Archived details of policy updates

2021

Updated Guidance for Obtaining Consent for Recording Student Participation in Teaching Activities: The original ‘Guidance for Recording Student Participation’ has recently been updated slightly to clarify the details for obtaining consent from students for recording their participation in teaching activities, and to tie it in more closely with the recently updated Policy on Recording Lectures and other Teaching and Learning Activities (December 2021).
Student Guidance on Plagiarism and other forms of Academic Malpractice has been revised slightly in order to tie up the definitions of types of academic malpractice with those found in the University’s Academic Malpractice Procedure (December 2021).
Updated Procedure for Student Self-Certification of Absence from Learning for 2021/22, including clarification that students are expected to submit their self-certification form as soon as possible, but normally within two working days of the end of their period of absence; Schools should monitor the number of self-certification forms a student submits and should contact the student to speak to check if there are any support needs if they submit multiple requests; if international students are absent from study for 10 days without the knowledge or permission of the University, the institution is legally required to inform the Home Office (UKVI), which could result in the student’s visa being rescinded (December 2021).
Updated Guidance on Mitigating Circumstances related to IT Issues including the following: clarifying the support available for low income students who do not have access to Wi-Fi facilities or if their IT equipment breaks, etc.; a link to the new ‘help with exam and assessment issues’ support web page;clarification that, if a student has continuous or multiple IT issues (e.g. regular disruption of their internet provision), they should contact their School at the earliest convenience to discuss;confirmation that a screenshot or photograph of any error message is preferable to a video of IT issues students are facing (December 2021).
The Basic Guide to Mitigating Circumstances has been updated to reflect the arrangements put in place for the 2021/22 academic year (e.g. removal of references to the Assessment Pledge, which has now been replaced by the Assessment Commitments) and more information for students on possible outcomes from a request for mitigation (December 2021).
Updates to the Regulation, Policy and Guidelines for Monitoring the Attendance, Engagement and Wellbeing of Students to refer to the new engagement monitoring project/digital system for recording and reporting on attendance, as well as to amend any out of date information in the documentation and to strengthen the wellbeing element of attendance monitoring procedures (December 2021).
Assessment commitments 2021-22: the University has agreed additional assessment measures for all students this year to account for any ongoing effects of the pandemic, to cover the 2021-22 academic year (October 2021).
The Policy on Recording of Lectures and other Teaching and Learning Activities has been updated (September 2021).
The Guidance for Cross-School/Faculty programmes, including Joint Honours has undergone a small number of revisions to bring it up to date and provide clarity (September 2021).
The Guidance for Assessed Student Group Working has been refreshed to take into account updated definitions and details about collusion, as well as bringing some other points up to date (September 2021).
A new Policy for Placement Learning and an accompanying Guidance for Staff on Placement Learning have recently been published. These replace the original Principles and Procedures for Student Placements on Taught Programmes (August 2021).
A new Glossary of Teaching Activities and related concepts has been developed (August 2021).
Updates to the Summary Disciplinary Panel (SDP) and University Disciplinary Panel (UDP) Procedures, and guidance on applying penalties (owned by the Division of Campus Life, June 2021)
The Academic Malpractice Procedure (owned by the Division of Campus Life) has recently been revised (May 2021)
Student Recruitment, Selection and Admissions Policy has been updated (May 2021)
Guidance on Examination Boards (COVID-19) has been updated to cover the period from April 2021 to the end of 2020/21 (April 2021)
Nomination form for External Examiners - has been updated to include a small number of new fields for collection of information (April 2021)
Updates to Interim Programme Amendment form - to include a new signature box for UMW programmes or units; prompt to check that all necessary resources are in place (March 2021); more information on resources, including a new appendix, have been added, for those programme amendments that require it (April 2021)
Annual report to Senate regarding student appeals, complaints and discipline - the report for 2019/20 has been published (March 2021)
Guidance for staff on Mitigating Circumstances, Self-Certification of Absence and Automatic Extensions relating to Covid-19 (Coronavirus), 2020/21 - updated to clarify details of the Assessment Pledge (February/March 2021)
New Assessment Pledge put in place to support students taking the impact of the pandemic on their performance into account (January 2021)
Policy on Feedback to Undergraduate and Postgraduate Taught Students: updates in relation to providing access to students to the feedback they received on their exam scripts/online exams (January 2021)
Safety Guidance for undertaking off campus activities (fieldwork) during Covid-19 (January 2021)

