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Attendance Policy & Procedures

Regent’s College has an attendance policy which encourages academic responsibility and seriousness on your part, and you are expected to attend all classes.

It is important that you are aware that across all College programmes, student absences in classes are recorded and monitored on the principle that each student is required to attend a minimum 80% of his/her classes.

The following procedures apply:

• You must report any unavoidable absence by completing a Class Non-Attendance Form (giving your reasons, and evidence where required) which you submit to your Faculty Registry. This should be done before the class, although retrospective completion of the form is acceptable within 48 hours, or in the event of the illness lasting longer, within twenty-four hours of returning to the College 
  
  
• If no reasons for absence have been received by the Faculty Registry, then the absence is recorded as an Unauthorised Absence
  
  
• If reasons have been received by the Faculty Registry, via submission of a Class Non-Attendance Form, giving reasons which are deemed valid, then the absence is recorded as a Justified Absence
  
  
• Reasons deemed to be valid include absence due to illness (with certified evidence); the death of a close relative or partner; visa or UK entry problems (with evidence)
  
  
• Reasons which will be given consideration to be valid include important family occasions such as weddings or funerals of close relatives; or the serious illness of a close relative or partner
  
  
• Any other reasons to those in the two points above will not be accepted as valid, nor be given consideration to be valid. To be clear, absence due to birthdays, celebrations, business or job interviews, routine medical or dental appointments, sports events, driving lessons, family vacations, and cultural or religious holidays is recorded as Unauthorised Absence
  
  
• If you are approaching a number of Unauthorised Absences which will mean you fall below the minimum 80% requirement, you may be contacted and given a formal warning
  
  
• If your number of Unauthorised Absences means you fall below the minimum 80% requirements, you will be deemed to have failed and / or withdrawn from the module (valid and exceptional circumstances may be taken into consideration)
  
  
• If you are attending several modules during the term / semester, and your attendance is consistently falling below the minimum 80% requirement, your status will be reviewed and this may result in suspension or expulsion

It should be noted that Regent’s College is required to report student non-attendance to the UK Border Agency (UKBA) for any student in the UK on a study visa.

Lateness to Classes

The College does not tolerate lateness to classes. See your Programme Handbook for further information about arriving late for class.

Assessment

During your studies you will be required to successfully complete a range of assessments – they may include written essays, reports, presentations, performances, projects, tests, examinations, and dissertations. You will find more specific details in your Programme Handbook.

Submission of Coursework / Assessments

There are various procedures about how to submit your coursework / assessment for marking. These include submission to the Faculty Registry office; to your tutor; or via the College’s virtual learning environment, ‘Blackboard’. You should refer to your Programme Handbook for the required procedure for your studies, where you will also find the policy relating to late submission of coursework / assessment.

Return of Marked Coursework / Assessments

The College will always aim to return marked coursework / assessment back to you in a timely manner. As a guide, you should usually receive marked coursework / assessment within two weeks and no longer than four weeks.

Invigilation of Tests and Examinations

The College makes arrangements for the invigilation of tests and examinations. The Invigilation Regulations and Guidelines are available from your Faculty Registry.

Academic Integrity and Academic Misconduct

Assessment is the means by which the College tests whether you have achieved the objectives of the programme and assures the standard of an award. It is important that you understand that any attempt by you to gain unfair advantage over another student in the completion of assessments, or to assist someone else to gain an unfair advantage, is considered to be cheating. The intention to cheat is to be treated in the same way as cheating having occurred. Whether or not unfair advantage has been gained is viewed as irrelevant.

The Module Tutors make every attempt to take a proactive and developmental view to the discouragement of cheating or plagiarism by training you in the appropriate academic skills of writing and referencing within the modules and clearly explaining the meaning of the term plagiarism as elaborated within this document. In this way, the likelihood of cheating or plagiarism occurring in the module work is relatively remote, but it may occur.

The institution takes cheating very seriously and, if proven, the penalties are severe. Therefore, we ensure that the rules are applied fairly and consistently by having a process of impartial investigation. At the same time, we endeavour to have a definition of cheating that is understood by all parties. The burden of proof is based on the maxim ‘beyond reasonable doubt’. It is therefore important that you understand the following definitions:

Academic Misconduct / Unfair Practice

Any act whereby a person may obtain an unpermitted advantage for himself / herself or for another. This shall apply whether the candidate acts alone or in collusion with another / others. Any action or actions shall be deemed to fall within this definition whether occurring during, or in relation to, a formal examination, a piece of coursework, or any form of assessment undertaken in pursuit of a qualification. These include (but are not limited to) plagiarism, collusion, falsification, and cheating.

