SCHOOL
OF MEDICAL SCIENCES
ASSESSMENT,
ILLNESS AND MISADVENTURE POLICY
The
“Who, What, When, and Where”, and any other questions regarding assessment.
“Assessments
are designed to provide feedback on performance or to establish that students have
reached an adequate standard to proceed or to graduate”. This is the opening statement of the
The
School of Medical Sciences (SBS) is comprised of the Departments of Anatomy and
Histology, Infectious Diseases and Immunology, Pathology, Pharmacology and
Physiology. We want to make sure that
all students in all Units of Study (UoS) within the
Always
remember that these policies are designed to help cases of genuine need. Falsification
of certificates or false representation of need is a serious breach of
University guidelines and can lead to disciplinary action and/or expulsion from
the University.
Any
queries regarding this policy can be directed to the nominated Student Liaison
Officer listed in the table below:
|
Department |
Contact person and
details |
Location |
|
Anatomy and
Histology |
Katherine Wilkinson 9351 2497 kwilkinson@anatomy.usyd.edu.au |
Building Rm S463 |
|
Infectious Diseases
and Immunology |
Dr Allison
Abendroth
(Immunology)
9351 2776 allison.abendroth@sydney.edu.au
Prof Peter McMinn (Infectious
Diseases) 9351 2776 Dr Jim Manos (Infectious
Diseases) 9351 2776 |
Rm 667 |
|
Pathology |
Brett Hambly 9352 3059 |
Rm 557 |
|
Pharmacology |
Nimmi Ramesh 9351 2408 |
Rm211 |
|
Physiology |
Louise Harrison 9351 3478 |
Rm E212 |
·
All essays and
reports for all Units of Study taught by the
·
All essays and
reports should be submitted with an Assignment
Cover Sheet to the Student Liaison Officer or a nominated administrative staff
member. Complete the coversheet before you come to the office.
·
You will be issued
with a receipt, signed and stamped
by the Student Liaison Officer or a nominated administrative staff member. Keep this receipt and a copy of your essay or
report in case you need proof of submission in the future.
·
DO NOT SUBMIT ASSIGNMENTS TO YOUR LECTURERS OR TUTORS DIRECTLY, because they cannot issue a receipt and you will not have proof of
having submitted them.
·
Under no circumstances
will computer media (a disk) or electronic submission be accepted. Remember to plan enough time to print your
assignment as well as to write it.
If you have no legitimate reason (see
below for excuses we do not accept) for submitting your assessments after the
due date then your assessment will be dealt with in the following way:
Your assessment will be forwarded to the relevant marker and
assessed. The final mark awarded will,
however, be multiplied by a relevant factor depending on how many days overdue
your assessment is. For example, if your
assessment is one day overdue the awarded mark will be multiplied by 0.9, two
days late by 0.8, three days late by 0.7, and 4 days late by 0.6. Thus, if the assessment is judged to be worth
18 out of 20 and it was four days late, the final mark awarded will be 10.8 out
of 20 (18 x 0.6).
No mark will be awarded if the assessment is submitted more than 4 days
after the due date.
In the case where the due date is other than a Monday, then Saturdays
and Sundays count as normal days and lateness penalties will be incurred. For example, if the due date is Friday and
you submit on Monday (i.e. three days late), then your awarded mark will be
multiplied by 0.7.
All
effort will be made by the School to ensure that illness or misadventure does
not affect your academic performance.
However, only serious illness or misadventure will warrant consideration
and this must be well attested by applying for Special Consideration (SCA).
You should be aware that an application
for Special Consideration is a request,
and does not guarantee that consideration will be granted. However, if you feel that your circumstances
are affecting your academic performance follow the procedures below:
·
You must obtain a Special Consideration Application pack (containing
an information sheet, the Application for Special Consideration form, the
Professional Practitioners Certificate and the Academic Judgment Form) from the
Student Information Office of the Faculty of Science or from the Faculty website under ‘Special Consideration’
at http://www.science.usyd.edu.au/fstudent/postgrad/pdf/special_consideration_application_pack.pdf.
