(EN) Regulations fort the assessment and grading of student learning on bachelor's and master's degrees.

REGULATIONS FOR THE ASSESSMENT AND GRADING OF STUDENT LEARNING ON BACHELOR’S AND MASTER’S DEGREES

Approved by the Governing Council on 12 December 2023

I. GENERAL PROVISIONS

Article 1. Purpose and scope of application

1. The purpose of these regulations is to regulate the assessment and grading of student learning on University of Lleida (UdL) official bachelor’s and master’s degrees.

2. These regulations are applicable to all academic staff responsible for the assessment and grading of students’ training activities, to all administrative staff responsible for academic-administrative procedures, and to all students taking bachelor’s and master’s degrees at the UdL’s own schools or UdL-affiliated schools.

3. These regulations are applicable to interuniversity official master’s degrees coordinated by the UdL.

Article 2. Assessment

1. For the purposes of the provisions contained in these regulations, assessment is understood to be the process of assessing the students’ degree of learning of the knowledge, skills and abilities that are significant in relation to the competencies specific to a subject or subject area, which have been defined and made public in the course guide for the subject or subject area (or module, where applicable).

2. Students taking UdL official bachelor’s and master’s degrees have the right to:

a. The assessment and grading of their academic participation in each subject or subject area.

b. The assessment of all subjects for which they have registered in the academic year, and to benefit from assessment support measures that ensure real and effective inclusion and equal opportunities in accordance with the UdLxTothom Programme implemented under the UdL Inclusion Plan, provided other associated regulations established by the UdL are met. Under no circumstances may the aforementioned measures be personalised curricular adaptations that call into question the attainment of the academic and professional competencies stipulated for each degree.

c. Have assessment undertaken with objective and quantifiable evidence, and with transparent criteria that, prior to the start of the academic year, must have been explicitly communicated via the course guide for each subject or subject area. In this sense, the UdL considers the course guide to be an official document.

d. Resit/retake any assessment block equal to or greater than 30% of the final grade in a subject or subject area, except for subject placements and activities that, because of their nature, cannot be repeated in the same academic year.

e. Take part in an academic strike without it affecting academic assessment. The conditions for the application of this right and the procedure for the declaration, communication and guarantees of an academic strike are contained in the UdL Student Council Regulations or in their implementing regulations and agreements.

3. Teaching staff have the right and the duty to assess students objectively and impartially.

4. Teaching staff have the duty to ensure that assessment tests are undertaken in accordance with the provisions of the course guide.

5. The lecturer responsible for the subject must define the assessment system in the course guide before registration for the academic year in question. After lectures have started, that part of the course guide that includes the assessment system and its explanation can only be modified within the first fifteen days from the beginning of the semester of teaching, with the students’ prior agreement. The lecturer responsible for the subject must also inform the degree coordinator, the head of studies and, via the Virtual Campus, all registered students of this. Outside this period, and exceptionally, assessment may be modified justifiably with the approval of the school’s Studies Committee

6. The assessment system for the same subject taught by more than one lecturer must be homogeneous; it should therefore have similar criteria and objectives. Likewise, the final grade must be considered overall in terms of the knowledge, skills and abilities that make up the subject’s own and defining competencies (and define its training objectives).

7. The lecturer responsible for the subject must ensure that support measures are applied in order to guarantee equal opportunities in accordance with the UdLxTothom Programme implemented under the UdL Inclusion Plan.

8. The Studies Committee of each school must ensure that support measures in a subject or subject area are applied to students with special needs in order to guarantee equal opportunities

Article 3. Assessment content

1. The assessment activities in a subject area or subject are described in the verified report for the degree and, among other things, may include written or oral exams or tests; theses; classroom, laboratory or field practicals; problem- and case-solving tasks; projects; trips; oral presentations; active student participation, etc.

2. Students have the right to clear assessment test content and objectives that do not lead to confusion.

3. In the specific case of written tests, the statement shall be given to students in writing and individually.

4. Oral exams on theoretical content must be recorded. Any other oral test (e.g., thesis presentation) must be held in public session.

5. If assessment tests require specific materials, students must be informed of this in advance. Ideally, this information should already appear in the course guide.

6. The statement of written assessment activities (exams, thesis approach, reports, etc.) shall be written in the language of instruction that the lecturer has made public via the course guide for the subject. The purpose of this is to respect the principle of linguistic security. Students may write the answer in any of the official languages of the UdL unless the course guide specifies that the language in which the subject is taught is decisive for the assessment of knowledge (especially in philological or linguistic studies). The lecturer must also indicate in the course guide whether students may answer written tests in a language other than the official languages of the UdL or the one in which the subject is taught, provided the ability to assess them is guaranteed. The same criteria apply to oral tests.

