Assessment of Autumn Semester Associate Students (Oct 2015)

Author: Vivien Easson, UG SEB Secretary (September 2011), summarising practice agreed by Chair of Examination Board and Associate Student Tutors

Updated: Matt Fayers (October 2015)

Every year we have several associate students from abroad who take some of our modules. They can come for the whole year or for one semester only. Those who come for the full year or the second semester only are normally assessed in the usual way by written examination in May/June. Visiting students who are at Queen Mary for the first semester only will need to have special assessment at the end of the semester. There is some flexibility on the form this can take, and it should be agreed between the student(s) and the module organiser. If there is more than one semester-A-only associate on a module, then they should all be assessed in the same way.

These students appear in SIS under occurrence Zxy for each module, where xy are the last two digits of the year in which the current academic year starts. The assessment profile (i.e. the different assessment components and their percentage weightings) for this occurrence should be the same as for our own students (in the Axy occurrence), except that the "examination" component is replaced by an "associate examination" component with the same weighting. Associate examinations are listed as CWK rather than EXM; the only practical different his makes is that the students can see their marks as soon as they're entered, so marks should only be entered once they have been checked.

The coordinator for associate students will obtain a list of the students and modules concerned from Registry during Semester A and give the module organiser a list for each module. The students should also make themselves known to the module organiser.

A coursework or test component can normally be assessed in the same way as for other students, with the test taking place during week 7 as usual. Module organisers for modules with tests in week 12 should normally permit associate students to replace the week 12 test with the associate examination rather than expect students to undertake two assessments at the end of the semester. The test component for these students would then come solely from the week 7 test.

For the associate examination, the module organiser must be confident that the marks are based on the student's own work, so the assessment will normally include a test taken under exam conditions, or an oral examination. In addition:

• Any special test or examination should be as late in the term as practicable, so that as much of the syllabus as possible is covered.
• The School is responsible for organising rooms and invigilating associate examinations.
• The marking of an associate examination should be checked by the module checker, as for the May exams.
• Any oral examination should have two assessors present, normally the examiner/module organiser and the checker for that module.
• The method of assessment must be acceptable to both QMUL and the student's home university. (Written and oral examinations are both normally acceptable.)

The marks from Autumn Semester students should be entered into SIS as soon as they have been checked. They will be approved at an associate SEB meeting in February.