The No Detriment Policy (.pdf) may seem complex (although at its heart it is fairly simple) and, therefore, we want to provide you with some hypothetical examples to illustrate how it will work. The APACs referred to in some of the descriptions are the Assessment, Progression and Awarding Committees; these are essentially boards of examiners – your lecturers - in your department and college.

Dr. Gihan Marasingha (Mathematics) has kindly produced two useful videos to guide you through estimating your ‘safety net’ benchmark. The first video **summarises the key points of the policy, and the calculations for undergraduate students, where they either have sufficient credit this year for a benchmark to be calculated, or where a credit from a previous Exeter-based stage can be used to make up a shortfall in credits this year. The **second video covers the cases of postgraduate taught students, and students for whom it is not possible to use credit from a previous Exeter-based stage to contribute to a benchmark (i.e. first-year undergraduates).

These are some undergraduate examples for a typical 3 year programme in which the final year mark has a weighting of 2 and the second year a weighting of 1 in the degree classification calculation.

I have got consistent 2.1 marks in my second year and final year, what does it mean for me?

• You don’t need to worry about calculating the benchmark because it will be in the 2.1 class and, when combined with your 2.1 performance in the 2nd year, your degree mark will be in the 2.1 degree class as long as you complete and pass the year and are not subject to academic misconduct penalties

I have got consistent 1st class marks in my second year and final year, what does it mean for me?

• You don’t need to worry about calculating the benchmark because it will be in the 1st class and, when combined with your 1st class performance in the 2nd year, your degree mark will be in the 1st class as long as you complete and pass the year and are not subject to academic misconduct penalties

I have a stage mean of 68 for the second year and have completed 25% of my final year credits with a mean (weighted by credits) of 75; what does it mean for me?

• Your benchmark for the final year is 71.5 [(68 * 0.5) + (75 * 0.25 * 2)]. If you don’t improve on the benchmark, your degree mark will be in the 1st class [(68 + 71.5 + 71.5)/3 = 70.3] as long as you complete and pass the year and are not subject to academic misconduct penalties

I have a stage mean of 58 for the second year and have completed 50% of my final year credits with a mean (weighted by credits) of 65; what does it mean for me?

• Your benchmark for the final year is 65 (you have completed enough credits). If you don’t improve on the benchmark, your degree mark will be in the 2.1 class [(58 + 65 + 65)/3 = 62.7] as long as you complete and pass the year and are not subject to academic misconduct penalties

I know I am borderline, have a stage mean of 68 for the second year and have completed 50% of my final year credits with a mean (weighted by credits) of 71; what does it mean for me?

• Your benchmark for the final year is 71 (you have completed enough credits). If you don’t improve on the benchmark, your degree mark will be in the 1st class [(68 + 71 + 71)/3 = 70] as long as you complete and pass the year and are not subject to academic misconduct penalties

I know I am on the 2.1 borderline; I have a stage mean of 58 for the second year and have completed 25% of my final year credits with a mean (weighted by credits) of 60; what does it mean for me?

• Your benchmark for the final year is 59 [(58 * 0.5) + (60 * 0.25 * 2)]. You are still borderline and on these marks, if you don’t improve on the benchmark, your degree mark will be in the 2.2 class [(58 + 59 + 59)/3 = 58.7] as long as you complete and pass the year and are not subject to academic misconduct penalties. However, remember the benchmark is a safety-net and you have a lot of summer assessments in which to achieve the improvement you are looking for. Furthermore, exam boards (APACs) always look carefully at borderline candidates and, naturally, will give these special focus this year given the exceptional circumstances.

I am a second year and have a stage mean of 55 for the 1st year but have stepped up this year because I know it counts towards my degree classification; I have completed 50% of my second year credits with a mean (weighted by credits) of 65; what does it mean for me?

• Your benchmark for the second year is 65 (you have completed enough credits). If you don’t improve on the benchmark, your stage mark will be 65 as long as you complete and pass the year and are not subject to academic misconduct penalties

I am a second year and have a stage mean of 55 for the 1st year but have stepped up this year because I know it counts towards my degree classification; I have completed 25% of my second year credits with a mean (weighted by credits) of 65; what does it mean for me?

• Your benchmark for the second year is 60 [(55 * 0.5) + (65 * 0.25 * 2)]. Of course, you can still improve on this in the summer assessments as you have several to come and once you have a full set of second year marks, we don’t need to use the 1st year marks. However, if you don’t improve on the benchmark, your stage mark will still be in the 2.1 class because it will be set to your benchmark as long as you complete and pass the year and are not subject to academic misconduct penalties.

I am a first year and I have completed 35% of my first year credits with a mean (weighted by credits) of 65; what does it mean for me?

• You have a provisional benchmark of 65. It is provisional because you haven’t completed 50% of your credits. The June APAC will look at your performance in the summer assessment and as long as it is close to your provisional benchmark they will set your overall stage result at whichever is higher, your credit-weighted mean for the year (stage) or your provisional benchmark. This is all so long as you complete and pass the year and are not subject to academic misconduct penalties. If the APAC considers that performance between March and June is significantly lower than the provisional benchmark they have discretion to set your overall stage result at a mark lower than the provisional benchmark; if they do, you will be provided with the justification for this decision.

Postgraduate programmes are more complicated but here are 2 examples for a typical 1 year programme.

I am a postgraduate student and I have completed 35% of my credits with a mean (weighted by credits) of 55, I will complete another 35% of credits by June and submit my dissertation, which is worth 30% of my credits, in September; what does it mean for me?

• You have a provisional benchmark of 55. It is provisional because you haven’t completed 50% of your credits. The June APAC will look at your performance in the summer assessment, by which time you will have completed more than 50% of your credits. As long as your performance between March and June is close to the provisional benchmark they will set your firm benchmark at whichever is higher, your credit-weighted mean for the year up to that point or your provisional benchmark as long as you are not subject to academic misconduct penalties. If the APAC considers that performance between March and June is significantly lower than the provisional benchmark they have discretion to set the firm benchmark lower than the provisional benchmark. However, if they do so, you will be provided with the justification for this decision.
• When you have completed your dissertation, as long as you have completed and passed the year and are not subject to academic misconduct penalties, your degree mark will be set to whichever is higher, your credit-weighted mean for the whole year or your firm benchmark.

I am a postgraduate student and I have completed 50% of my credits with a mean (weighted by credits) of 65, I will complete another 20% of credits by June and submit my dissertation, which is worth 30% of my credits, in September; what does it mean for me?

• You have a benchmark of 65. The June APAC will compare your credit-weighted mean for the year (stage), based on all your assessments to that point, with the benchmark. As long as you are not subject to academic misconduct penalties, if your credit-weighted mean is higher than your benchmark the exam board will increase your benchmark to your new, higher credit-weighted mean mark; otherwise your benchmark will be unchanged.
• When you have completed your dissertation, as long as you have completed and passed the year and are not subject to academic misconduct penalties, your degree mark will be set to whichever is higher, your credit-weighted mean for the whole year or your benchmark.

We hope that, even if the policy is necessarily technical these examples, help you understand and gain assurance about the way that we are seeking to support you to succeed. We hope that over the remaining months of the academic year you will be able to focus on looking after yourself and those about you and on preparing for the summer assessments that are the capstone of your learning through the academic year. We wish you every success.