BUE

Assessment

The Assessment Unit is responsible for the following activities: 

• At the beginning of each year the Assessment Unit checks the examination venues to ensure the capacities of each venue, updates the system, and coordinates with the exam team y to agree on the exam allocation structure 
• Schedule the final unseen exams following the agreed protocol: 
o Beginning of academic week 4: the assessment team requests proposed schedules from exam officers to be sent at the beginning of week six.
o Beginning of academic week 5: Exam officers consult student representatives for a proposed schedule within this week. 
o Beginning of academic week 7: AS to upload proposed schedules on the SRS and send the first draft to the faculty exam officers.
o Beginning of academic week 8: Exam officers are to send any comments to AS.
o Beginning of academic week 9: AS is to work on the received comments and send a second draft to exam officers.
o Beginning of academic week 10: Exam officers to either confirm or send final comments to AS.
o Beginning of academic week 11: AS to work on the final comments.
o End of academic week 11: Exam officers are to send their confirmations on the schedule to AS. Any request to make changes to the schedule will be rejected.
o End of academic week 12 (last day of teaching): AS to publish the exams schedule on the SRS.
• Before each semester’s exams the assessment unit provides the building supervisor with the numbering labels to prepare the exam venues.
• The assessment unit is to prepare the exam stationery (answer booklets & invigilation packs) and send it to Exam Officers the day prior to each exam.
• The assessment unit provides a guideline for the module leaders on how to use the SRS to insert the student’s marks.
• Support Academic Staff to complete the marking process and follow up with the faculty SARs on the missing marks during the mark entry process to ensure that all marks are entered. 
• Manage the mark change process by reviewing the validity of the form and supporting evidence received from the faculty and applying the change to the student record system.

Assessment’s structure:
Assessment: Assessment is the formal procedure for evaluating the learning process and determining that a student has achieved the targeted intended learning outcomes. There are two main forms of assessment: “Summative”, where a mark is given that contributes to the overall mark for a module; and “Formative”, where a mark and/or qualitative feedback are given to support future learning, but which do not contribute to the overall module mark. Both forms are very useful. Marks relate to the University’s Marking and Assessment Criteria specified in Annex 5.
A variety of assessment techniques exist, and they can be divided into five categories:
Class Test: A written assessment with a fixed time limit conducted in accordance with the Examination and Assessment Regulations, but which is not under the control of the academic services, and which is organized by the relevant Programme Director outside of an examination period.

Coursework: Examples of coursework include assignments, research papers, presentations, class tests and practical/laboratory-based examinations organized by the relevant department.

Oral Examination: A formal assessment involving oral means of communication and/or demonstration, presentation or defence of a dissertation or project, which may or may not be used in conjunction with other forms of assessment.

Practical Examination: A formal assessment, with a fixed time limit, that requires the student to have access to laboratory, workshop, computing or other similar specialist facilities to be provided by the University.

Written Examination: an unseen examination is one where the student has had no sight or prior knowledge of the content of the paper prior to the examination.