II. ASSESSMENT

Article 4. Continuous assessment

The assessment of studies at the UdL is a continuous process during the teaching period set for a subject, in accordance with the sequencing of the curriculum and the academic calendar. Continuous assessment means the set of assessable activities shown in the course guide undertaken in a gradual and integrated manner across the academic year, which must be relevant and significant in order to assess and quantify student progress in terms of the attainment of the knowledge, skills and abilities that make up the subject or subject area’s own and defining competencies. The objective of continuous assessment is to enable students to be aware of their progress throughout the training process so that they can improve upon it.

2. Assessment activities are organised into blocks. Each block may contain one or more related assessment activities. The number of assessment activities in each block must be consistent with the weight of the block within the assessment system for the subject.

3. The UdL establishes that, in general terms, no assessment block may account for more than 50% of the final grade, and none may be less than 10%. The minimum number of assessment activity blocks is set at three.

4. The number of assessment blocks and the weight of each one on the final grade must be explicitly stated in the course guide for the subject. Activities accounting for more than 10% in each block must be indicated.

5. In the course guide, lecturers may set a minimum grade that must be attained in order to pass the subject in any of the assessment blocks. Blocks accounting for less than 15% cannot have a minimum grade. If students do not attain the required minimum grade set for some of the assessment blocks yet the subject average results in a ‘Pass’, the subject shall be graded 4.9 in the assessment record.

6. Students shall have the right to resit/retake assessment blocks that have a minimum grade or account for more than 30% of the final grade. The course guide must indicate whether doing a resit/retake activity predetermines the maximum grade attainable in a subject.

7. Exceptionally, the UdL provides for the possibility that a subject may have an assessment model other than continuous assessment, in which an assessment activity may account for up to 85% of the final grade. In this case, the subject’s teaching staff must duly justify the change of assessment model and have approval from the Studies Committee of the school responsible for the teaching. The date of such approval must be included in the course guide.

Article 5. Alternative assessment

1. In order to make it easier for students to combine studying with work- and/or family-related responsibilities, any student wishing to do so has the right to decline continuous assessment at the start of each semester and to take an alternative assessment.

2. Students may avail themselves of the alternative assessment model on grounds of combining studying with work-related responsibilities in up to 50% of the credits of a degree. In exceptional cases, the Studies Committee of each school may increase the number of credits to be taken with alternative assessment.

3. Students wishing to avail themselves of alternative assessment must submit a contract of employment or justify, by means of a written document addressed to the dean or director of the school, the reasons that make it impossible for them to do continuous assessment.

4. The Studies Committee of the school responsible for teaching the bachelor’s or master’s degree can establish the mechanisms and conditions by which students may avail themselves of this right, as well as the period for submitting applications and the supporting documents they need to provide.

5. When the nature of the subject so demands, attendance at certain in-person activities (field trips, seminars, laboratory practicals, etc.) on the established dates shall be an essential requirement for alternative assessment.

6. Alternative assessment must consist of a test, which may account for up to 100% of the grade. Other types of assessment evidence may also be defined, which must include compulsory in-person activities if these are provided for in the subject. Teaching staff must establish the weight of such evidence on the final grade.

7. The course guide must contain details of alternative assessment of the subject.

8. Students availing themselves of alternative assessment have the same rights, including the right to resit/retake under the same conditions as students that do continuous assessment.

9. Due to their content and teaching methods, the possibility of alternative assessment is excluded from external and rotating placements, and bachelor’s and master’s theses.

Article 6. Assessment of external and rotating placements

1. The assessment of placements is specified in the UdL External Placement Regulations.

Article 7. Assessments of bachelor’s and master’s theses

1. Each school shall regulate its own procedure for the assessment of bachelor’s and master’s theses by establishing its own regulations. Such regulations must be approved by the Governing Council.

2. The registration periods for bachelor’s and master’s theses are set by the schools. The usual period is July (or September), though the schools may include a second registration period in February, if they so stipulate.

3. Students may only register for bachelor’s and master’s theses when they register for all pending credits to complete the degree.

4. Assessment shall be undertaken in a single call.

5. Bachelor’s and master’s theses must be submitted in writing and defended in public session before an assessment committee regulated by each school’s own regulations. To pass their bachelor’s or master’s theses, students must obtain at least 5 points in the presentation and defence thereof before this assessment committee.

6. The grading of bachelor’s or master’s theses must be done before 30 September. Each school shall establish the timing in its own regulations.

Article 8. Calls and calendar for assessment

1. Registering for a subject gives the right to only one call for assessment and final grading, either as the completion of continuous assessment or as the alternative assessment.