NOTE: Applications for Special Consideration for a Unit of Study
taught by a School or Department within the Faculty of Science must be
submitted to the Faculty of Science, regardless of the Faculty in which you are
enrolled. Applications for a Unit of Study taught by a School or Department in
a different Faculty must be submitted at that Faculty Office, even if you are a
Science student. If you are unsure about where to submit an application,
please contact the Student Information Office of the Faculty of Science.
·
You must lodge the
original of the application form and originals of any supporting documentation
at the Student Information Office within 7 days of the date of an exam or
assessment (see below for more specific details). Where it is not possible to
obtain original documentation (e.g. death certificate, police report),
submission of a certified copy will be permitted. All other forms submitted
must be originals, including the Professional Practitioners Certificate (PPC).
NOTE: It is also necessary to provide a copy of the application and all
documentation for each piece of assessment in which consideration is being
sought, to be stamped by the Faculty and forwarded to the School for assessment
(for example, if you are applying for consideration for three different pieces
of assessment, you must submit the original documentation plus three copies of
all documents). The Student Information Office will not make copies of any documentation submitted.
·
For consideration due
to serious illness you must have a registered
medical practitioner or counselor complete the Professional Practitioners
Certificate which is attached to the application form. Please note that only
the Professional Practitioner’s Certificate will be accepted in support of an
application for Special Consideration on grounds of serious illness: MEDICAL CERTIFICATES WILL NOT BE
ACCEPTED. You are strongly advised to ensure that the medical
practitioner completes this certificate on initial consultation by obtaining
the form before the consultation.
·
For consideration due
to misadventure, a Professional Practitioners
Certificate or other form of appropriate documentation (a police report or
death certificate, for example) is required which indicates the likely duration
and effect of the misadventure on the student’s performance.
NOTE: Only the supporting documents provided at the time of initial
application for Special Consideration will be used to assess the request. It
will not be possible to submit further documentation relating to an initial application
once an application has been lodged with the Student Information Office. Only
those circumstances brought to the attention of staff at the time of lodgment
will be taken into consideration when formulating an academic judgment.
·
The Student Information
Office will check the application at time of lodgment to ensure that the forms
are complete and that supporting documentation is adequate and if so, will
sign/stamp both the original application form as well
as the student’s copies to confirm lodgment of the application at the
office. Personal information
(Name, SID, Assessment) on all forms must be completed before the forms are
accepted at the Student Information Office; incomplete forms will not be
accepted.
·
The
Student Information Office will enter the details contained on your application
form into the Special Consideration database, which will be used to monitor the
progress of your application.
·
Once the form has
been stamped by the Student Information Office, you must take the stamped and
dated application form and documentation to the nominated Student Liaison
Officer (see Table above) of the Department for which you are seeking special
consideration. Your application will be
forwarded to the relevant UoS coordinator for assessment. Please note that this
must be done for each Unit of Study for which consideration is being sought.
·
Your
SCA is treated confidentially and does not in any way disadvantage you.
·
The Unit of Study
Coordinator plus the Head of School/Chair of Discipline or their nominee will
assess the evidence you have provided in your application and make a decision
(referred to as the ‘academic judgment’).
·
The Unit
of Study Coordinator and the Head of School (or their nominee) will evaluate
how serious the reasons for Special Consideration are and how they may have
impacted on your performance or attendance.
·
The academic
assessors will also determine the result of the application for Special
Consideration in accordance with Faculty guidelines regarding possible outcomes
(see below).
·
The academic judgment
of the application for Special Consideration will be forwarded to the Faculty
office.
·
The Faculty will send
an e-mail to your University e-mail address informing you of the outcome. It is
expected that you will receive a response within fourteen (14) days of initial
application. Please check your
University e-mail account regularly during exam and vacation times as this is
the fastest and most efficient way of contacting you.
THE ACCEPTANCE OF THE
SPECIAL CONSIDERATION AND ANY GRANTING OF EXTENSION AND RESCHEDULING OF TESTS IS
DEPENDENT ON THE QUALITY OF THE EVIDENCE SUBMITTED IN YOUR APPLICATION.
