When Will I Get My Marks?

Staff members have three weeks in which to mark assignments AND complete due moderation, so you should not expect to receive feedback on your assignments until this process is complete.

Your assignments are returned on Moodle, where you submitted them, with the mark and feedback on performance supplied. You are responsible for reaching and absorbing the feedback on your assessments. You should make an appointment with your lecturer or seminar leader if you have any questions about the comments they have given you.

How is My Work Marked?

All assessed work is marked according to Kent’s Marking Scale and the CLAS Marking Criteria (below).

Your lecturers and seminar leaders put in a lot of time and effort to comment on your work in an effort to help you improve your writing and reasoning.

It is important that you read this feedback and use it to improve your next writing assignment using the CLAS Cover Sheet.

If you do not include a complete CLAS coversheet, your marks will be withheld on moodle and KentVision until you submit it.

The Provisional Status of Marked Work

When your work is returned, the mark is still provisional because all second and third year marks are “moderated” by internal and external examiners. Marks are not fully finalized until the Board of Examiners meets in June.

What is “Moderation”?

According to the Quality Assurance Agency (QAA), moderation allows us to ensure that the assessment criteria have been applied appropriately, reflecting the shared understanding of the markers, and an approach which enables comparability across academic subjects (in particular recognising that students may be studying more than one subject). Moderation focuses on the marks awarded to the full set of assessed work for a task, module or programme, in the context of the academic standards for the award. It is therefore separate from the question of how differences in marks between two or more markers are resolved, and is not about making changes to an individual student’s marks.

Appeals Against the Recommendations of Boards of Examiners

Appeals from students will be considered in the following circumstances:

(i) where there is reasonable ground supported by objective evidence to believe that there has been administrative, procedural or clerical error of such a nature as to have affected the recommendation of the Board of Examiners; or

(ii) where there is evidence of illness or other misfortune such as to cause exceptional interference with academic performance and which the student was, for good reason, unable to submit by the published deadline; or

(iii) where evidence relating to illness or other misfortune submitted under extenuating circumstances procedures within the prescribed time limit was not properly considered by the Board of Examiners.

(iv) Appeals that are based on mitigating circumstances which, without good reason, were not brought to the attention of the Board of Examiners through extenuating circumstances procedures at the appropriate time will not be considered.

In all cases, appeals must be submitted to the appropriate Division Support Office and will be considered only where:

• submitted by means of the Appeal Form (contact the taught programmes coordinator: (artshumsugandpgt@kent.ac.uk)
• accompanied by a letter explaining in full the grounds for the appeal and the remedial action sought from the Board of Examiners;
• providing all necessary documentary evidence substantiating the grounds of the appeal;
• submitted within the applicable deadline.

External Examiners

For information about the External Examiner(s) responsible for the CLAS programmes, see: https://www.kent.ac.uk/teaching/qa/extexaminers/local/ee-info-students.html