procedures for the notification of personal circumstances.

We expect you to undertake examinations and other formal timed assessments at Edge Hill University (or partner institutions) as appropriate.  In exceptional cases where this is not possible, you may request  to undertake your assessment overseas.

When you have completed your studies, your final award and classification will be confirmed by an end of programme Award Board.

Take a look at the relevant academic regulations for details on how each type of award is classified.

Take a look at the relevant progression regulations for further details.

Should you damage, misplace or have your certification stolen, you can apply for a replacement or duplicate. A fee applies for each document requested and the new certification can be ordered on the University store.

It is important you are aware of the following information before requesting a duplicate certificate:

• If the request is to replace a damaged certificate, the original certificate must be returned with the application form.
• The full circumstances surrounding the request must be outlined in the application. The academic registrar reserves the right to refuse the request.
• A fee of £25 will be applied to all requests. This fee must be paid, in full, prior to the dispatch of the certificate.
• Verifiable photographic evidence, such as a passport or driving licence, must be provided with your application.

Change of name

The name on your certificate will be the name you are formally registered with at the University, including any middle names. Should your name change during the course of your studies it is your responsibility to inform the Academic Registry’s Data Management team, providing the relevant documentation to confirm the change.

Name changes must be reported to the University as soon as possible and by no later than the end of teaching for your final term.

Academic Registry produce all certificates in the name presented to the award board and will not retrospectively amend names following confirmation of an award unless in exceptional circumstances.

Therefore, it is vital that you ensure the name on your student record is accurate at the time your award is confirmed.

Change of address

We post your certification to your home address, as recorded on enrolment. It is your responsibility to make sure Academic Registry has your correct address. If your certification is sent to the wrong address because you did not update your records, you will be charged a fee for a duplicate.

We are pleased to announce the implementation of the Prospects Hedd online verification service for third parties to verify Edge Hill University awards.

Prospects Hedd is managed by Jisc and has been providing a secure verification service for employers, screening agencies, embassies, councils and other institutions for over 11 years. Verification requests through Prospects Hedd can be made to over 125 UK Higher education institutions.

How to register

To make an enquiry you need to register with Prospects Hedd by visiting www.hedd.ac.uk. Select ‘Edge Hill University ’ from the list of UK higher education institutions and choose the option to ‘verify a degree award’. You will be required to upload a hand signed consent form. Please ensure you adhere to the specific consent requirements before submitting your request as this will result in a delay to your request being actioned. If you require a consent form template please contact [email protected]

Submitting an enquiry

You’ll need the individual’s name, date of birth, course and qualification. For graduates you’ll also need their year of graduation and degree result. Dates of attendance will be given alongside the verification response.

To ensure your verification is submitted correctly, and to receive a quick response, we recommend you input the data as per the degree certificate or ask individuals to give you their data as they believe its recorded in the student records system or at the time of study. If the information submitted is an exact match to the information held within the student record, your request will automatically be verified. If the information does not match all fields, then the enquiry will go to the team at Edge Hill University for manual verification, with a current 10 working-day turnaround time.

Help

If you have any problems or queries, please email [email protected]

For specific details about your results dates, get in touch with the Faculty of Sciences assessments team.

For specific details about your results dates, get in touch with the Faculty of Education assessments team.