In every year you register for modules to the value of 120 credits. In order to qualify to progress to the next year of study, you must satisfy the progression requirements:
First Year Students
You must pass at least 90 credits out of 120 credits taken to progress to your second year.
The following programme regulations also apply to these specific programmes:
All programmes (single and joint honours) involving a modern language (Catalan, French, German, Hispanic Studies, Portuguese and Russian) – You must pass your first year language module (e.g. FRE411 French I). If you fail to pass this module then you have failed to progress to your second year, even if you have passed 90 credits overall.
All programmes (single and joint honours) involving Film Studies – you must pass FLM100 Introduction to Film Studies. If you fail to pass this module then you have failed to progress to your second year, even if you have passed 90 credits overall.
Second Year Students
You must pass at least 180 credits out of 240 credits taken over your first and second years.
The following programme regulations also apply to these specific programmes:
All programmes (single and joint honours) involving Film Studies – You must pass the second year core module FLM003 What is Cinema? If you fail to pass this module then you have failed to progress to your final year, even if you have passed 180 credits overall.
All programmes (single and joint honours) involving a modern language (Catalan, French, German, Hispanic Studies, Portuguese and Russian) – You must pass the second year core language module (e.g. FRE239 French II) If you fail to pass this module then you have failed to progress to the next year of study, even if you have passed 180 credits overall.
Year Abroad Students
In order to progress from your Year Abroad to your final year, you must satisfactorily complete the Year Abroad Assessment. You must have submitted your assessment by the required deadline and it must not be plagiarised. You do not actually have to pass the Year Abroad Assessment to progress into final year, however a fail mark for the Year Abroad Assessment will have negative consequences for your final year degree classification.
If you do not pass enough credits to progress to the next year of study, you must re-sit your failed modules at the next available opportunity. For all modules within the School of Languages, Linguistics and Film the next available opportunity is in the Exam Term of the following academic year, as the School does not offer late summer re-sits. Therefore if you fail to pass enough credits to progress into your next year of study, you must re-sit out of attendance during the following academic year. This means that you will not be enrolled as a student or attend classes during this year, but you will re-sit coursework and examinations out of attendance.
The results for modules passed on a re-sit are pegged at a bare pass of 40%. The re-sit assessment that you will be required to undertake will be the approved synoptic re-assessment for the module. This means that you will only be required to undertake part of the original assessment again (unless the original assessment was one piece of work worth 100%). Your re-sit mark is based entirely on the newly-submitted work. The synoptic re-assessment will comprise either: for modules which have an examination, the written, aural and/or oral examination(s) only; or: for coursework-only modules, one or more pieces of coursework which have been approved as the synoptic re-assessment for that module.
If you have failed modules that are not taught within the School of Languages, Linguistics and Film you should be aware that some Schools in the College do offer late summer re-sits. Check with the relevant School to find out whether they do. If you have failed a module that is taught in a School which offers late summer re-sits the next available opportunity to re-sit this module is in the late summer and you will be automatically registered for this examination and must ensure that you attend.
If you are eligible to progress into your next of study but have not passed all the modules that you have taken, you will be able to re-sit those modules that you have failed alongside the full 120 credits that you will be studying in your next year of study. However, you will not be allowed to attend the classes again for the module(s) that you are re-sitting.
Final year students may only re-sit failed modules if they have too few credits to be eligible to graduate. Final year students are not eligible for late summer re-sits under any circumstances.
All students who are eligible to re-sit modules must ensure that they either opt-in or opt-out of re-sitting these modules via MySIS. If you are in attendance (that is you have qualified to progress to your next year of study), you will be automatically opted-in to re-sit any failed modules that you are eligible to re-sit. If you do not wish to re-sit these modules, you must ensure that you opt-out via the MySIS system by the deadline otherwise you will remain registered to take the re-sit assessment for these modules. You should be aware that opting out of re-sitting a module means that you will not have another opportunity to re-sit this module and that the highest mark that you have thus far achieved for this module will remain on your transcript and will be used in your degree classification calculation.
