To: Undergraduate students From: coronavirus.information@durham.ac.uk Subject: Assessment policy, Serious Adverse Circumstances and Examination Deferral forms update To be issued: Thursday 7 May

Dear Durham Students,

Assessment policy update

In April, we wrote to you to outline our commitment to introduce a No Detriment policy where assessments undertaken during the pandemic can only raise and not lower your degree classification. Yesterday, the University’s Senate approved the full implementation of that policy.

For undergraduate and integrated masters students, the approved policy means that we will generate two marks, and use whichever is higher to classify your degree. The first ‘normal’ final mark will include all of your assessments, the second ‘no detriment’ final mark will include assessments due on or before 13th March 2020. You will still need to pass your modules to qualify for your degree, but as long as you do, assessments undertaken after the start of the pandemic can only raise, never lower, your degree classification. Full details of the policy are now available online( https://www.dur.ac.uk/student.registry/assessment/covid19/classification/ ).

No Detriment is one of the measures we are adopting to ensure that you are not disadvantaged during this pandemic. These include reviews of our approach to progression and presentation of marks on transcripts, which will also be of relevance to students whose work is not classified (including Foundation programme, Level 1 and Erasmus students). Further information on such measures, including our approach to dealing serious adverse circumstances in light of Covid-19, is also available below.

Serious Adverse Circumstances and Examination Deferral forms

We are pleased to advise that the online Serious Adverse Circumstances (SAC) Form is now available, as is the Examination Deferral Form.

Before accessing either form, make sure you have read the detailed information on the Serious Adverse Circumstances webpage( https://www.dur.ac.uk/student.registry/assessment/covid19/sacs/ ). A flowchart( https://www.dur.ac.uk/resources/student.registry/assessment/Covid19Mitigationoptionscombined2.pdf ) is also now available on that webpage to help you determine what action, if any, is required by you.

If you do need to complete an online SAC Form then visit here( https://www.dur.ac.uk/student.registry/assessment/covid19/sacs/online/ ).

If you do need to complete the Examination Deferral Form then visit here( https://www.dur.ac.uk/student.registry/assessment/covid19/sacs/examdeferral/ ).

Full guidance about how the two forms work, how they should be completed, and by when, is provided on the dedicated Serious Adverse Circumstances webpage( https://www.dur.ac.uk/student.registry/assessment/covid19/sacs/ ).

Conclusion

We will always do our best to help and to support you; as ever, your College’s student support staff and the Students’ Union advice service are available to support you with any individual difficulties you may face.

Once again, thank you for your patience in these incredibly difficult and challenging times. We wish you all the best for these upcoming assessments, and that you and those near and dear to you stay safe and well.

With best wishes,

Alan Houston Sam Johnson-Audini Vice-Provost (Education) SU UG Academic Officer