2. The general organisation of bachelor’s degree teaching means that each semester may have a maximum of four weeks dedicated to a period of assessment activities, in accordance with the provisions of the academic calendar approved by the Governing Council. Schools must plan the assessment activities undertaken in these periods.

3. In the case of master’s degrees, these periods can be modified depending on the time organisation needs of each master’s degree.

4. In addition, three weeks of extraordinary assessment periods are established as an option for the schools. Two of these weeks are set at the end of the second semester and the third at the beginning (i.e., first week) of September. If deemed appropriate, one of these weeks may be placed at the end of the assessment period of the first semester. It is up to the schools to decide if they wish to make use of these optional periods.

5. The dates of assessment activities accounting for at least 30% of the final grade in a subject must be published in the course guide and/or on the bachelor’s degree website before registration. All other activities, especially those upon which passing a subject is conditional, must be announced well enough in advance, if indeed it was not possible to do so before the start of the academic year.

6. The published dates of assessment tests for a subject cannot be modified without the lecturers’ and students’ agreement. Changes to the dates of assessment tests must have approval from the head of studies.

Article 9. Implementation of assessment activities

1. Students must attend in-person assessment activities with documentation proving their identity.

2. While undertaking the assessment activities, students cannot use prohibited means or fraudulent mechanisms. If they do, it is deemed a disciplinary offence since such behaviours are understood to be of a premeditated nature (Law 3/2022, on university coexistence). In contrast, copying or attempting to copy the results obtained by fellow students or communication between students in a written test is deemed to be spontaneous copying.

3. According to the Law, disciplinary offences can be considered very serious, serious or minor. Wholly or partially plagiarising a work or committing academic fraud in writing up a bachelor’s, master’s or doctoral thesis is also deemed a very serious offence. Academic fraud, which includes any premeditated behaviour tending towards falsifying the results of an exam, be it one’s own or someone else’s, taken as a requirement for passing a subject or providing proof of academic progress, is a serious offence.

4. In the event of academic fraud, the law provides for the opening of a disciplinary case file, which must be dealt with in accordance with the disciplinary procedure set out in the UdL Coexistence Regulations. Article 43 of the UdL Coexistence Regulations describes the applicable penalties, which, among others and depending on the severity of the offence, include loss of the right to be assessed in the subject, loss of registration for a semester or an academic year, or expulsion for up to three years.

5. If academic fraud is detected, the lecturer must take away the assessment activity and give notification thereof in writing, along with the evidence, to the bachelor’s or master’s degree coordinator or head of studies for a disciplinary case file to be opened, where applicable.

6. When students are found to be spontaneously copying in an assessment test, a report of the events and facts must be made and measures proportional to the detected conduct must be taken, such as asking the student to move to a different place or taking away either part of the exam already done or the entire exam. The report must be sent to the degree coordinator, the head of studies and the people in charge of the school. If it is deemed that the events and facts could lead to the loss of the right to be assessed in the subject, a disciplinary case file must be opened.

7. Any student disrupting the normal progress of an assessment test must leave the test at the request of the lecturer responsible for the assessment, without prejudice to the fact that, depending on the seriousness of the incident, other disciplinary actions may be taken. The lecturer responsible for the subject must give notification of the events and facts to the lecturer responsible for coordinating the bachelor’s or master’s degree.

8. Any student who is unable to attend either the assessment tests stipulated and scheduled in the course guide for the subject – or, where applicable, on the bachelor’s or master’s degree website – or the final tests for any of the reasons set out below, shall have the right to get the lecturer responsible for the subject to set a new date, after listening to the student, so that he/she can take them properly:

a. Illness, which must be duly justified by a medical certificate.

b. A clash of date and time with another assessment procedure for a subject that is part of an official bachelor’s or master’s degree taught at the UdL.

c. Death of a member of the student’s immediate family up to the second degree of consanguinity and first degree of affinity, occurring within seven days prior to the scheduled date for taking the assessment test.

d. A clash with official activities, both national and international, of high level and high performance athletes.

e. A clash with meetings of UdL governing and representation bodies for a student who carries out tasks of student representation, with prior justification of this fact being presented to the lecturer responsible.

f. Absence as a result of participation in an official student mobility process.

g. In the case of UdLxTothom Programme students with a chronic or acute illness, when a student so requests and provides proof of the fact that he/she will be unable to deliver or do the assessment activity for the subject on the scheduled date due to a chronic or acute illness, the delivery period or schedule of the assessment activity must be extended for him/her by at least 10 days and at most until the last assessment day of the semester.

h. Other reasons that can be justified and assessed by the Studies Committee of the school.

