Study and research

Academic misconduct is any action which gains or attempts to gain an unfair academic advantage. This also includes assisting others to do so. It includes

• Plagiarism/Self-Plagiarism.
• Collusion.
• Contracting another person to write an assessment.
• Unauthorised use of 'Artificial Intelligence'.
• Falsification of data.
• Taking unauthorised materials during an exam, copy from another candidate during an exam or communicating with another candidate during an exam.
• Bribery.

The University takes academic misconduct very seriously. Find out more about what academic misconduct covers and the actions that the University might take if academic misconduct is discovered.

Find e-learning regarding academic misconduct.

By attending an assessment or submitting an assessment, you are saying that you fit and well enough to take the assessment, so you are ‘fit to sit’. As such, students cannot normally submit personal mitigating circumstances (PMC) requests on the basis that standard of performance in the assessment has been affected by PMC.

For more information on the PMC process, see here: https://www.salford.ac.uk/askus/academic-support/pmc

Most assessment is submitted electronically. Exceptionally, due to the nature of the assessment, you may need to submit your work offline or using another mechanism. Your assessment brief will explain what method you must use to submit your work. If you are in any doubt about the requirements for assessment submission, you should consult your module leader.

It is your responsibility to ensure that you submit your assessment carefully and successfully. In the case of online submission, you must ensure that you submit your assessment to the correct folder or equivalent. If you discover, after the submission deadline, that you have submitted to an incorrect Blackboard or Turnitin folder, you should contact your Module Leader to request that the submission is marked, as long as this occurs prior to the meeting of the Module Assessment Board. Once the late submission period has passed, you cannot change your submission. 

Assessments such as presentations or exams or performances have a fixed time for completion so you must complete your assessment at the stated time. Please speak to your Module Leader if you are unsure of the time you are required to complete one of these assessments.

All other assessments will have a published submission date which you can find on your assessment brief. It is important that you submit by 16:00 UK time on this date.  A submission after this point, even if only by a few seconds, will be considered as late.  Please remember that technical difficulties may occur when uploading your assignment, so it is recommended that you submit in good time. If you do experience difficulties, please take a screenshot of any messages with the time, and contact Digital IT for support.   

If you are unable to complete your assessment by the submission date, there is a late submission period of 7 consecutive days following the submission date. This does not apply to timed assessments such as exams or presentations.

Work submitted in the late submission period will be capped at the pass mark (40% for undergraduates and 50% for postgraduates). If work does not reach a pass mark, no late penalties will be applied. If work is submitted more than 7 days late it will be recorded as a non-submission and will not be marked.

If you have valid reasons for submitting an assessment late and you have a request for Personal Mitigating Circumstances accepted, the penalty applicable for late submission will be removed.  For more information on the PMC process, see here: https://www.salford.ac.uk/askus/academic-support/pmc

If you have personal circumstances, for example an illness, bereavement or other matter which is affecting your ability to complete or submit an assessment, you can use the Personal Mitigating Circumstances (PMC) process to tell your School. You must tell your School about your circumstances no later than 10 working days after your submission date.

Your School will need to know about:

• The nature of your circumstances.
• The period of time affected.
• Which assessments have been affected.
• Whether you will submit in the late submission period or are unable to take/submit your assessment.

You may also need evidence to confirm your circumstances.

Click here for further information: https://www.salford.ac.uk/askus/academic-support/pmc

If you are a student at the British University of Bahrain (BUB), please speak to staff at BUB for the correct process to follow.

You will be able to find information about assessment criteria in your assessment brief.

All assessments are either awarded a mark or a pass/fail grade. Where a mark is given, it is awarded in line with the University marking scale of 0-100%. The University marking scale below provides brief grade descriptors and Schools have developed subject-specific descriptors that align with the University descriptors. 

For undergraduate programmes (levels 3, 4, 5 and 6) the pass mark is 40% and the marking scale is:

For postgraduate programmes (level 7) the pass mark is 50% and the marking scale is:

Your module marks are made official (‘ratified’) at meetings of the Module Assessment Board.

You are entitled to have feedback on all your assessments. The purpose of the feedback is to enhance your learning and help you to improve.

Feedback on assessed work will be provided to you through Blackboard within 15 working days of the published submission deadline, please note this does not include weekends, bank holidays, the Christmas closure period, or where staff have annual leave.

In the case of written examinations and larger pieces of assessed work feedback will, as a minimum, be an individual unratified (unconfirmed) mark or grade and an opportunity for you to view your annotated examination script/dissertation/project and/or electronic feedback sheet. An unratified (unconfirmed) mark is one which has yet to be confirmed by a Module Assessment Board and could therefore be changed.

You should contact your School Office if you do not receive feedback within the expected time.

If you have any questions about your feedback, you should contact the member of staff who marked your assessment or the Module Leader.

The University uses a number of different safeguards to ensure that your assessments are marked fairly and consistently. Where possible, assessments are marked anonymously.

All assessments are moderated internally. This means that a sample of marked work is checked by another member of staff to ensure that it has been assessed fairly and in accordance with the agreed criteria. In addition, independent External Examiners are appointed to every programme in the University. It is their responsibility to check that assessment processes are fair. They also sample assessed work to ensure that internal marking has been carried out fairly and consistently and is of an appropriate standard in line with national academic standards and expectations for that subject discipline.

If you do not obtain a mark of at least 40% for undergraduates and at least 50% for postgraduates, then you have not obtained a pass mark. Your tutor will provide you with feedback to enable you to understand the strengths and limitations of your performance in the assessment to help you improve.