·
NO
·
If
you are sick for less than a week and there are no assignments due or test
scheduled during your absence then you DO
NOT need to submit an SCA.
·
However,
frequent absences from tutorials, seminars and practical classes need to be
explained and supported by relevant documentation (see note below).
·
See
the end of the document for circumstances which we DO NOT consider and where your SCA will not be accepted.
NOTE:
The following is an extract from the The
Faculty of Science Handbook 2004, p.
34, and the Faculty
of Science Guidelines for Application for Special Consideration Document
regarding attendance and applies to all UoS in the Faculty of Science:
“Students enrolled in courses and units of study under
the administration of the Faculty of Science are expected to attend a minimum
of 80 per cent of tutorials, seminars and practical sessions etc associated
with those courses or units, unless granted exemption by the Dean or Head of
the relevant department. The Head of Department may set additional requirements
for the minimum number of assessment items such as practical reports, tutorial
papers, seminars, essays, exercises, quizzes etc which must be completed. On
the recommendation of the relevant Head of Department the Dean may determine
that a student fails a unit of study because of inadequate attendance or
insufficient assessment items completed.”
Please note that this policy extends to attendance as
well as assessment; where a Unit of Study has sessions at which attendance is
mandatory (eg laboratory demonstrations), non-attendance may result in academic
penalty or failure of the Unit of Study as determined by the School.
Unless the School determines otherwise, this policy
permits a student to miss two weeks of attendance and/or attendance-related
assessment without jeopardizing successful completion of the Unit of Study. If
a greater period is missed, the School will be able to exercise the option of
awarding the grade of AF (Absent Fail) for the given Unit of Study.
If
your SCA is not accepted then lateness penalties for written assignments (as
described above) will be applied and the tests will not be rescheduled.
.
·
A new due date will be arranged for the
written assignment or a new date
scheduled in the case of a test. The
Student Liaison Officer will contact you with these details.
·
An extension
will only be granted for a maximum period equal to the length of attested
impairment (ie, if you were impaired for three days, you may be granted an
extension of up to three days). If the assessment is completed or submitted
within the period of extension, no academic penalty will be applied to that
piece of assessment.
·
If the written
assignment is not received by this new date then lateness penalties will apply.
·
If you do not attend
a rescheduled test then no further opportunity to re-sit will be made
available.
·
If
your SCA is in relation to compulsory
classes that cannot be taken at a different time, and for which a report
must be submitted (e.g. a practical class report), then you may submit a report
based upon data collected by fellow students or provided by teachers. In the exceptional circumstance where a
report cannot be written without attending the class, then you will be awarded
a mark, which is the average of marks obtained for assignments relating to
other classes.
IT IS YOUR RESONSIBILITY TO FOLLOW THE STEPS ABOVE SO
THAT YOU HAVE THE BEST CHANCE TO COMPLETE AND BE CREDITED FOR THE SEMESTER’S
WORK.
IT IS YOUR
RESPONSIBILITY TO MAKE UP AS SOON AS POSSIBLE WORK MISSED DURING THE
SEMESTER. DO NOT LEAVE EVERYTHING TO THE
END WHEN YOU SHOULD BE STUDYING FOR EXAMS.
SPECIAL
CONSIDERATIONS SUBMITTED AT THE END OF SEMESTER IN RELATION TO ASSESSMENTS
DURING THE SEMESTER WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED
What if I am unable to attend
tutorials where group work is assessed?
If you miss tutorials in which your individual
contribution or your contribution within a group is assessed, YOU SHOULD FIRST
EXPLAIN YOUR ABSENCE TO YOUR UoS COORDINATOR
AND APPLY FOR SPECIAL CONSIDERATION.
In these circumstances you may be able to make up the mark by providing
some evidence of having prepared for the tutorial. The nature of this alternate assessment
should be negotiated with your tutor IN THE FIRST INSTANCE.
You should make every reasonable effort to attend the
final examination at the scheduled time. There are, however, several options
for you to follow depending on the severity of the illness/misadventure.
·
Option One If you feel that you need some medical help, you should do the
following:
·
Go to The University
Health Service on the day of the exam before the exam starts.
