Table of contents

• Rearranging coursework & obtaining extensions: general rules
• Approaching the EAMC where labs cannot be re-arranged in Part I
• Part IIA Project and Coursework Extensions
• Part IIB Project and Coursework Extensions

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Rearranging coursework & obtaining extensions: general rules

Introduction

Although we expect students to attend all lab sessions and respect coursework deadlines, we understand there may be reasons why this may not always be possible. In such cases, students may be allowed to rearrange timetabled lab sessions or request deadline extensions for coursework submission. This document sets out the department’s approach to this subject as agreed by the Faculty Board, in alignment with University Policy .

Extensions

Application form for a coursework deadline extension: Deadline Extension Application

Principles:

1. Students may obtain deadline extensions of 7 days on a self-declaration basis for the submission of coursework. No tutorial support or medical evidence is required and no reason need be given.
2. No more than four individual coursework extensions can be approved under this policy in any one academic year. Each of the four extensions will be for 7 days.  
3. No more than one self-declared extension may be requested for a specific piece of coursework.
4. Deadline extensions for coursework submissions:   (a) Applications must be made in advance of the deadline.  Applications submitted more than one week prior to the deadline will not be accepted.   (b) Extensions may not be possible, or only be possible for a limited period of time, close to the end of a term or the academic year due to the timing of examiners meeting.  (c) Extensions under the department policy are not possible in relation to IIA project interim and final reports due to the proximity of the final examiners meeting and very tight marking schedule. Students should refer to the detailed guidance on dealing with illness and disability with respect to IIA project deadlines.  (d) Extensions under the department policy are not possible in relation to the IIB project final report deadline. Students should refer to the detailed guidance on dealing with illness and disability with respect to IIB project deadlines.
5. Individual self-declared extension requests cannot be combined to obtain an extension longer than 7 days for any piece of coursework. Extensions longer than 7 days must be applied for via the EAMC.
6. If the limit of four self-declared extensions is reached, further extension requests need to be made via the EAMC.
7. Students have the right to apply to the EAMC for allowances, where appropriate, in respect of marks lost or penalties for late submission.

Explanatory notes:

• Coursework penalties and deadline extensions will be checked before examiners meet in Easter term. If any extensions are found to be in breach of these principles, the extension will be removed and lateness penalties will be applied. 
• The department policy is intended to reduce paperwork and complexity by removing the need for simple and straightforward issues to be submitted to the EAMC. It is not intended to deal with complex matters. The limits above are intended to ensure that complex situations are given appropriate and full consideration.
• Decisions under this policy are normally made by the Director of Undergraduate Education acting on behalf of the department. On request decisions can be reviewed by the Deputy Head (Teaching). As stated in the policy, students remain free to approach the EAMC if a deadline extension is not approved by the department.
• Approvals will be copied to the student's tutor.
• This policy can be used where students need to request flexibility with deadlines as specified in a Student Support Document. Any further allowances required for this purpose should be sought through the EAMC.  

Rearrangements

Application form for rearrangement of a timetabled lab session:  Rearrangement Application

Principles:

1. All timetabled coursework activities are compulsory parts of the course.
2. Students may also request re-arrangement of timetabled coursework activities. Due to limited resource the department has to limit the grounds on which a student can request the re-arrangement of a scheduled coursework activity. These are set out below.
3. Up to 7 instances of re-arrangement may be requested under this policy in any one academic year.
4. Applications to rearrange a coursework activity must be submitted in advance.
5. Students are expected to pro-actively contact staff running coursework activities to re-arrange any missed activities.  Staff will be informed once the Teaching Office has approved the request. The Teaching Office will assist if needed.
6. Re-arrangement of a coursework activity is not guaranteed, and may be subject to timetabling constraints, limitations on lab capacity and other practical considerations.  If re-arrangement is not approved or not possible, and the activity is missed, the student will not be awarded the marks for the missed activity. The student will need to consult with their tutor regarding the possibility of an application to the EAMC in such cases.
7. If the limit of 7 coursework rearrangements is reached, further re-arrangement requests would need to be made to the Director of Undergraduate Education and would require College support.

