Every Faculty/School will appoint an Examinations/Assessment Officer(s), or some other nominated individual, who is responsible for overseeing the management and security of assessment for the Faculty/School/Subject Area, and for reporting into the relevant Boards of Study and Faculty/School Education Committee.
Faculties/Schools must identify the individuals responsible for the accurate computation, recording and checking of assessment decisions, which are normally Module Co-ordinators and Professional Services staff.
The accurate and timely recording of assessment decisions is the responsibility of the Module Co-ordinator and relevant Examinations Officers in the Faculty/School.
Faculties/Schools must have robust and secure systems and processes in place to ensure that assessed work is stored securely, and will be available for review by External Examiners and for submission in the case of suspected Academic Misconduct and/or appeals.
Faculties/Schools must ensure security of assessment at the time of submission (including keeping a record of submission whether by receipt, signature or electronically), during marking and on return of assessments/feedback to students. Assessments and Examination papers must be treated as ‘confidential’ material with regard to security and will be retained in line with the University’s Policy on Records Management.
5.1 Retention of Assessed Work
Assessments must be retained by Faculties/Schools:
• To provide evidence in case of a complaint, appeal or suspected case of unfair practice
• For Quality Assurance and Enhancement purposes
The University must normally retain a copy (normally digital for assessments submitted digitally) of all assessments, including coursework, examination papers and scripts, presentations and digital, audio and or visual submissions which contributes to the final award, along with records of marks, moderation and student feedback, for a minimum period of one year after the student has graduated or ceases to be an enrolled student of the University.
In the case of Postgraduate Taught dissertations, these must be retained for two years following the student’s graduation.
After this period, assessments will be securely destroyed to avoid the build-up of documentation for reasons of data protection and business efficiency.
Assessed material which does not contribute to the final award but is a required part of completion towards the award, e.g. at FHEQ level 3 or 4 for Bachelor or Advanced Initial Degrees (or similar programmes, including MB BCh), must be retained for one year following date of submission to accommodate any requests for the checking of the accuracy of marks, appeals and/or complaints.
Retention of Supervisory records on student progress
All reports on student progress with respect to dissertations or theses (i.e. notes held by supervisors and formal reports submitted to Faculty and University committees for all years of study) must be retained by the Faculty for a period of one year following graduation.
Retention of work for longer periods of time
A Faculty/School is entitled to retain work for a longer period of time for a number of reasons which might include:
• Retaining project work which includes original data and/or analysis.
• Retaining work for longitudinal surveys of trends in student achievement.
• Retaining work to show future students as examples - e.g. of the presentation of a dissertation. (Written consent of students whose work is to be retained for future use should be obtained, and work anonymised prior to being shared).
Retention of work by Turnitin
The service will retain content submitted to it and associated data until the termination of this service or its successor, thus helping to accumulate as large a corpus of knowledge as possible against which to compare submitted content.
Retention of Examination Board decisions
The University retains Examination and Progression and Awards Board minutes and associated paperwork, including Report and Results forms for research students for 10 years (Progression) or 15 years (Awards) for the Progression and Awards Boards. Student marks and progression decisions are held centrally on electronic systems which are also retained indefinitely.
Exemptions
This Policy does not apply to research data / information collected for an ethically approved research project during the course of a research Masters programme (MA/MSc, MPhil, MRes), PhD programme or a staff research project.
5.2 Roles and Responsibilities for Assessment
Staff and Students
Academic staff and students at all levels have a responsibility for contributing to the enhancement of assessment and feedback.
Students
As partners in learning, students must be actively involved in the process of improving and enhancing their experience of assessment and feedback. Students are expected to provide feedback on assessments to their Faculty/School through module evaluation and student surveys, but also take part in discussions both within committee environments and more informal groups.
Students who have not yet disclosed any disabilities, wellbeing or other health issues are encouraged to inform Wellbeing and Disability Services as early as possible. Students will not be able to access formal assessment support from the University if they do not disclose their disability.
Students wishing to undertake assessment in Welsh must notify their Faculty prior to the start of each semester’s teaching, or for first year students, within four weeks of the start of the module.
Student Representatives
Student representatives are elected for programmes and Faculties/Schools. Reps are responsible for raising issues relating to assessment and feedback, on behalf of their peers. This will normally be enabled via Boards of Studies and/or Student-Staff Fora, unless the timing does not allow.
Personal Tutors
Personal Tutors are responsible for tracking their mentees’ assessment performance over time, providing support, advice and mentoring to support the student to improve and succeed.
Personal Tutors are expected to provide face to face feedback to students on their assessment performance, as well as helping students to better understand and use their feedback.
Module Co-ordinators
Module Co-ordinators are responsible for developing and scheduling assessments for their modules and liaising with their Programme Director(s) to ensure the assessment pattern is effective for the Programme overall, and for ensuring that those assessments are appropriate for measuring students’ progress in achieving the set learning outcomes. This makes setting the learning outcomes for the module a crucial element to assessment design. Module Co-ordinators must balance the requirements of this policy in achieving inclusive and varied assessment, and the resources available to them.