2020

Arrangements for Mitigating Circumstances for the remainder of the 2020/21 academic year: updated arrangements have been provided at http://documents.manchester.ac.uk/display.aspx?DocID=48724 (December 2020)
Procedure for protecting the interests of students and Postgraduate Researchers (PGRs) during ‘Exceptional Events’: The existing ‘Procedures for Protecting the Interests of Students in the Event of Strike Action and/or Action Short of a Strike’ has been expanded and renamed as ‘Procedures for Protecting the Interests of Students and Postgraduate Researchers (PGRs) during ‘Exceptional Events’ (December 2020)
The Student Protection Plan has recently been revised and approved. Student Protection Plans are a requirement on HEIs from the Office for Students and contain an assessment of risks to continuation of study for students, including measures to mitigate risks and links to refund policy. The recent revisions include updates relating to dates and statistics, web links, and providing more detail. The updated Student Protection Plan can be found at: http://documents.manchester.ac.uk/display.aspx?DocID=37878. (December 2020)
Degree outcomes statement webpage: The UK Standing Committee for Quality Assessment recommends that every higher education provider across England should publish a Degree Outcomes Statement analysing their degree classification profile and providing the results of an internal institutional review of their arrangements for teaching, learning and assessment of students, academic regulations, and academic governance. The Degree Outcomes statement has now been set up on the website. (December 2020)
Minor updates to the Undergraduate and Postgraduate Degree Regulations: A new set of Procedures for the Award of Posthumous and Aegrotat Undergraduate and Postgraduate Taught Degrees have recently been introduced, which replace information about posthumous and aegrotat degrees that are contained within the Undergraduate and Postgraduate Taught Degree Regulations. The Degree Regulations have therefore been updated to reflect the new procedures. (December 2020)
Guidance on late submission (to accompany the Policy on Submission of Work for Summative Assessment); a minor update has been made to paragraph 5. (December 2020)
Updated Regulation XVII (Conduct and Discipline of Students), managed by the Division of Campus Life; a new addendum has been introduced in relation to Covid-19 and Student Conduct Academic Year 2020/2021 (November 2020)
Updated Guidance on External Examiner Procedures (November 2020)
New Academic Malpractice flowchart for staff detailing what to do if student academic malpractice is suspected (November 2020)
New Guidance on Recording Student Participation (November 2020)
Slight update to the Guidance to Students on Plagiarism and other forms of Academic Malpractice to include a new reference to contract cheating (October 2020)
Updated guidance on Mitigating Circumstances and Self-Certification of Absence, Semester 1, 2020/21: Updates have been made to the Additional policy guidance in response to the Coronavirus outbreak webpage (October 2020)
New Procedures for the Award of Posthumous and Aegrotat Undergraduate and Postgraduate Taught Degrees (October 2020)
Updates to programme amendment processes in response to OfS Guidance Consumer Rights and COVID-19: We have recently strengthened current programme amendment processes in response to the publication released by the Office for Students (OfS) on 10 June to provide guidance to providers on student and applicant consumer rights in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic (June 2020)
Updates/additional guidance relating to the Coronavirus outbreak, including mitigating circumstances, self-certification of sickness and guidance for Exam Boards (April/May 2020)
External Examiners – interim changes to operational processes during the Coronavirus outbreak (May 2020)
Updates to programme approval, amendment and withdrawal procedures during the Coronavirus outbreak (May 2020)
Updated Undergraduate Degree Regulations, Postgraduate Taught Degree Regulations, and Guide to the Taught Degree Regulations. An executive summary is provided to show details of the updates to the documents. (February 2020)
New Glossary of terms relating to Fitness to Practise, student complaints and academic appeals - a new brief glossary of terms has been produced setting out the definitions of key words used in relation to Fitness to Practice, student complaints and academic appeals procedures. (January 2020)
Available Support – factsheet for students who are accessing the University’s appeals, complaints or misconduct processes. Both this document and the one above are also linked to from the main Academic Appeals, Complaints and Misconduct webpage (https://www.staffnet.manchester.ac.uk/tlso/academic-appeals-complaints-and-misconduct/). (January 2020)

