Assessment and Teaching

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Preamble

The University:

• will select applicants for entry into University courses by fair and open procedures within criteria outlining access for all levels of candidacy. The principles upon which selection decisions are made will be stated clearly and adhered to by the University.
• will expect honest work at all levels from students, and will not accept cheating, plagiarism, and fabrication or falsification of data. The University will expect students to be aware of their individual rights and responsibilities regarding the proper use of copyright material and academic conventions.
• will use assessment to form part of the educative process, and to determine whether the aims of a program of studies have been achieved by a student.
• will inform students of assessment methods at the commencement of a program of studies and will provide opportunities for students to comment on the process to be used and to negotiate change. Students will be treated fairly and may question the assessment of their work if dissatisfied.
• will provide advice to students whose results in their course indicate the risk of preclusion, will provide academic counselling and, where appropriate, will refer students to the academic support and counselling services provided by the University.
• will provide consultation and appeal mechanisms to enable students to question informally or formally any matter relating to their enrolment in the University. The University expects students to make any complaints responsibly and the University will treat them seriously.
• will treat in confidence all matters relating to an individual student's admission, enrolment, assessment, progress, and course completion, and any discussions or negotiations concerning such matters.
• will endeavour to address the reasonable needs of all its students regardless of gender, ethnicity, age, disability or background.
• will endeavour to provide an environment for students which is free from harassment and discrimination as set out by relevant University policy and State and Commonwealth Anti-discrimination legislation. Where alleged harassment or discrimination occurs, procedures will be available to students to facilitate expeditious and just resolution of grievances. The relationships that University staff develop with their students should not provide any basis for the abuse of the power that staff have over students in the University environment nor of the trust that students may legitimately expect to place in staff.

Students are responsible for making themselves aware of all University statutes, policies, rules and regulations pertaining to their rights and responsibilities as students, and for abiding by them.

Application of Policy and Procedures

Except as otherwise specified, the policies in this document, and the procedures associated with them, apply to all students (whether undergraduate or postgraduate) formally enrolled at the University in an award course, or on a cross-institutional basis, or on a non-award basis and, where applicable, to applicants for such enrolment.

All matters relating to an individual student's admission, enrolment, assessment, progress, and course completion, and to any discussions or negotiations concerning such matters, are confidential and should not be divulged to any party not involved in the related processes as provided in University statutes, policies and procedures or by-law, without the authority of the student concerned.

Publication of Policy and Procedures

These policies will be published annually. Their existence will be drawn to students' attention in the Student Diary, and in handbooks published by Faculties and Academic Organisational Units.

Definitions

Academic Organisational Unit means those departments, schools and other sub-units which comprise the internal structure of the faculty.

Assessment exercise includes all forms of assignments set for assessment purposes including examinations. Assessment exercises may take the form of essays, project reports, laboratory reports, practical work, field trip reports, performances, teaching practice, clinical placements, etc.

Deadline refers to the date for submission of assignments.

Examination includes formal tests, whether administered by the University's Examinations Officer or by the faculty, which are held during or outside the normal teaching periods as approved by Council for each faculty.

Final Grade means the final result determined on the basis of all assessment in a topic, or in the case of an honours degree course, on the basis of all assessment in the course.

Grade Point Average (GPA) is the average of the grades achieved by a student taking into account topic unit values. Values ranging from 0 to 7 are assigned to each grade and GPA is calculated to two decimal places. The value for the grade achieved for each topic is multiplied by the number of units for that topic. This product is totalled for all topics undertaken, and averaged by dividing the total number of units:

sum of (value for each grade x topic unit value)
total units

From 1993 the following values have been assigned to grades for Flinders University students:

High Distinction = 7; Distinction = 6; Credit = 5; *Pass Level 1 = 4.5 [This grading no longer applies to results from 1999 onwards]; Pass Level 2 = 4; Pass = 4; Fail = 0; Withdraw Fail = 0.

The following grades are not counted in the calculation: Non Graded Pass; Withdraw Not Fail.

For the purposes of calculating GPA for study undertaken prior to 1993 or at other institutions, the conversion table published annually by SATAC is used.

Lecturer includes all classifications of academic staff responsible for assessment within a particular topic.

Mark means the result of assessment of a single piece of work in a topic. This may be a numerical or alphabetical or other notation.

Mode of Study refers to the manner in which studies may be undertaken ie, internal, external or mixed modes on a full-time or part-time basis.

Placement refers to a period of learning in which a student is placed in an organisational setting, usually external to the University, that involves a level of supervision by staff of that other organisation.

Resubmission means the lodging for assessment of a student's work after he or she has revised it.

Re-marking means the reassessment of a student's unaltered piece of work by the same or another marker.

Student means a person formally enrolled at the University under the provisions of Statute 6.2 Enrolment of Students in an award course, or in accordance with the Council Policy on Non-Award Studies.

Supplementary assessment means an examination or other assessment, in addition to the specified assessment requirements for a topic, which is set to provide an opportunity to a student to redeem a previous result.

Topic Coordinator means the academic staff member who is either solely responsible for the assessment in a topic if he or she is the only person involved in teaching or who is responsible for the coordination of assessment in the topic if more than one staff member is involved in teaching.