Requirements for all degrees
Satisfaction of requirements as determined by academic staff, including attendance, communicated to students through the Sydney College of the Arts Handbook, unit of study outlines, other written notifications and/or verbally through tutorials or seminars. All requirements must be met in order to be eligible for an assessment.
Assessment criteria for all degrees
The following criteria will be assessable from a student’s attendance, participation and responsiveness to the unit of study and to tutorial direction, their essays, studio work and other unit of study work, and from tutorial and seminar team discussion. They are applicable to studio-based learning and to theory units of study.
1. Competence
The development and application of practical and intellectual competency and skills appropriate to the unit of study.
2. Development
Students are expected to develop the ability to initiate and realise their own objectives for studio practice and theory work within the requirements of the unit of study and their developing knowledge of its historical and theoretical context. Students are expected to improve their abilities, competency and understanding through a semester, and in successive semesters.
3. Critical Awareness
Students are expected to develop a critical awareness and knowledge of the unit of study and the ability to objectively evaluate their own work, select appropriate methods and materials and to formulate and evaluate ideas/methods.
4. Commitment
Commitment and self-motivation are important to a student’s successful study in the unit of study. The level of commitment to study in the academic program is reflected in:
the development of self motivation applied to individual, group or assignment-based work;
the degree of participation in all units of study including group work, project submissions, essays and discussions;
the development of a consistent work pattern; and
the regularity and punctuality of attendance and submissions.
5. Innovation
Innovative and imaginative thinking, appropriate to the unit of study, is a measure of the quality of ideas underlying a student’s work and of development in their studies.
Late Submissions: Special Considerations and Essay and Project Extensions
Essay and Project extensions
Extensions will only be granted in serious circumstances. This is usually for illness and exceptional unforeseen circumstances occurring in the week prior to the due date.
Application for an extension must be submitted to lecturing staff on an official SCA form (available from Student Administration) before the due date of the essay.
Extensions are given for a week only (five working days) after the due date.
Essays/projects submitted after the extension date and late essays/projects submitted without extensions will have one mark deducted from the original mark for each working day that the essay/project is late.
Essays/projects submitted after two weeks (ten working days) from the extension or due date will be marked on a “pass” or “fail” basis and without comments.
Essays/projects submitted after three weeks (fifteen working days) from the extension or due date will not be assessed and will receive an Absent Fail grade.
Special Consideration due to illness or misadventure
The University's assessment practices are designed to ensure that conditions are fair to all students, as consistent as possible and that individual students are not disadvantaged by adverse personal circumstances beyond their control or by the activities of other students.
Generally, serious illness, injury or misadventure will be taken into account when considering a student’s academic performance in a course or units of study. There is, however, a clear distinction between longstanding illness or difficulties which prevent students from attending classes or completing required work or which seriously interfere with their capacity to study for long periods and short-term serious illness, injury or misadventure that may prevent a well-prepared student from sitting for an examination or completing a particular assignment.
The information you supply on the Special Consideration document is needed by the University so that it can deal with your application for special consideration. This document, and any associated records, will be retained by the relevant faculty. The records will only be available to those staff who need access to it in order to carry out their duties. All records will be destroyed in a secure manner at the appropriate time.
Applying for Special Consideration
- Obtain a special consideration form from the Student Administration office or Student Centre website.
- Complete this special consideration application form
- For consideration due to serious illness, injury or misadventure have a registered health practitioner or counsellor complete the Professional Practitioners Certificate. Note that there are two important constraints on their ability to issue the PPC:
The PPC can be issued only for illnesses, injury or misadventure that lie within the scope of practice of the practitioner;
The PPC should only be issued in respect of an illness, injury or misadventure observed by the health practitioner or counsellor or reported by the patient and deemed to be true by the health practitioner or counsellor. - For all other situations, please complete a Statutory Declaration and attach any appropriate documentation.
- Lodge this form with the Student Administration office
- Applications must be received within one week from the end of the period (i.e. assignment due date or date of examination) for which consideration is sought
- Students must retain their receipt (at the bottom of the form) that will be given upon lodgement of this form with the Student Administration office
- Students will be notified of the academic judgment concerning their special consideration application via their university email within ten working days after lodgement of the application
- Students who are granted Special Consideration will nonetheless be required to demonstrate achievement of designated learning outcomes.
Academic Honesty
Acknowledgement Of Sources
Essays should be accompanied by appropriate documentation in the form of footnotes and a bibliography, which acknowledge all sources and references used in the development of your argument. This includes:
a) The use of quotation marks and specific referencing for all quotes
b) Citation of the source of all arguments
c) Acknowledgement of your reference when closely paraphrasing another person’s work
Plagiarism
The University takes plagiarism very seriously. It is your responsibility to avoid any suggestion that plagiarism may have taken place. Please refer to the important guidelines for acknowledgement of sources outlined in Sydney College of the Arts: Guidelines For the Preparation and Presentation of Academic Writing (available for purchase in Student Administration and on the University Website) and to the SCA handbook. The University of Sydney Academic Board resolution: Academic Honesty in Coursework can also be viewed on the university’s intranet at http://www.usyd.edu.au/policy.
A university workshop – Quoting, Summarising and Paraphrasing Evidence (3hrs) is offered regularly free of charge by the Learning Centre on main campus. You are encouraged to attend if you would like help with appropriate referencing. The unit helps students to understand and use evidence for their own specific writing purposes, to identify differences between quoting and reporting and to practice language strategies to help avoid plagiarism.
You may also consult the relevant section on the WriteSite.