9. Students may ask the lecturer responsible for the subject for a document as proof of having taken the assessment, which, at the very least, shall give the full name of the student and the course, the name and category of the lecturer responsible for the assessment, the name of the subject, and the date and duration of the assessment.

Article 10. Call for the completion of studies

1. A call for the completion of studies provides students with the possibility of applying for the ordinary call for assessment of a subject to be brought forward in the event that, while undertaking the last year of a degree, only a small number of credits remain to be passed. For both bachelor’s and master’s degrees, the maximum number of ECTS credits is set at 30.

2. For students to be able to apply for this call for the completion of studies, each school must determine the number of pending credits that students are allowed to have – within the maximum number set for the whole of the UdL – in order complete their studies.

3. For students to be able to apply for this call, they must have previously registered for the subjects in which they wish to be assessed.

4. It is up to each school to set the period for the submission of applications for assessment for the completion of studies. The resolution of applications is the responsibility of the dean or director of the school.

5. Specific calendars must be determined by each school and shall be made public along with the approval of the school’s academic calendar.

6. Any student applying to make use of this call who fails or does not show up cannot retake the assessment of the subject in the same academic year.

Article 11. Assessment by compensation on bachelor’s degrees

1. Assessment by compensation at the UdL allows students to pass a limited number of compulsory credits that they have failed in their ordinary calls on bachelor’s degrees.

2. Within their procedures, all schools must incorporate assessment by compensation with a minimum of 6 and a maximum of 30 credits. Each school may decide whether assessment by compensation is done in the first year, for the completion of studies, or for both situations. Each school must regulate assessment by compensation in its own regulations, which must be approved by the Governing Council.

3. If a degree is a double degree and more than one school is involved, it will be necessary to establish which school regulations apply. This decision must be incorporated into the double degree report and stated in the assessment regulations of the schools involved.

4. In order to be assessed by compensation, students must have been assessed in the ordinary call of the academic year in which they are applying for compensation. For the purpose of being able to apply for the compensation option, the grade is set at between 3 and 4.

5. Optional subjects, external and rotating placements, and bachelor’s theses cannot be assessed by compensation.

6. The application periods for assessment by compensation must be published on the school’s website, in the section on administrative periods.

7. The dean or director of the school shall resolve applications for compensation, at the proposal of the Studies Committee.

8. Subjects passed by compensation shall be recorded in the assessment record with the ‘Pass by Compensation’ grade (5). The head of studies is responsible for signing the modified assessment record.

9. Compensated subjects cannot be recognised in the event of an academic record transfer or if students take a second bachelor’s degree.

Article 12. Results of assessment activities and final grade

1. Lecturers must make public the results of assessment activities – in the case of continuous assessment – no later than fifteen calendar days after they have been taken, and at least two working days before the resit exam. Students have the right to a review of the results of the assessment activity.

2. The lecturers responsible for the subjects must make public the final results of the assessment, respecting the assessment record closure dates set by each school.

3. The lecturers must publish the students’ grades via the grade tool on the Virtual Campus.

4. If for any exceptional reason it is necessary to publish any grade outside of the grade tool, the list must be published on the Virtual Campus for the subject using a student’s academic record number.

5. In accordance with the provisions of Royal Decree 1125/2003, of 5 September, the grades may be as follows, always to one decimal place: ‘Absent’, ‘Fail’ (from 0 to 4.9), ‘Pass’ (from 5.0 to 6.9), ‘Good’ (from 7.0 to 8.9), ‘Excellent’ (from 9.0 to 10) and ‘Distinction’ (from 9.0 to 10). For a subject to be deemed passed, a minimum final numerical grade of 5.0 is required.

6. An ‘Absent’ grade in a subject will be assigned whenever a student undertakes assessable activities that account for less than 50% of the overall grade of the subject. Exceptionally, this percentage may be modified by agreement of the Studies Committee of each school, which may choose values between 30% and 50% depending on the characteristics of the degree In the latter case, the percentage set shall be stated in the course guides for the degree subjects, and the date of such agreement must be indicated.

7. The lecturer responsible for the subject may award a ‘Distinction’ when a student has a numerical grade of 9.0 or higher. The number of ‘Distinctions’ awarded cannot exceed 5% of the number of registered students. The result of assessing 5% will be rounded up to the nearest whole number. When the first two decimal places give the number 50, it will be rounded up to the nearest whole number. If the number of registered students is less than 20, one ‘Distinction’ may be awarded.

