No detriment - what does it mean?

We know that some students will have been impacted by local activities, for example industrial action and/or world events, such as the conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine. In light of the significant impact of such uncertainties the University will be taking a no detriment approach when confirming grades and degree outcomes.

The information below tells you more about what a ‘no detriment’ approach means here at the University of Dundee.

Why do we have it?

The ‘no detriment’ approach is in place for Boards of Examiners to use whenever there is disruption to studies that is unavoidable and significant. Broadly, this means we consider the following points when we make award decisions:

• when the event(s) happened in relation to when/how students were being taught or assessed
• the effect the event had on a student(s)’ ability to study for, or take, an assessment
• and the mark received in the assessment.

We then act to remove negative impacts on the student and ensure they are awarded their degree fairly whilst maintaining our academic standards and securing the value of the qualifications.

Which modules does this applies to?

The Boards of Examiners will be able to apply ‘no detriment’ to any modules* that have been impacted by significant local or global events in both undergraduate and postgraduate programmes, whatever the year of study. This approach will follow students to the end of their degree programmes. This means that if students are not due to graduate this year, that the University will take these circumstances into account, for relevant modules, by using the no detriment approach, in the year that the final award is calculated, and the students graduate.

* This includes dissertation/project modules or equivalents in our undergraduate and taught postgraduate programmes

How do the Boards of Examiners do this?

Boards of Examiners will be provided with:

• information regarding the overall outcome and results profiles for the previous four* graduating classes of your course (*where a programme has run for fewer than 4 years all available data will be provided)
• the module results for students on the course this year
• information confirming the impact on learning, teaching or assessment on the relevant modules and the changes already made to mitigate the impact of any significant uncertainties.

The Board of Examiners  will use this information to help them make their academic judgements and confirm student awards.

What the Boards of Examiners can do?

For modules that have been impacted by significant uncertainty such as local strike action or global conflict, the Board of Examiners will consider module results and calculated degree outcome in the context of the previous pattern of results and that of current and previous graduating years.  In this academic year the following will apply:

• For relevant modules impacted by local or global uncertainties adjustments may apply to either a whole cohort or a sub group of the cohort dependent on the level of disruption 
• For individual students who have reported concerns arising from significant uncertainties in the world, adjustments may occur at the individual level. The concerns will require to have been reported during the academic year by the student, and prior to the exam board, through the University’s recurring circumstances or mitigating circumstances.

Student guide to mitigating and/or recurring circumstances | University of Dundee, UK

This means that Boards of Examiners will be able to see if groups of graduating students, or individual student results, in impacted modules are anomalous, and lower, than they have been previously. If this is found to be the case, the Board of Examiners can then take a range of actions to mitigate this impact including:

• Mark adjustment or ‘scaling’ – if the module mark in an impacted module is poor in comparison to unimpacted module marks, the mark in the impacted module can be raised (a module mark can only be made better, it cannot be lowered through this process). The new module mark will then be included in the calculation of the degree.
• Mark excluded from further calculations – if the module mark in an impacted module is poor in comparison to other modules it can be excluded from the calculation of the overall degree classification. The credit will still be awarded, and the module mark is not changed.
• Compensation* and/or condonement** can be applied to individual modules if students have failed the module. As per the University Assessment Policy the combined amount of compensation and condonement should not exceed 25% for both undergraduate and postgraduate awards.
• First attempt***– if the student has failed a module, and it cannot be compensated or condoned, they may be given another opportunity to take the assessment, as a first attempt with no penalty applied (i.e. the full range of grades are available, and the module is not capped).
• Additional opportunity – where the student has failed a module, and it cannot be compensated or condoned, or provided as a first attempt, the student may be given another opportunity to take the assessment, but any normal penalties such as capping of components would apply.

Where a student(s) is provided with an additional opportunity or a first attempt, they will receive information about the form and timing of the assessment from their School following the Board of Examiners meeting.

It should be noted that the options above are mechanisms available to Boards of Examiners, for consideration for all modules impacted by local and/or global uncertainties, in any year of study. Each Board will decide, based on their academic judgement, the best actions to take to mitigate the impact on a student(s). This will be informed by the changes made to assessments, recommendations already made by the Mitigating Circumstances Committee, information from Professional, Regulatory and Statutory Bodies and individual subject discipline needs.

*Compensation is the process by which a Board of Examiners may decide that a strong performance by a student in one part of the curriculum may be used as the basis for the award of credit in respect of marginal failure elsewhere

**Condonement is the process by which a Board of Examiners, in consideration of the overall performance of a student, decides that without incurring a penalty, a part of the programme that has been failed need not be redeemed.

***Some Professional, Statutory and Regulatory Bodies (PSRB) will not allow the use of compensation, condonement, or resits. So, this must be considered in the context of the respective PSRB.

Boards of Examiners will be made aware of this to ensure compliance with regulatory frameworks.

The options above are mechanisms available to Boards of Examiners, for consideration for all modules impacted by strike action and/or coronavirus, in any year of study.

Each Board will decide, based on their academic judgement, the best actions to take to mitigate the impact on students. This will be informed by the changes made to assessments, recommendations already made by the Mitigating Circumstances Committee, information from Professional, Regulatory and Statutory Bodies, and individual disciplinary needs.