Summary of Changes 2012
May 2012
A minor restructure of the protocol for Students Studying in Outside Organisations has been made to ensure that all arrangements must at least equal the requirements of the Quality Manual although in certain circumstances the detailed practices may differ
April 2012
The Business Case template for new programme approval has been updated to include a requirement that Schools state the minimum number of students for which any new programme would be considered not viable and therefore eligible for programme closure or suspension. It is intended that by considering this at the outset during the approval process Schools will have clear criteria against which to judge the continued viability of any new programme.
The entry on Feedback to Students has been amended to make it clear that it is not appropriate for students to be challenging marks when they receive feedback on written examinations.
March 2012
The Attendance Procedures have been amended to enable Schools to manage non-engagement by research students by bringing forward the annual review process.
The Appointment of Supervisor entry has been updated at point 3.5 to include a statement that if a supervisor is not going to be available for more than six months during a research student's period of study at the University, a replacement supervisor should be appointed. Other member(s) of the supervisory team can continue to offer regular supervisions during the period of the supervisor's absence.
The Responsibilities of the Supervisor entry has been amended to include a definition of a 'supervision meeting'.
February 2012
The Policy for the Closure or Suspension of a Taught Programme has been revised so that the Head of School is now only required to discuss the closure/suspension with the relevant PVC where the School is seeking the closure of a financially viable, successful or strategically important programme. In addition, the requirement to take the views of current students has been has been clarified so that this is not required where none of the current students would be affected by the closure.
January 2012
The PhD/MPhil regulations have been updated to state that students may enter the thesis pending period when they have completed their research as well as the period of registered study.
The entry on provision of Feedback to Students has been amended to state that where coursework will not be returned within 21 days for good reasons, eg in circumstances which make this unavoidable but may also include the length of the piece of coursework submitted, students should be informed of the timescale for the return of the coursework and associated feedback.
A clarification has been made to the Accreditation of Prior Learning entry under the heading of Double Counting to state that a postgraduate student may subsequently be allowed to return and undertake a dissertation for the award of a Masters degree when he or she has previously successfully completed a Postgraduate Diploma programme (ie was not awarded a Postgraduate Diploma as the result of failure on a Masters programme).
Regulation 25 of the Regulations for Undergraduate Courses has been amended to include a cross-reference to the stage weightings permitted in the University of Nottingham's programme specification guidance.