2019

Guidance for the Continuous Monitoring of the Undergraduate and Postgraduate Taught Student Experience and the Annual Review of Teaching and Learning - the PDF document of the guidance has been updated to reflect the change in title from the TLSO to TLSD, and change from PSS to PS staff, etc. (October 2019)
Principles and Guidance for the Application of the Accreditation of Prior Learning (AP(E)L) - an update has been made to the above document to amend the figure for the maximum number of credits which can be awarded under AP(E)L for the Postgraduate Certificate, relating to the move to 20 credit units for UMW courses (October 2019)
Updated full Assessment Framework, to reflect recent updates to some of the policies contained within the Framework (September 2019)
Updated Policy on Religious Observance (July 2019)
Updated Policy on Interruptions and associated Guidance for staff and students (July 2019)
Student Protection Plan - Policy on Refunds and Compensation. The Policy was developed as a result of the Office for Students (OfS) requirements to have such a policy, to sit alongside the Student Protection Plan which can be found at:
http://documents.manchester.ac.uk/DocuInfo.aspx?DocID=37878
The new Policy on Refunds and Compensation is to be implemented immediately, and can be found at:
http://documents.manchester.ac.uk/display.aspx?DocID=42808 (June 2019)
The Basic Guide to Mitigating Circumstances (http://documents.manchester.ac.uk/display.aspx?DocID=23886) has been updated so that it is now an easy to follow one page ‘factsheet’ and its style is consistent with the other Basic Guides (on Academic Appeals and Complaints). (April 2019)
The Policy on Additional Costs has been updated, with the revised version to be implemented from now on (April 2019)
The Policy on Submission of Work for Summative Assessment and associated Guidance on Late Submission have been updated, with implementation of the revised versions due from September 2019. These will be uploaded to the Documents system in time for September 2019, to replace the current documents. In the meantime, the revised documents can be viewed on the Consultations webpage. (April 2019)
The Procedure for Protecting the Interests of Students in the Event of Industrial Action and/ or Action Short of a Strike has been updated as a result of a review of good practice from OIA summaries of national complaints, arising from industrial action. (April 2019)
Updates to Regulation XVIII (Student Complaints Procedure) (February 2019) - The Procedure has been amended to accommodate changes to the Policy on Dignity at Work and Study, which were approved by HR Sub Committee in October 2018. These amends withdrew the Dignity at Work Procedure (for Students) and recommended that student complaints, under the Policy on Dignity at Work and Study were dealt with via Regulation XVIII. See Student Complaints Procedure for the updated version.
Minor updates to the Request for Mitigation form (January 2019) - see Policy on Mitigating Circumstances page

2018

Updated Programme Approval documentation (October 2018) - see October 2018 TLSO Bulletin for details
Updated Regulation XVIII, Student Complaints Procedure (August 2018)
Updated Undergraduate Degree Regulations (August 2018)
Updated Postgraduate Degree Regulations (August 2018)
Updated Guidance on Examination Boards, to include new Principles on Rescinding Awards (August 2018)
New Guidance on Moderation, Fairness and Consistency in Marking (July 2018)
The Assessment Framework has been updated to take into account recently updated policies, including the new Guidance on Moderation, Fairness and Consistency in Marking, and amended weblinks (July 2018)
New documents from the Disability Advisory and Support Service (DASS) regarding mitigating circumstances and automatic extensions (June 2018):
Relaunch of the Advising Toolkit - resources for Academic Advisers (February 2018)
Guide to the Taught Degree Regulations - the web links within the document have been updated (February 2018)
Updated Academic Appeals and Student Complaints forms (January 2018)

2017

External Examiners - update to staff regarding eligibility to work in the UK/EEA; reports and security (details in November 2017 TLSO Bulletin)
Updates to deadlines for Programme Approval, Amendment and Withdrawal (details in the October 2017 TLSO Bulletin)
Peer Review of Teaching: forms and documents have been updated slightly (October 2017)
DASS Guidance for dealing with Disability-related requests for Mitigation - new guidance from the Disability Advisory and Support Service
Policy on Ethical Approval of Research on Human Subjects in Taught Assessment - updated for implementation from September 2017
Policy on Mitigating Circumstances and newly named Mitigating Circumstances Procedures - updated for implementation from September 2017
Guidance for the Continuous Monitoring of the Undergraduate and Postgraduate Taught Student Experience and the Annual Review of Teaching and Learning - updated April 2017
The Student Experience Action Plan (SEAP) template - updated April 2017
The approval process for Joint Awards (for both UK and overseas awards) has been updated slightly - April 2017
The programme amendment form has been updated slightly - April 2017
Report to Senate 2015/16 of Student Complaints, Academic Appeals and Conduct and Discipline Cases - March 2017
Updated Guidance and procedures for the quality assurance of Taught Collaborative provision - January 2017

2016

New Guidance on late submission, to accompany the Policy on Submission of Work for Summative Assessment - September 2016
Assessment Framework document - updated to include the Guidance on late submission (above) - September 2016
Revisions to the Undergraduate Taught Degree Regulations and the Postgraduate Taught Degree Regulations, from September 2016
Guidance for dealing with Disability-related requests for Mitigation
DASS-Related Automatic Extensions - staff guidance
Student guidance on DASS-related Automatic Extensions