Module Co-ordinators are also responsible for ensuring students receive appropriate and effective feedback on their assessments within the defined time frame.
Module Co-ordinators must ensure that they are familiar with the principles of inclusive assessment and supporting students with protected characteristics and attend relevant training sessions where required.
Module Co-ordinators should work collaboratively with colleagues to ensure parity of provision between English and Welsh language provision.
Programme Directors
Programme Directors are responsible for ensuring that assessments across the programme as a whole are authentic, inclusive, diverse and robust. They must ensure that students are exposed to appropriate and relevant formative assessment to enable their development. Programme Directors will also lead the coherent scheduling of assessments across the programme to ensure workload is balanced and there are no ‘pinch points’ or deadline bunching for students.
Faculty/School SAILS Representative(s)
Faculty/School SAILS representatives, in liaison with School Education Leads, will monitor the inclusivity and accessibility of assessment, and work with Module Co-ordinators and Programme Directors to ensure assessment is inclusive.
Boards of Studies
Boards of Studies review the assessment provision annually to ensure it is sufficiently inclusive, varied and balanced for students. Boards of Studies review and approve any new methods of assessment proposed, and ensure that students receive sufficient formative assessment for these new methods. Boards of Studies will also oversee learning, teaching and assessment parity between English and Welsh medium provision. In addition, Boards of Studies will be responsible for monitoring Policy implementation and feedback response times, and reporting these to the Faculty/School Education Committee.
Academic Disability Co-ordinators
Faculty/School Academic Disability Co-ordinators are responsible for providing advice, guidance and support for staff and students within their Faculty/School on inclusive/alternative/adjusted approaches to assessment, and liaising with Inclusive Student Support Services to ensure students receive the support to which they are entitled.
Examination/Assessment Officers
Examination/Assessment Officers are responsible for overseeing the management of examination provision for all the programmes under their remit, and for liaising with the Examinations Office of Swansea University to ensure examinations processes are fair, robust and transparent. Supporting Programme Directors, they are also responsible for ensuring that any reasonable adjustments or alternative forms of assessment required for disabled students are put in place.
Director of Academic Integrity
The Director of Academic Integrity is responsible for overseeing the integrity of the University examinations, establishing and presenting prima facie cases of academic misconduct, at University level, ensuring compliance with relevant regulations and procedures and developing research and evaluation strategies related to the prevention, detection and processing of academic misconduct.
Academic Integrity Officers
Academic Integrity Officers in each Faculty are responsible for progressing and determining all Faculty cases, offering advice to colleagues on regulations, procedures and disseminating information on academic misconduct to staff and students
Faculty/School Education Forum and Faculty Education Committee
Faculty Education Committee and School Education Fora are responsible for implementing and monitoring all aspects of delivering the Assessment and Feedback Policy across their Faculty/School, and for ensuring that assessment is continually enhanced in partnership with students. The Chair of the Faculty/Education Committee will report to the University Education Committee periodically on the effectiveness of Policy implementation and enhancement.
Faculty Executive Dean
The Executive Dean is ultimately responsible for ensuring the University’s Assessment and Feedback Policy is effectively implemented within the Faculty.
University Education Committee
The University Education Committee oversees quality assurance and enhancement, and monitors progress in assuring the quality and standards of and enhancing assessment and feedback at regular intervals across both English and Welsh medium provision, intervening if the expected standard of student experience is at risk.
University Programme Approval Committee (PAC)
The Programme Approval Committee is responsible for reviewing proposals for new programmes, and for approving relevant programmes by Committee where appropriate. As part of the review process, PAC will pay special attention to the assessment and feedback elements of programme proposals to ensure that they meet the requirements outlined in this policy.
University Examinations Office
The Examinations Office (Education Services) is responsible for scheduling examinations for most programmes (aside from some in class tests and assessments in the Faculty of Medicine, Health and Life Science and Franchised provision), and for ensuring students with specific requirements are catered for. The Examinations Office also manages security and integrity of all Examinations under its purview.
Inclusive Student Support Services: Disability Office and Wellbeing Service
The Wellbeing and Disability Service will provide Faculties/Schools with information on support requirements for disabled students, students with health conditions and/or students with mental health issues as soon as possible after enrolment and/or disclosure of the disability/condition to the University. The Wellbeing and Disability Service are not responsible for informing staff how to assess students. Where agreement between Faculties/Schools, Inclusive Student Services and the student(s) concerned on an adjustment cannot be reached, there is an escalation and resolution process to ensure students are appropriately supported.
Academi Hywel Teifi
Academi Hywel Teifi supports Welsh-speaking students and those learning Welsh to engage with their studies through the medium of Welsh. It provides support also to staff who teach through the medium of Welsh or who support students who wish to complete their studies, including assessments, through the medium of Welsh. The Academi can advise Faculties on identifying appropriate external Assessment Advisors as outlined by the ‘Assessment through the medium of Welsh’ guidelines.