Academic Year 2020-2021

Applying our No Detriment Approach

As part of the University's response to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, in 2020/21 a revised ‘no detriment’ approach is being taken. The revised approach consists of the following elements:

(Download pdf) 

This approach takes into consideration further guidance that was issued by the Quality Assurance Agency, which safeguards standards in the quality of UK higher education on this subject. This is to ensure that we get the balance right between making sure your achievements are not disadvantaged by the pandemic, whilst still ensuring that you and everyone else has confidence in the standards and integrity of your qualification. 

Please Note:

• The No Detriment approach may not apply to all of your modules, or where there are course specific regulations. We will work through our revised approach with professional bodies and regulators (PSRBs) and publish those when finalised. 
• Postgraduate Research Students will be communicated with via the Graduate School. This includes information about the approach to the Doctor of Business Administration (DBA) which contains both taught and research elements.  
• Any queries arising from this statement should be sent to [email protected]  Emails sent to this address will be used to further develop these FAQs. Please note it will not be possible to respond to queries about individual student circumstances via this email address. You should continue to liaise with your teaching staff for specific individual enquiries. 

Assessment Boards

These FAQs make several references to Assessment Boards. These are boards at which student assessment is considered and agreed. The University operates a two-tier process, as follows: 

• Subject Assessment Board: agrees students’ overall module grades. The subject assessment board then pass the students’ module grades to the relevant Progression / Award Assessment Boards  
• Progression / Award Assessment Boards: responsible for deciding students’ progression, completion and, if appropriate, overall outcome (classification) on the basis of the grades supplied by the subject assessment boards. 

Frequently Asked Questions

Please see this page for FAQs.

Exceptional Arrangements Regulations

The Exceptional Arrangements Regulations (Section A5 of the Regulations for Taught Courses) were invoked for the remainder of the 2019-20 Academic Year at the start of June 2019. Whilst the normal regulations came back into effect from the start of the new Academic Year 2020-21, as a revised no detriment approach has been agreed, elements of the Exceptional Arrangements Regulations will be re-invoked. Further information to follow.

Extenuating Circumstances

For full details for individuals see Extenuating Circumstances.

Cohort circumstances can also be considered through the possibility of a cohort extension to assessments. If a whole cohort has been affected on specific assessments then the course leader can apply for a cohort assessment extension. You would need to speak to your lecturers if you feel this applies to you, and also your other course mates to check whether it is a cohort wide reason or an individual reason.

Academic Year 2019-2020

The 2019-2020 No Detriment Approach will still be applicable in certain circumstances for the November 2020/Spring 2021 Assessment Boards. 

For example, some assessments scheduled for submission in the 2019-20 academic year were deferred and postgraduate students’ dissertations will have only been submitted in September in the main. These results will be presented in boards in the 2020/21 academic session even though they technically fall into the 2019/20 academic year. As the modules could have been affected by the period post March 16th 2020, and to ensure parity of treatment, students in these types of situations will be subject to the no detriment principles.