Most students have three opportunities to complete an assessment:

• A first attempt.
• A reassessment (second) attempt during the reassessment period where your assessment mark will be capped at the pass mark.
• A retake (third attempt) in the following academic year. This will mean that you have to repeat the module and the assessments you have failed. You will need to pay a fee to retake the module. Your module mark will be capped at the pass mark. You will not have a further resit.

Students undertaking the final stage of a Masters programme, commonly known as the dissertation or project stage, will have a first attempt and a resit attempt to achieve a pass.

Some students at levels 3 and 4 may also have an in-year retrieval opportunity. Further information is available here.

If you are unable to submit or take an assessment, a grade of non-submission will be recorded.

If you have valid reasons for this and you have a request for Personal Mitigating Circumstances accepted through the Personal Mitigating Circumstances Procedure, you will be offered another opportunity to take the assessment next time it is offered. This is called a replacement attempt. If this is your first attempt, your mark will not be capped. 

An undergraduate degree programme normally consists of levels 4, 5, and 6. Each level consists of 120 credits.  A level is sub-divided into a number of modules. To progress from one level of study to the next, you must gain 120 credits at that level. On a full time programme, progression between levels takes place at the end of each academic year. In order to graduate with an honours degree on most programmes, you must accumulate 360 credits over the whole programme.

Some undergraduate programmes offer placements, typically at level 5, and this can mean that you need to accumulate more than 120 credits at that level and more than 360 credits overall. You can find details of credit requirements for your programme in your programme handbook.

If you are studying a postgraduate programme, this will normally consist of 180 credits and divided into a taught stage of 120 credits and a project/dissertation stage of 60 credits. You may be permitted to progress to the final project/dissertation stage of your programme with 90 credits from the 120-credit Postgraduate Diploma stage, depending on whether your missing 30 credits relates to a prerequisite module for the project stage.

Modules may include more than one component of assessment and your overall module mark is calculated from the component marks. Sometimes these assessments contribute equally to your overall module mark, sometimes one assessment is worth more than the other.

In some circumstances, you may be awarded the credits for a module you have failed if you have gained sufficiently high marks in other modules at the same academic level. This is called compensation. Compensation is not available for all modules; your programme leader will be able to provide you with further information.

The University’s Academic Regulations for Taught Programmes provide more information about academic progression and compensation:

https://www.salford.ac.uk/governance-and-management/academic-regulations

This information explains how degrees are classified. Full information is available in the Academic Regulations for Taught Programmes.

Your programme mark determines the classification of your degree. In order to arrive at your programme mark, we use ratified or confirmed module marks with no discretion for altering the final classification. In other words, the process for arriving at your programme mark is a purely mathematical one.

Honours Degrees (BA/B.Eng./B.Sc./LLB)

Your programme mark for a standard Honours degree (where you have accumulated 120 credits at levels 4, 5 and 6 at the University) is calculated to two decimal points from your best 100 credits at level 5 and your best 100 credits at level 6.  The level 6 credits are weighted three times more than the level 5 credits. You still need to pass all modules at each level.

The minimum programme mark required for each classification band is:

Sample Calculation:

(Level 5 contribution x 0.25) + (Level 6 contribution x 0.75) = Programme mark:  62.35% so Upper Second Class Honours (2.1)

If your lowest module mark is for a 40 credit module, this will be treated as two x 20 credit modules for classification purposes. 

Non-Standard Honours Degree Programmes

Where you have not taken at least 100 credits at level 5 or level 6 on an undergraduate degree programme, your programme mark is calculated using all available level 5 and level 6 module marks achieved during your registration on an Honours degree programme of the University of Salford. The level 6 credits are still weighted three times more than any level 5 credits.

If you have entered at Level 6 then your degree will be classified on the basis of all 120 credits. 

Higher National Certificates (HNCs)

Your classification is decided by calculating your programme mark from the weighted mean average of your best 100 credits’ worth of module marks. If you achieve a programme mark of at least 60%, your classification will be HNC with Merit. If you achieve a programme mark of at least 70%, your classification will be HNC with Distinction. 

Higher National Diplomas (HNDs) and Foundation Degrees (FDs)

Your classification is decided by calculating your programme mark from the weighted mean average of your best 100 credits’ worth of module marks at levels 4 and 5. The contribution from your level 4 marks is weighted at 25%, and your level 5 contribution is weighted at 75%. If you achieve a programme mark of at least 60%, your classification will be HNC or Foundation Degree with Merit. If you achieve a programme mark of at least 70%, your classification will be HNC or Foundation Degree with Distinction. 

Integrated Master’s

Your degree classification is decided by calculating your programme mark from the weighted mean average of your best 100 credits’ worth of module marks at each of levels 5 and 6 and 120 credits at level 7. The contribution from your level 5 marks is weighted at 15%, the contribution from your level 6 marks is weighted at 35% and your level 7 contribution is weighted at 50%.   

Postgraduate Diplomas with Distinction or Merit (PGDip)

If you have achieved a programme mark of at least 70%, your classification will be Postgraduate Diploma with Distinction. If you have achieved a programme mark of at least 60%, your classification will be Postgraduate Diploma with Merit. 

Master’s Degrees with Distinction or Merit (LLM/MA/MBA/M.Eng./M.Sc.)

If you have achieved a programme mark of at least 70%, your classification will be Master’s with Distinction. If you have achieved a programme mark of at least 60%, your classification will be Master’s with Merit.

But I’m so close to the next classification….

The process for arriving at your programme mark is a purely mathematical one and students whose programme mark misses a higher classification by a narrow margin have no redress to ask for special consideration. Narrowly missing a higher classification by a small margin actually translates into the need to score several additional percentage points in at least one module. For example, missing an upper second class award by 1% translates into having to achieve 6 or 7 additional marks in a 20 credit level 6 module.