·
A doctor will assess
you and provide a room for you to sit the exam.
·
Alternately, see your
own doctor and bring a completed Professional Practitioner Certificate to the University
Health Service before the exam starts.
·
The staff at the
University Health Service will arrange for the exam to be delivered to you at
the University Health Service.
·
Option Two If you genuinely cannot attend the exam, you should do the following:
·
See your doctor
immediately – do not wait for a week.
Your certificate may not be valid at this time.
·
Submit a Special
Consideration Application within 7days of the date of the missed exam,
following the procedures above.
·
As you are not the only
one for whom we may need to arrange another assessment, it is imperative that
you contact the relevant Student Liaison Officer or UoS coordinator
immediately.
·
Keep all original
documents.
YOUR SPECIAL
CONSIDERATION WILL NOT BE CONSIDERED IF IT IS SUBMITTED TO US MORE THAN A WEEK
AFTER THE ORIGINAL EXAM DATE.
·
Option Three If you are experiencing chronic illness or misadventure that is
affecting your study continuously throughout the semester, you should do the
following
·
See your UoSC as soon
as you think that your study is being affected.
·
All effort will be
made to help you cope with the assessment deadlines and exam preparation
·
Your circumstances
must be documented and supported by an SCA.
·
If at exam time you
find you cannot comply fully with the steps in option two then your case will
be considered by the UoS coordinator in consultation with the Departmental
Teaching Committee where necessary.
·
A decision will be
made which is in your best interests.
NOTE: The University makes a clear distinction between
longstanding illness or misadventure which prevent students from attending
classes or completing required work or which seriously interferes with their
capacity to study for long periods, and short-term serious illness or
misadventure that may prevent a well-prepared student from sitting an
examination or completing a particular assignment. Students who, because of
serious illness or misadventure, are prevented from attending classes for
prolonged periods should seek an interview with the relevant Unit of Study
Coordinator. Even if they do not exceed any specified permitted period of
absence, they may need to consider whether their best academic interests are
served by discontinuing with permission from the course until they are able to
resume their studies effectively. International students may need to seek
advice regarding visa requirements prior to making any changes to enrolment.
Assistance can be sought from the International Office.
·
If the UoS
coordinator and HoD (or their nominee) accept your SCA then a time will be
arranged for you to sit for further assessment.
Under some circumstances your case may be referred to the Departmental
Teaching Committee for a final decision.
·
This will take place
in the department as soon as possible and usually within a week of the original
date so that all exams can be marked and results processed before the deadline
for result submission to the relevant Faculties.
·
Failure to attend a
further assessment examination would normally result in an “Absent Fail” in the
UoS.
·
Arrangements for
further assessment will be made.
·
In this case the
original exam paper will not be marked and your deferred exam result will
replace it.
IT IS YOUR RESPONSIBILITY TO CONTACT THE STUDENT
LIAISON OFFICER OR THE UoSC TO FIND OUT WHETHER YOUR APPLICATION FOR SPECIAL
CONSIDERATION HAS BEEN SUCCESSFUL (BEFORE YOU ARE NOTIFIED BY THE FACULTY
OFFICE)
·
You have seven (7)
days from the time of notification by the Faculty to make an appeal against the
decision made by the UoSC and the HoD (or their nominee) (and in some cases the
Departmental Teaching Committee).
·
Any appeals after
this time will be rejected.
·
You must
submit your appeal in writing to the Projects and Services Officer at the
Faculty of Science (currently Mr Matthew Charet), and must outline the grounds
for appeal with reference to the original application (including any additional
supporting material, if appropriate).
·
The appeal must be
made on the same grounds as the original SCA.
·
The
appeal will be considered by the Dean, or their nominee, within fourteen (14)
days of receipt of the appeal and the result communicated via e-mail to your
University e-mail account.
You are strongly advised not to enroll in
subjects, which could result in substantial timetable clashes, though you are
not prevented from doing so. You should
be aware, however, that enrolment in subjects, which produce timetable overlap
does not constitute grounds for special consideration. (See note above
regarding minimum attendance).
