Foundation Year, BSc and MPhys Progression
Degree progression information and regulations for Foundation Year, BSc and MPhys students in Physics & Astronomy
Progression and Award Information for Physics & Astronomy UG Courses
The following information is provided for the benefit of P&A UG students, P&A academic advisors, and P&A module convenors. The University’s full Progression and Award Regulations (sometimes referred to as “The Handbook”) can be found here.
Progression and award requirements apply to all students and are unaffected by impairments or reasonable adjustments.
However, impairments can sometimes lead to additional opportunities, such as additional sits or resits, being offered by a progression and award board (PAB, or exam board for short).
This is only possible if an extenuating circumstances (EC) claim has been made in good time and an impairment has been determined as a result. Exam boards work with anonymized data and have no way of, and are not permitted to, consider extenuating circumstances themselves. It is therefore important that students file EC claims without delay.
Click here to see the Student Hub page on submitting EC claims.
Terminology
Stage – A period of study at the end of which students are considered for progression or an award. For Full-Time study, this normally maps to an academic year (Stage 1 = Year 1, etc).
Level – Refers to the difficulty of a module aligned to the Framework of Higher Education Qualifications. Usually, Foundation year <-> Level 3, Stages 1/2/3/4 <-> Levels 4/5/6/7 respectively.
Pass mark – A module mark of 40% or higher (L3 – L6), 50% or higher (L7)
Note: the additional requirement to reach the pass threshold in the exam for certain modules has been removed with effect from 2023/24 onward.
Marginal fail – A module mark in the range 35% - 39% (L3 – L6), 45% - 49% (L7)
Bad fail – A module mark strictly lower than 30%.
Stage mean – The credit-weighted arithmetic mean module mark for all modules taken over a stage.
Capped stage mean – Stage mean, but with any resit marks replaced by the module pass marks. (The capped stage mean is always less than or equal to the stage mean.
Progression and award requirements: Foundation Year and BSc courses
Note: MPhys and Research Placement courses have further requirements in addition to those described here.
Progression from Foundation Year to BSc Course
Stage mean of 40% and a minimum of 120 credits achieved.
Of the 120 credits passed, at most 30 may be marginal fails, providing the stage mean requirement is met. This is called automatically compensated credit.
Progression from Foundation Year to MPhys Course
Stage mean of 55% and 120 credits achieved, with a pass mark in every module.
Progression from Stage 1 to Stage 2 and from Stage 2 to Stage 3
Stage mean of 40% and a minimum of 120 credits achieved at the prescribed level.
Of the 120 credits passed, at most 30 may be marginal fails, providing the stage mean requirement is met. This is called automatically compensated credit.
The Progression and Award board (PAB) has the discretion to exceptionally allow a student to progress to the next stage in certain cases where the progression requirements have not been met, with a further assessment opportunity. This is called trailing a module. There is no entitlement to a trail, which is at the discretion of the PAB. A PAB may for example consider whether a fail was bad, and academic performance in other modules.
Award of the BSc degree (Honours Degrees)
Capped stage mean of 40% at stage 3 and a minimum of 360 credits achieved (including compensated credit)
Up to 30 of the credits at stage 3 may be marginal fails, providing the capped stage mean requirement is met (automatic compensation).
The BSc final project, or the STEM module pair 899S4, 899S5 when taken as an alternative, must be passed and cannot be compensated.
The PAB may exceptionally condone up to 30 credits at the award stage, possibly including trailed modules, providing the course learning outcomes of the course have been met, the uncapped stage mean at stage 3 is at least 40%, and the total amount of condoned credit over the course, plus any compensated credit at stage 3, does not exceed 30 credits. There is no entitlement to condonement, which is at the discretion of the PAB. The PAB will not condone a failed final-year project.
Note on optional resits
When credit is compensated or condoned, an optional resit opportunity is offered in some circumstances. Whenever an optional resit is taken up, the new mark will replace the original mark. Students are advised that this can lead to a pass mark being replaced by a fail mark, a marginal fail by a mark below the compensation range, or a fail by a bad fail. As a consequence, in certain circumstances taking an optional resit could lead to a worse progression outcome, or ultimately to a degree not being awarded, where this might not have been the case had the resit not been attempted.
Additional requirements for the Mphys and the MPhys Research Courses; Transfers between Courses
Additional requirements are set out in the regulations linked above. Please enquire with your academic advisor, the sub-director for teaching and learning, or the curriculum and assessment officer.