Article 13. Results review and complaints

1. In order to facilitate the ordinary review process, as well as the publication of the grades of the various activities undertaken, teaching staff must make public the dates and times of the review, which must take place between two and seven working days after the publication of the grades, without any clash between the review and other teaching and/or assessment activities. Once the review has taken place, the lecturer responsible for the subject must make public the final grade.

2. Students have the right to make a complaint against the final grade in a subject or subject area, by means of an extraordinary review.

3. Students have a maximum period of seven working days from the publication of the final grades to submit a written complaint in which they give a reasoned justification for their request.

4. Students must address, via the official register of the UdL or of UdL-affiliated schools, the written complaint to the dean or director of the school where the bachelor’s or master’s degree is taught. The dean or director of the school must send a copy of the written complaint to the director of the department to which the lecturer responsible for the subject belongs, to the degree coordinator and to the lecturers involved.

5. The lecturer responsible for the subject must deliver a written report to the dean or director of the school within a maximum period of three working days and must send the assessment evidence for the student who submitted the complaint and for a representative set of students of the subject so as to have a point of reference.

6. The dean or director of the school must appoint a review panel at the proposal of the department responsible for teaching the subject within a maximum period of five working days once the lecturer’s report has been received. The review panel must be made up of three lecturers from the department to which teaching of the subject has been assigned, at least two of whom must be permanent and none of whom must have been involved in the first assessment and grading. In addition, two students taking the degree must be involved but must not be taking the subject in question, either because they have already passed it or because they have not registered for it. The most senior lecturer shall chair the review panel, and the least senior lecturer shall serve as the secretary thereof.

7. Once constituted, the review panel must analyse the student’s complaint based on his/her written submission, the assessment evidence and the report by the lecturer responsible for the subject.

8. Based on all the available information, the review panel must draw up a resolution proposal within a maximum period of five working days from its appointment. The resolution must indicate whether it ratifies the result of the assessment set by the lecturer or, on the contrary, it rectifies it and accepts the student’s complaint. This decision must be recorded in the minutes, in which an explanation of the justified reasons for it is given, and which must be delivered to the dean or director of the school who shall make the resolution.

9. The resolution and the minutes of the review panel must be sent to the student who made the complaint, to the lecturer responsible for the subject, to the head of studies and to the bachelor’s or master’s degree coordinator involved within a maximum period of three working days from the date of the resolution by the dean or director of the school.

10. Against the resolution by the dean or director of the school, the student or the lecturer involved may submit an appeal to the UdL rector within a maximum period of one month from the day after notification. Once the established period has expired without any appeal having been lodged, the head of studies shall be the person responsible for implementing the review panel’s resolution.

11. This extraordinary review process must be documented, with respect to both the procedure followed and the resolution made.

III. ASSESSMENT RECORD AND CUSTODY OF DOCUMENTATION

Article 14. Signing of assessment records

1 The assessment record is an official document with a legally established format that is generated for each subject and registration group, in which the names of, and final grades obtained by, the students in an academic year are listed.

2. The lecturer responsible for the subject/group must enter, in a single assessment record, the final numerical and qualitative grades resulting from the assessment process.

3. Once the final grade review period has expired, the lecturers responsible must record any modifications made and definitively close the assessment records. Once the process of definitive closure has been carried out, the assessment record cannot be reopened.

4. The maximum period for signing the assessment record must be set by the school and communicated to teaching staff and students.

5. However, the office of the dean or of the school director may exceptionally, and for duly justified reasons, authorise the modification of a final assessment record at the request of the lecturer responsible. An application to do so must be formalised during the academic year in which the assessment activity was undertaken and, in any event, up to three months after the last call in which the student took part in that academic year. Once this period has expired, only the rector or the person he/she delegates has competence to authorise the modification of an assessment record.

Article 15. Management of assessment tests and records

1. The lecturer responsible for the subject has the obligation to keep all evidence of assessment activities undertaken in a given academic year until the end of the following academic year. If assessment activities are returned to students, he/she must keep a copy thereof.

2. Students may ask for any of their own written work or written placement reports to be returned to them within two months from the date of the final grade of the subject.

3. Once the set period has expired, evidence may be destroyed in accordance with the established procedure.

4. Oral exams must be recorded. Evidence of these must also be kept until the end of the following academic year. In addition, schools must establish mechanisms to guarantee the rights of students to know the criteria applied in determining the grade.

5. The UdL must archive and permanently keep the assessment records, using media and formats that guarantee their conservation.

Additional provision

UdL faculties and schools may make rules to complement those established in these regulations, which must be approved by the Governing Council.

Transitional provision

Article 5.2 shall be applied to students applying for alternative assessment for the first time from the 2023/24 academic year.

Final provision

The approved regulations come into force in the 2023/24 academic year and repeal the previous regulations.