Explanatory notes:

• If the request is approved by the Teaching Office, a copy of the approval will be sent to the student, the lab leader and / or the technician in charge.
• For Part I coursework sessions, once the teaching office has approved the re-arrangement request, students should identify an appropriate replacement slot in the timetable, in discussion with the appropriate lab technician or lab leader. 
• "Re-arrangement" includes requesting to miss a session without penalty in activities that run over multiple days and where it may not be possible to re-schedule, such as Exposition, IA Structural Design, IB IDP or a compulsory IIA project session. In such cases, "re-arrangement" may consist of advice on catching up with the task, rather than a substitute session.
• Contact details of lab leaders and technicians are available online: IA, IB.

Acceptable reasons for seeking rearrangement of a timetable coursework activities (not that this does not apply to deadline extensions):

1. Illness:  The department will accept self-certification of illness as a reason to re-arrange a practical session. Note that applications on this basis must still be submitted in advance of the lab session. Students who are too unwell to submit an application in advance of the lab should consult their Tutor about the possibility of an application to the EAMC. "Illness" includes medical appointments.  
2. Compassionate or religious grounds:  Examples of compassionate grounds includes attendance at a funeral of a close family member or a family or medical emergency. Attendance at a family event, such as a family holiday, wedding or graduation would not be considered compassionate grounds. Applications to rearrange timetabled coursework activities for religious observance that usually occurs over a restricted period (e.g. Eid al-Fitr, Shavuot, Pesach, Shivaratri, Vaisakhi) will be considered. Where observance extends over a significant period of time (e.g. Ramadan), and where it is normally expected that daily activities (including teaching) will continue as normal, applications would not be considered. Rearrangements for the purpose of holy visits, pilgrimages etc. cannot be approved. Retrosepctive requests will not be accepted. 
3. Interviews: When applying for jobs, work placements or sponsorship, students may be invited for interview on days that conflict with coursework activities. Students should in the first instance seek to rearrange the interview rather than the coursework. If this proves impossible, then the student should try to rearrange the coursework. Such re-arrangements must be made in advance. Retrosepctive requests will not be accepted.
4. Sporting commitments:  Coursework may not be rearranged to accommodate College sporting commitments or College or University training sessions. Students will, wherever practicable, be allowed to seek to rearrange coursework that conflicts with University sporting fixtures. Such re-arrangements must be made in advance. Retrosepctive requests will not be accepted.

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Approaching the EAMC where labs cannot be re-arranged in Part I

If your request for re-arrangement is accepted, however you are told that the lab leader cannot practically accomodate this then, as set out in the policy above, you will not be awarded the marks for the activity. This section explains how you should go about collecting evidence and applying to the EAMC to have missed labs disregarded for the purposes of meeting the standard credit requirement. Please remember that you may still achieve standard credit if you miss only a small part of a section of the coursework so you may not need to do this. Please see the coursework credit notices for IA and IB for details.

Your College Tutor can assist you in making an application to the EAMC. You should note that EAMC approves allowances in the case of illness or other "grave cause" .

The department has received guidance from the EAMC secretariat that Part I students in Engineering should make one application in respect of all missed labs in a year when the standard credit marks are published (normally around the time of the last lectures in Easter Term). You should not make applications piecemeal throughout the year. You will be emailed about this before the exams take place. Unfortunately we are not able to answer queries about marks until these are collated at that time. You should also note that the EAMC typically only considers cases which would lead to change in class.

Any application to the EAMC will be reliant on the evidence submitted to support the application and therefore you should keep evidence, including any emails confirming that the lab could not be re-arranged and any notes of any interactions that you had with your GP, Tutor or College Nurse at the time to confirm illness. You should also keep evidence of any positive COVID test etc. If you missed the lab due to other reasons you should keep evidence of those reasons.

