8 April 2020

Dear postgraduate taught student,

We hope that you are managing to stay safe and well in these difficult and worrying times.

We are writing to provide further information on the 'no detriment' policy that was mentioned in the letter sent to you on Monday 30 March 2020.

This letter sets out the overarching University position on 'no detriment' for postgraduate taught (PGT) students. To provide the context for this position, it is important to note the following:

We offer a very wide variety of PGT programmes at Bristol, not just in terms of subject but also in the way that the programmes are structured, delivered and regulated; Our population of postgraduate taught students is very varied, with many students coming from countries where the impact of COVID-19 was felt much earlier than in the UK, and other students combining work and part-time study in quite complex ways; In order to protect the value of your degree from Bristol we need a certain minimum number of marks to form a reliable estimate of your academic performance; The diversity of our PGT offering and student body means that some students currently have no, or very few, confirmed marks and so we cannot form a reliable estimate of their performance before exam boards in the summer; Schools are best placed to make academic judgements about their students and the University is supporting them to enable you to complete your degree.

Detailed work is taking place in schools to translate this guidance into specific actions for particular programmes and units, but this necessarily takes time to make quite certain that we get it right for all of you.

More detailed guidance which is specific to you and your degree programme will therefore be provided by your School no later than 4 May; if your programme of study is accredited by a Professional, Statutory or Regulatory Body (PSRB) which is external to the University, the guidance from your School will include information on what you need to do to ensure you receive professional recognition as well as your University of Bristol degree.

To protect the value of your degree, you need to undertake the remaining taught assessments that your School has set for you (some of which have been modified) and pass the taught component overall, and you also need to pass your dissertation/research project where this is an essential element of your programme.

Our 'no detriment' policy provides a set of measures to ensure that your final degree outcome will not be unduly disadvantaged by the current COVID-19 pandemic if your teaching and learning are adversely affected, or the nature of your assessment is significantly different from what you were originally expecting, or you are unable to demonstrate your true ability because of the impact of the pandemic on you.

Our current regulations for taught students already give us a measure of flexibility to cope with unusual situations, and our Exam Boards are already empowered to use a variety of evidence to reach decisions for each student. We will supplement this existing robust framework with some extra measures (set out below) to deal with the widespread nature of the disruption being caused by COVID-19.

1. Why are we doing this?

It is the right thing to do in the current extraordinary circumstances. We know that your lives have been disrupted, in some cases since January, that you may have concerns about family, friends and your own wellbeing, and that the prospect of undertaking assessments in the coming months is adding to the pressure of daily life. To help you complete your degree within the normal timescale wherever possible. To support you through this challenging time. To ensure that we maintain the value of your degree from Bristol, because we want you to be confident that your degree is comparable to ones from similar universities and will stand you in good stead in the future.

2. What does 'no detriment' mean in practice for you?

It means that your final academic outcome will not be disadvantaged by engaging with assessments under the contingency arrangements that we have had to put in place to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic.

We have decided, after very careful consideration, that we are not able to provide a general quantitative safety net for PGT students that meets each school's requirements because of the lack of sufficient marks on record for a significant number of students. We are therefore concentrating on finding other ways to mitigate the situation, including no-penalty second attempts at taught assessments and dissertations/research projects, as set out in section 3. Your School or Faculty will supplement this general policy with local adjustments as set out by your programme.

3. What extra measures are we putting in place to support you?

Where relevant, we are asking you to undertake modified summer taught assessments in order to ensure that you can meet the programme learning outcomes. Where relevant, we are limiting the number of timed summer exams. Where they take place, summer 2020 assessments will have flexibility built into their design (for example, length of time or alternative arrangements if necessary). Where they take place, all summer 2020 taught assessments will be inclusive by design to accommodate, for example, open book assessments and additional time for technical issues. We will be providing guidance to help you prepare for and take these kinds of assessment. The inclusive nature of these summer assessments will enable us to support international students in different time zones, parents and carers, students who combine study and paid work and disabled students. Agreed alternative exam arrangements (AEAs) will remain in place for modified assessments. If you have any concerns about this, please contact Disability Services. If required by the current circumstances, you will be able to ask for an automatic extension of up to 14 calendar days for all taught coursework assessments. Where relevant, assessments due at the end of last term or after the Easter break may already have been adjusted or extensions given. If, despite the adjustments, you are still unable to submit the assessments on time you should notify your School Office and request an extension: no evidence will be required. You can find guidance about Notifying absence from teaching, coursework extensions and extenuating circumstances. Where relevant, if you need to defer some or all of your taught assessment from the first summer assessment period (May/June) to the second summer period (normally August), because of personal circumstances related to COVID-19, there will be a mechanism for doing this. Please be aware, however, that if you do defer taught assessments in this way you may also have to defer work on your dissertation/ research project (where this is a requirement of your programme), so please take advice from your programme director before you make this decision. If you fail a taught assessment we will allow you a no-penalty second attempt; your School will tell you when these second attempts will take place. For programmes with dissertations/research projects:

Wherever possible, we will work with you to adjust your dissertation topic/research project to ensure you can complete it within or close to the normal timescales; We will normally allow you to start your dissertation/research project even if you have not completed all your taught assessments. We will adjust the University final hand-in date for dissertations/research projects to September 14 2020 to take account of adjustments to the summer assessment period; If you fail your dissertation/research project we will allow you to re-submit it regardless of the mark you achieve at the first attempt (normally we require you to achieve 45% at the first attempt to be eligible to re-submit) and without penalty.

Thank you for your patience while we work through the many details necessary to balance support for you in the current very difficult circumstances with the need to maintain the standards of our degrees which are vital for your future. It is a fine balance but we think this represents the best way forward given the very difficult position we all find ourselves in. We are not able to replicate the approach we set out for undergraduate programmes last week, for the reasons we set out at the start of this letter, but we are doing as much as we can to mitigate the risk and give you the best possible opportunity of graduating with the degree that you came here to obtain.

We hope that the measures we have put in place will help you to get through the rest of this academic year with more confidence. Please email coronavirus-student@bristol.ac.uk if you have any queries or concerns.

With our very best wishes for your success.

Professor Sally Heslop

Associate Pro Vice-Chancellor (Education and Quality Standards)