Once beginning your studies with us, please read through our PGR Student-Supervisor Responsibilities document with your supervisor, sign it, and keep a copy.
Postgraduate Research Students
Undergraduate and Postgraduate Taught Students
General Expectations
- Students and staff should be respectful to others and act in a professional manner at all times.
- Students should engage with the feedback mechanisms in place to raise any concerns (e.g. via Student Reps, Unitu, Module Feedback etc.).
- Staff across the Faculty will aim to deal with issues that students raise in a timely manner and to feedback on any actions that were taken.
- Staff should make students aware of relevant health and safety regulations and students must adhere to these regulations.
- Attendance at Academic Mentor meetings is compulsory (online or in-person); staff should inform students of the date, time and place of the meeting in a timely manner and students should arrive promptly at the start of the meeting.
Lectures, Active and Practical Classes
- Students shall aim to attend all scheduled classes, and to be on time unless there are reasons completely outside a student’s control. This is especially important for practical sessions and students may be prevented from undertaking the work if they have missed the initial briefing.
- For on-site sessions which are not practicals, if students are late for unavoidable reasons then staff should allow students to enter but students should do so quietly (by a side or back door if possible).
- Staff shall give as much notice as possible of any changes.
- Staff shall upload any material to be put on Canvas at least 24 hours in advance of a scheduled class. In some instances, where it enhances the learning experience not to do so (e.g. formative quizzes), these materials will be posted after the scheduled sessions.
- Students should read through or complete any required preparatory material before the lecture/practical.
- During live classes, students should be quiet so that others can attend to the class and should not undertake other activities (games, social media etc.) which will cause distraction to themselves or others.
- During on-line teaching sessions, students should be professional when using chat or discussion functions and where practical, students are encouraged to turn their cameras on.
- Students and staff should not eat or drink in any on-site classes or computer classes (water in bottles is acceptable), as this can be distracting to others and can pose a safety issue. This is especially important for practical classes.
Office Hours
- The primary method for individual student support for taught modules is via Office Hours. Students should use these as the main way to get help.
- Staff will have a publicised Office Hour each week for module queries and will ensure they are available in their office or online (as appropriate) at that time. These should be within normal teaching hours at a time or times that fit within the timetable of students.
- Office Hours provide an excellent learning opportunity where students can get very significant feedback on their progress in each module, by bringing along questions, difficulties with exercises etc.
- If staff receive module-specific queries (e.g. by email), it is quite acceptable for these to be directed to the Office Hours, but staff should endeavour to provide support to students as expediently as possible.
Communications
- The University email system is the primary mechanism of communication. It is expected that students and staff will use their University email accounts for routine communications.
- Students should get replies from staff members (for example, Academic Mentors, Module Coordinators, Year Coordinators and Instructors) within 3 working-days, ideally sooner.
- Staff do sometimes reply to students at weekends and evenings, but students should not expect this as normal working hours should be respected.
- For module-related queries about lectures and practical classes, students should aim to use the scheduled classes and Office Hours as the main way of getting help. Staff may reply to student emails about module content, but, for large modules, staff may leave communications to other means (Canvas discussion boards for example).
- Students are expected to be aware of module announcements that are made using Canvas.
Assignments
- Staff should give some form of marking guidelines for all assignments, allowing students to know what is needed, but not going so far that it is an instruction guide on how to get the marks.
- Students should try to submit well in advance of the deadline to avoid IT problems. For Canvas / Turnitin submissions, staff should allow more than one submission attempt if this does not affect the assessment method.
- Students should always keep a copy of their Turnitin/Canvas receipt or any screenshots confirming successful submission of coursework. These should be kept until marks are confirmed at the end of the year.
- The Student Information Team should be contacted via studentsupport-scienceengineering@swansea.ac.uk with any coursework submission problems, including a screenshot of any error/failure messages, and an electronic copy of the completed assignment before the assessment deadline wherever possible.
- Staff will give marks and feedback to students within 3-working weeks.
- Students should aim to complete all assignments and examples as directed by their instructors. It is important to complete formative assessments (those that do not count towards the module mark) as these are one of the main means to understand the content of your modules and highlight weaknesses.
Examinations
- Students should have access to some prior exam papers, or a set of ‘typical’ exam questions if the module or content is new.
- Staff are not under any requirement to provide answers to more than one past exam paper; this is known to encourage both “question spotting” and “answer-learning”. Staff will, however, offer advice on exams during scheduled revision sessions.
- Students should use past papers as a guide only, and as a way of assessing their own understanding.
- Students should remember that exams are a general test of understanding of the material, and staff will often use questions that are quite different from previous years, but that can be answered with a good understanding of the module content. Students should therefore prepare for assessments by making sure they understand the module as they go along, rather than learning how to complete exam questions and leaving preparation to the end.
- Staff should provide some support to students prior to the exams, but students should use normal Office Hours for this in most cases and should not expect staff to explain large parts of a module to individual students just before an exam.
- For supplementary exams, students should not expect any further help from staff as all module content will have been covered in term-time. Any assistance received will be at the discretion of staff.