If you are out of attendance (that is you did not qualify to progress to your next year of study) you will automatically be opted-out of re-sitting your failed modules. Therefore, if you wish to re-sit your failed modules in order to resume your studies, you must ensure that you opt-in via the MySIS system by the deadline otherwise you will not be registered to re-sit your modules. You will not have another opportunity to re-sit, and your registration as a student at Queen Mary will be terminated.
The opt-in/opt-out re-sit task is available in MySIS usually from mid-October until mid-December each year. It is your responsibility to ensure that you opt-in or opt-out of re-sitting your failed modules by the deadline. If you have any queries regarding the task, you should contact the Academic Registry.
You MUST re-sit your failed modules at the next available opportunity. This is either in the following academic year (all SLLF modules) or in the late summer (modules offered in some departments in the College). It is not possible to defer taking your re-sits (this applies even if you have interrupted your studies) and if you do not re-sit your failed modules at the next available opportunity, you will not be able to do so at any other time during your studies. The only possible exception to this regulation is for students who are abroad as part of their studies and who are not able to return to College to re-sit their failed modules (unless it is a core module). In this situation you will not be penalised, but no other deferral of re-sits is permitted.
Students who commenced their programme of study prior to 2011 - You have three permitted attempts to pass a module – one original attempt (where you study for the module for the first time) and two re-sit attempts. Therefore if you fail a module on the first attempt, re-sit it at the next available opportunity but still fail to pass it, you will have one more attempt to re-sit the module at the next available opportunity should you wish to do so.
Students who commenced their programme of study in 2011 or later - You have two attempts to pass a module – one original attempt (where you study for the module for the first time) and one re-sit attempt which must be taken at the next available opportunity.
If you have exhausted all your permitted attempts to pass a module but still have failed to pass it, the mark that will remain on your transcript and that will be used in your degree classification calculation is the highest mark you have achieved for the module, not the most recent.
Students who have not attended an examination or who have not submitted coursework and have submitted an application for extenuating circumstances which has been accepted by the Examination Board (see § 4.2 EXTENUATING CIRCUMSTANCES) may be offered a first sit in that module at the discretion of the Examination Board. The timing of the first sit will depend on your individual circumstances:
If you have met the progression requirements for your degree programme, the first sit will take place in the following academic year. If the missing item of assessment is an examination you will sit in the following May alongside your other examinations. If the missing item of assessment is coursework you will be set a deadline for submission in the following academic year. You will not attend classes in the module which you are first sitting.
If you need to pass the first sit to meet the progression requirements for your degree programme, the first sit will take place during the summer vacation of the same academic year. If you pass the first sits and meet the requirements for progression you will be able to progress into the next year of your degree programme in September.
Please note that the decision regarding the timing of first sits is made by the Examination Board not by the student. Under the College’s Academic Regulations final year students are not permitted to take late summer first sits and therefore must wait until the following academic year.
First sit modules are not pegged at 40E and the full range of marks will be available.
Students can only be permitted to re-take an academic year in very exceptional circumstances. This is known as a “first take”. You must have applied for your extenuating circumstances to be taken into account before the Examination Board meets (see § 4.2 EXTENUATING CIRCUMSTANCES). If the first take is authorised, you will attend all classes and submit the entire assessment for your modules again. You must take the same modules in your first take year that you were registered for on the original attempt (unless the School is not offering that module again). Results for first-taken modules are not pegged at 40E and the full range of marks will be available.
Marking and examining of work which counts towards classification (assessed coursework or written examination) is done by teachers who have had to be formally approved as Examiners. There are three stages in marking to ensure that a fair mark is arrived at: the work is marked by two teachers and if, after serious discussion, there remains any uncertainty about the appropriate mark, it is sent to an External Examiner, who has a right to see all the students’ work for that module, who thus has an overview and whose final recommendation is normally accepted. External Examiners also see all overall fail performances and a sample of the work by students over which there is no disagreement internally.