Section D: assessment decisions

35.1 Prior to the meeting of the College Postgraduate Committee, examiners’ recommendations are provisional until approved or modified by the Committee.

35.2 The examiners for individual students do not participate in any assessment decisions regarding these students in the relevant meeting of the College Postgraduate Committee.

35.3 The Secretary to the College Postgraduate Committee is responsible for giving reasonable notice of meetings: ensuring that the recommendations of the Committee are approved in writing and made available to Student Administration at the required time; and ensuring that a minute of the meeting is produced.

35.4 The minute is a confidential document although information on a particular student may need to be disclosed to that student under the Data Protection Act and generic information may need to be disclosed under Freedom of Information legislation.

36.1 The Committee, on receipt of a recommendation by the examiners, must consider whether it appears to be adequately justified in the light of the full reports by the examiners, and may make further inquiry of the examiners and the student’s supervisor(s).

36.2 If the Committee receives reports by the examiners indicating disagreement as to the appropriate recommendation, it may recommend to Senatus that the recommendation of one of the examiners be accepted in preference to that of the other. The Committee may require that a further report on the thesis be obtained from some other examiner or examiners, or that the assessment of the thesis be conducted from the beginning by different examiners.

36.3 If the Committee is offering an alternative award to that for which a student had originally submitted (for example MPhil as an exit award for PhD submission), the student must either agree or decline to accept the alternative award.

36.4 If the Committee varies the recommendation of the examiners for the degree, the College will provide the student with a written explanation of the decision. In these circumstances the College Postgraduate Dean or nominee will be available to discuss the outcome with the student, should the student request this.

Regulation 37 College Postgraduate Committee: quorum for assessment decisions

37.1 The Convener of the Committee may, at their discretion, invite any person who has been involved in the assessment of the work under consideration by the Committee to be present ‘in attendance’ but without voting rights.

Regulation 38 Confidentiality

38.1 The College Postgraduate Committee reaches a collective decision. The decision does not need to be unanimous.

38.2 The views of a particular committee member should not be made known to a student. If a student makes a request under the Data Protection Act, information recorded in the minutes on that particular student will need to be disclosed. In doing so, comments should be anonymised, for example assigned to Member 1, Member 2. Further information is available at:

Handbook for Boards of Examiners for Taught Courses and Progammes

38.3 Students have a right to see information about themselves recorded in minutes of the College Postgraduate Committee meeting.

38.4 Other than with the written permission of the student concerned, members of staff should not make available information about marks to persons or bodies outside the University except when necessary in the context of a reference.

38.5 Guidance on disclosing information on students can be found at:

Sharing personal data   

Regulation 39 Retention and destruction of material

39.1 Information about the student records retention schedule is online:

Retention of student records

39.2 Material which contributes to the assessment of the degree will be retained in the School, College Office or Library for a suitable period after the College Postgraduate Committee meeting which decides the overall classification or award of the degree, diploma or certificate. This enables the University to respond to any student appeal.

39.3 Assessment material should be destroyed at the end of the retention period. For students who submit appeals, the retention period will need to be extended until the end of the appeal process. Other material which contributes to the final assessment of the degree may be returned to the student after the expiry of the retention period providing they do not make known the views of a particular examiner (see regulation 38). Theses, research projects and dissertations may be retained by Schools, who have the responsibility to make them available to any enquirer in response to a Freedom of Information request (unless an exemption applies). Assessment samples may be retained for specified periods as supporting documentation for accreditation and quality assurance purposes, for example Internal Periodic Reviews. Material which is not retained or returned should be destroyed at the end of the retention period.

41.1 Doctoral and MPhil students receive Part II reports, which constitute formal notification of the Committee decision, after the meeting of the College Postgraduate Committee.

41.2 The decisions of the Committee must be notified to Student Administration as soon as possible and certainly no later than 21 days before the date of graduation.

41.3 Notification of final results and recommendation of the award of qualification to students, following the meeting of the Committee, is the responsibility of the College Office.

41.4 Because of the nature of research degrees, transcripts for such degrees are not issued by the University. Colleges may instead provide students with an explanation of the specific degree awarded and confirmation that the student has been awarded (or is eligible to be awarded) this degree.

42.1 A College Postgraduate Committee may, review a decision if significant information relevant to that decision, which was unavailable at the time the decision was made, comes to light or if any error having a material bearing on that decision or an error in the written certification of that decision has been made.

42.2 If the Committee is satisfied that there are grounds for changing its decision it will report its decision to Student Systems.

42.3 Where an error is discovered in the assessment or marking of any examination or any component of an assessment or in the calculation, recording or notification of the result of any assessment or any component thereof or in the classification or result of any degree or in any process connected with any of these matters, the University shall forthwith correct that error and amend its records to show the correct result or classification and whether or not the result or classification has been published or otherwise notified to the student. The University shall notify the student of the corrected result or classification as soon as practicable and shall also correct any reference or statement which may have been provided by the University whether to the student or to a third party. Having been notified of the corrected result or classification the student shall return to the University any documentation which may have been issued to the student notifying the original result or classification which has been corrected. The student shall have no claim against the University for any loss or damage which may have been incurred by the student as a result of any error which may have been made.

42.4 In proved cases of substantial and significant copying, plagiarism or other fraud, the Senatus has the power to reduce the classification of, or to revoke, any degree it has already awarded, and to require the degree, diploma or certificate scroll to be returned.

42.5 Any member of Senatus may request Senatus to refer for investigation any matter concerning assessment.

43.1 This may occur when the College Postgraduate Committee takes a decision in principle but needs confirmation or further information, or when the Committee considers the possible outcomes and authorises the Convener, once relevant information is known, to apply the appropriate option. Convener’s Action may also be appropriate when the decision to be made follows an existing precedent.

43.2 Decisions made by Convener’s Action should be recorded and reported to the relevant Board or Committee.

Regulation 44 Final version of the thesis

44.1 Degrees are conferred upon receipt of the final version of the thesis and following approval by the Senate at graduation.

44.2 The final version of the thesis must be submitted within one month of approval of corrections and/or recommendation of award. A student cannot graduate until they have submitted the final version of their thesis to the College Postgraduate Office. See:

Graduations

44.3 Final submission must be notified by the College Office to Student Systems as soon as possible. Graduation deadline information is available online:

Key dates 

44.4 Students are responsible for submitting the final version of their thesis in electronic form.

44.5 Further details on the submission of theses are available in the Code of Practice for Supervisors and Research Students and from the Edinburgh Research Archive (ERA) at:

Edinburgh Research Archive