Plagiarism

Using without acknowledgement another person’s words or ideas and submitting them for assessment as though it were one’s own work, for instance by copying, translating from one language to another or unacknowledged paraphrasing. Plagiarism is theft of another’s intellectual property. Examples of plagiarism include:

• Use of any quotation(s) from the published or unpublished work of other persons, whether published in textbooks, articles, the Web, or in any other format, which quotations have not been clearly identified as such by being placed in quotation marks and acknowledged.
• Use of another person’s words or ideas that has been slightly changed or paraphrased to make it look different from the original.
• Summarising another person’s ideas, judgements, diagrams, figures, or computer programmes without reference to that person in the text and the source in the bibliography.
• Use of services of essay banks and / or any other agencies.
• Use of unacknowledged material downloaded from the Internet.
• Re-use of one’s own material (or resubmission of previously assessed work from another module) except as authorised by the department / programme.

Collusion

Work that has been undertaken by or with others is submitted and passed off as solely the work of one person. This also applies where the work of one candidate is submitted in the name of another. Where this is done with the knowledge of the originator, both parties can be considered to be at fault.

Fabrication of Data

Making false claims to have carried out experiments, observations, interviews or other forms of data collection and analysis, or acting dishonestly in any other way.

Falsification of Evidence

Presentation of evidence of special circumstances which is false or falsified or which in any way misleads or could mislead Boards of Examiners.

Cheating

The means by which a candidate gains unfair advantage in examinations and tests. If academic misconduct is suspected, the College procedure, including penalties, as outlined under the Academic Integrity and Academic Misconduct policy in the College Quality Handbook, will be implemented. Note that the penalties outlined range from the student being required to re-submit, correcting the misconduct, to being suspended or expelled from the College.

Break in Studies

If you are seeking to take a break in studies you should notify the Faculty Registry. This process requires the approval of the Programme Director. Please refer to your Programme Handbook for more details.

Maximum Registration Period

You are expected to complete your studies within the prescribed time for your allotted programme. Please refer to your Programme Handbook for more details.

Transfer to Another Programme

If you are seeking to transfer to another degree programme offered by the College, you should notify the Faculty Registry.

Withdrawal from a Programme

If you are seeking to withdraw from the programme, and the College, you should notify the Faculty Registry.

Extenuating Circumstances

You may find that certain circumstances will affect your assessments during your time at the College – these are referred to as Extenuating Circumstances.

The following include Extenuating Circumstances which are deemed to be valid and acceptable to the College:

• Illness (with certified evidence)
• Death or serious illness of a close member of the family
• Unforeseen and evidenced College computer network failure
• Unforeseen and evidenced failure in the system of communication between student and Faculty Registry
• Any other circumstances deemed to be reasonable by the College

Religious holidays which fall on examination or assessed presentation dates will be taken into account by the College wherever possible, as long as the student has submitted a Notification of Religious Observance Form no later than the end of the first teaching week of the academic year of study. You can download this form from the Intranet, or collect one from the Faculty Registry.

Extenuating Circumstances may be submitted in relation to any assessment, including:

• late coursework
• non-submission of coursework
• non-attendance of a presentation, test, examination, viva or performance

Procedures

If you need to bring Extenuating Circumstances to the attention of the College, then you must provide the Faculty Registry with a completed Extenuating Circumstances Request Form, together with the appropriate documentation. Please note that in the event of illness, an appropriate doctor’s certificate is required.

The Faculty Registry will liaise with the relevant academic member of staff to discuss and make a decision, on the evidence submitted.

Extensions for Submission of Coursework

In the case of late submission of coursework, an extension may be agreed by a Head of School/Department, or Programme Director, and the student, with the Faculty Registry notified. All correspondence will be held on your file. The normal penalties for late submission will apply to the extension if the agreed new date and time is not met.

Non-Attendance for an Assessment (eg. Examination, Test, Presentation, Viva or Performance)

The Head of School/Department or Programme Director, in consultation with the Faculty Registry, will agree when you will take the assessment, or its equivalent, as a first attempt without penalty. All correspondence will be held on your file.

Timing of Submission of the Extenuating Circumstances Request Form

In order to be acceptable you must submit your Extenuating Circumstances Request Form to the Faculty Registry before the deadline for the assessment to be handed in, or the date of an assessment requiring attendance (examination, test, presentation, etc).

Retrospective approval of Extenuating Circumstances will only be acceptable if you submit your Extenuating Circumstances Form to the Faculty Registry within 48 hours, or in the event of the illness lasting longer, within twenty-four hours of returning to the College.

Assessment Boards

Each programme holds assessment boards, including the Board of Examiners, for the purpose of confirming your results, progression, and award. All grades given will be provisional until formally approved by the Board of Examiners.

Meetings may also include External Examiners for the subject and / or programme. External Examiners are drawn from such institutions and professions as befit the particular programme content.

All results confirmed by the Board of Examiners will appear on your transcript of results. You should ensure that the Faculty Registry have your most up-to-date ‘Results Address’ recorded on the student record system.

Student Academic Appeals

You do have a right to appeal against your results which have been confirmed by the Board of Examiners. Such an appeal must be on the grounds that there has been an error made by the College, or there were extenuating circumstances the College was not aware of, and there is a good reason as to why you did not inform the College at the time. You cannot appeal against academic judgement.

Please refer to your Programme Handbook for more information concerning student academic appeals.