Misreading the exam timetable or missing and
exam without cause does not constitute grounds for special consideration or for
the right to resit an exam. Please
ensure that all dates for exams are carefully observed and recorded. The final exam schedule can be located by
following links from the
·
Firstly,
speak to the UoSC, who will make every effort to ensure that marks have been
recorded and reported correctly.
Approach the UoSC as soon as possible so the issue can be resolved
before the end of the semester.
·
Secondly,
the UoSC should be able to justify clearly to you the reason for the grade.
·
You
can request to have the assessment remarked but you run the risk of the grade
being changed to a lower one if the marker feels the original grade was too
high.
·
If
your concerns are not resolved at this stage then you can appeal to the Head of
Department who may refer your case to the Teaching Committee.
·
If
the decision is still not to your satisfaction then an appeal can be made to
the Dean of the Faculty.
·
More
information on the specific details of the appeal process can be obtained by following links from the
·
This list is by no
means exhaustive but gives examples of problems that can be avoided if you plan
and think ahead instead of leaving written assignments to the last minute:
“My computer crashed….”
“My file wouldn’t print…”
“The disc is corrupted….”
“My lab partner had the results…”
“I had to move on the weekend….."
“I couldn’t find the references in the library”
“I had to work on the weekend…”
“I had a cold last week….”
“I had to play football on the weekend…..”
·
We
do recognize, however, that real computer problems may occur. Here are some suggestions to minimize the
impact of these:
·
Make
back-ups of your work in progress on floppy discs or on your hard drive.
·
Keep
printed copies of your work in progress.
These can be used to prove that you are experiencing genuine technical
problems.
The
following is an extract from the Academic Board Resolution: Assessment and
examination of Coursework (Part 5 – Special Consideration due to Illness or
misadventure (http://www.usyd.edu.au/su/ab/policies/Assess_Exam_Coursework.pdf)
1.
Please
note that Special Consideration will not be granted in the following
instances:
a)
occasional,
brief or trivial illness of a one- or two-day duration that occur seven (7)
days or more before an assessment is due or exam undertaken;
b) workloads from other units of study, disciplines and
faculties, except where the request for special consideration is made within
the first three weeks of semester;
c)
employment
where the request for special consideration is made less than four weeks before
the date of assessment;
d) illnesses and misadventures that have prevented
students from acquiring a Pass level of knowledge/skills (including all
illnesses/misadventures resulting in the student missing six weeks or more of
lectures or tutorials);
e)
adequate
standards of documentation and processes have not been met;
f)
requests
for extensions made after the assignment is due or an assessment has taken
place (except where the circumstances prevented earlier submission, no special
consideration requests shall be processed if submitted more than seven (7) days
after the assessment is due);
g) the supporting documentation post-dates the period for
which special consideration is sought;
h) the performance of the student was equivalent or
superior to that demonstrated in other assessments in the unit of study;
i)
the
circumstances pertain to planned commitments, such as elective surgery, holiday
or work, where the student could reasonably be expected to have scheduled the
commitment or their studies to not adversely affect their studies;
j)
computer-related
problems, except where a police report is provided indicating that burglary or
calamity has resulted in the loss of a computer and backups from the
students’ place of residence (NB: it is assumed that students keep regular
back-ups of their work, so theft of a laptop is not grounds for special
consideration).
k)
Jury
Service, Military Service, National Sporting and religious or cultural
commitments which prevent a student from attending scheduled examinations would
not normally be considered as cases of misadventure. Whilst faculties are
encouraged to consider significant religious and cultural events when
scheduling examination dates they may make allowances for these circumstances
and consider these applications on a case by case basis. Students affected by
these circumstances should approach the Unit of Study coordinator or Head of
School for advice concerning their continuing enrolment in the Unit of Study.
This document is consistent with the Academic Board Resolution:
Assessment and examination of Coursework Part 5 – Special Consideration due to
Illness or misadventure (http://www.usyd.edu.au/su/ab/policies/Assess_Exam_Coursework.pdf)
and the Faculty of Science Guidelines for Application for Special Consideration
Document.