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Part IIA Project and Coursework Extensions

Part IIA Coursework Overview

During the Michaelmas and Lent terms, Part IIA undergraduates submit a minimum of 8 reports/essays associated with modules, and 2 full technical reports (FTR), and complete an Extension Activity (ExA). During the Easter term, students undertake 2 projects.  Students are expected to make all reasonable efforts to complete missed experiments, FTRs and ExAs at a later date, and should contact the member of staff in charge of the activity concerned as soon as possible to arrange rescheduling. As these activties are typically booked by students rather than being timetabled we would normally expect students to simply rebook their lab session and the teaching office does not need to give permission for this. If a student experiences difficulty in rebooking a session in consultation with the lab leader for the module they should contact the teaching office. As deadlines for coursework submission run from the date the associated lab is actually undertaken, no deadline extension request need be made where a student has simply rebooked a lab session. Where a student fails to complete an activity they would need to consult with their Tutor regarding an approach to EAMC, the department does not award marks for activities that are not completed.

Deadline extensions for coursework and FTRs due to illness or other reason must be approved by the teaching office following the extensions policy detailed above.  An approved deadline extension will result in the removal of any late submission penalities. 

Work for which an extension has been approved is due at the same time of day as the original deadline, usually 4pm.

Part IIA projects

Students are expected to complete as much as possible of the work associated with their two projects, but the four week timetable imposes tight constraints. 

Missed Sessions

Mark penalties are applied for missing compulsory sessions. If a "re-arrangement" of a session is approved by the teaching office (via the online form) penalty marks will not be applied for a missed session as it is assumed that a student will attempt to catch up at a later time.

Significant disruption

If disruption to your project work is sufficient that there is a significant risk that you may not be able to catch up all of the work and complete the project, you must notify your Tutor, project leader(s) and the Director of Undergraduate Education by email immediately. You may need to apply for an appropriate allowance via the EAMC process in this case.

Deadline Extensions

Extensions under the department policy are not possible in relation to IIA project interim and final reports due to the proximity of the final examiners meeting and very tight marking schedule. This constraint, as it is due to minmum time requirements for marking and classing, cannot be extended by an approach to the EAMC.

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Part IIB Project and Coursework Extensions

Module coursework

Students are expected to make all reasonable efforts to complete any missed coursework, normally during the term in which the module is taught or the following vacation. Deadline extensions for coursework due to illness or other reason must be approved by the teaching office following the extensions policy detailed above.

Work for which an extension has been approved is due at the same time of day as the original deadline, usually 4pm.

Projects

Students unable, for one of the reasons given in teh rearrangements policy above, to give their presentations at the scheduled times should notify their project supervisor and group project coordinator as soon as possible. Students may be asked to join another group, or a one-off presentation may be arranged, if possible. Permission from the teaching office is not required for such re-arrangement if agreed by supervisor and group project coordinator. A student experiencing difficulties that cannot be resolved via their supervisor and/or group project coordinator should contact the teaching office for advice.

Notwithstanding the above, final project presentations must have occurred before Wednesday of week 6. It is not possible to delay final project presentations beyond this point due to the requirement to ensure that marks are available in time for examiners to class candidates.

Extensions to the technical milestone report deadline will be permitted in accordance with the policy on extensions detailed above.

Extensions to the final MEng project report deadline are very limited as deadlines for marking and assessment of this activity are very tight.  Extensions under the department policy are not possible in relation to the IIB project final report deadline. Any application must be via the EAMC. The examiners are not able to accommodate a deadline extension of more than 3 days due to the need to mark and class candidates. As this project runs over the entire year it is expected that there will be very limited circumstances where a short deadline extension is relevant. Should a student obtain approval for an extension of more than 3 days from EAMC the examiners would not be able to class the candidate in time for General Admission.

It is expected that students will submit a full draft of their report to their supervisor for comment at least 2 weeks before the final deadline.

Failure to submit any project reports for assessment will be treated in the same way as a missed examination: zero marks awarded. Please note that the EAMC's guidelines suggest that they would be unlikely to propose classing a candidate who does not submit a final project report, given it amounts to 50% of the year's work.

Penalties will be applied, where no extension is granted, for each day that a report is late. The final report will not be accepted if more than three days late.

Penalties will be applied for infringement of the rules concerning report length.

Last updated on 27/08/2024 11:00