Handbook 2009

Study at Murdoch: A General Guide

Assessment and Academic Progress

The Assessment Policy can be accessed here:

http://www.murdoch.edu.au/admin/policies/assessment.html

Responsibilities of Students

The Assessment Policy specifically advises that students have the responsibility to

Seek all information available well before assessments are due — this may be available online, or in printed material specified for the course

Submit assessed work by the due date and in the specified process

Work in a manner that does not constitute misconduct, dishonesty or plagiarism

Behave in a manner which does not interfere with other students' rights

Seek advice and feedback at times specified by the Unit Coordinator

Not undertake spurious appeals or ambit claims over assessment grades

In addition, students have a responsibility to submit a cover sheet with all written work for continuous assessment that includes a signed declaration ‘except where I have indicated, the work I am submitting in this assignment is my own work and has not been submitted for assessment in another unit’, or words to that effect.

Assessment Methods

Methods of assessment vary among units. However, each unit is required to have more than one assessment method, at more than one point in time, while ensuring that the amount of work required is appropriate to the credit points value of the unit.

No one component or assessment method should account for more than 70 per cent of the final mark, nor class participation more than 15 per cent, or peer assessment more than 15 per cent, or group assessment more than 30 per cent (unless the learning associated with group work is a major objective of the unit). At least 30 per cent of the total assessment in each unit must be based on supervised assessment tasks. Exceptions to these requirements can be approved by the Learning and Teaching Committee.

All students will be provided with a written statement of the assessment requirements for each of their units, including assessment methods and weighting.

Examinations

Usually all final examinations are held within the assessment period at the end of each semester or trimester. It is the student’s responsibility to ensure that they are available throughout this period and that any travel is scheduled outside this time.

Semester examinations commence on the first Saturday of the assessment period, and are generally held in two daily sessions commencing at 9.30am and 2.00pm. Students are required to show their Murdoch University Student Card at the examination venue.

The examination timetable is published about five weeks prior to the assessment period at

http://www.murdoch.edu.au/admin/timetables/exams/

Students who arrive no more than 30 minutes late will be allowed to sit the examination, but will not be granted extra time. Those who arrive more than 30 minutes late should report to the Examinations Office via the Student Service Centre. Students who miss an examination due to misreading or not checking the exam timetable, forgetfulness, sleeping in, et cetera, will not be allowed to take the examination and will not be eligible to apply for deferred assessment.

The Examinations Rules are available at

http://www.murdoch.edu.au/admin/legsln/

The Exams Office web site is at

http://www.murdoch.edu.au/oss/exams/

Grading System

Notification of Assessment and Examination Results

Students are entitled to see their results in all assessment components of their unit, including raw marks for components and for the unit overall.

Examination results are released as follows:

for semester exams, on the third Monday after the end of each assessment period;

for trimester exams, on the second Thursday after the end of each assessment period.

Results are available through MyInfo.

Students may inspect their marked examination scripts and discuss the marking with the Unit Coordinator or nominee within fourteen days of the posting of results. Unit Coordinators may require reasonable notice or set aside specified times for this. Examination scripts are retained by Unit Coordinators at least until the end of the appeal period against results.

Academic Transcript/Statement of Academic Record

A formal statement of academic record is available to students from the Student Service Centre at a cost of $15. Normally one working day’s notice is required.

Supplementary Assessment

A Unit Coordinator may, where appropriate, award an interim grade of S. This generally means that the student has narrowly failed the unit, but has been granted a form of supplementary assessment involving extra work and/or an examination to give the student a further opportunity to demonstrate that he or she has achieved the unit objectives. The Unit Coordinator will notify the student in writing of the supplementary assessment arrangements, and the additional work must be completed within six weeks of the end of the main assessment period for the unit (for this purpose the two-week Christmas close-down of the University will not be taken into account).

Where the student has achieved over 50 per cent in the unit and a Fail is awarded because the student has failed one or more mandatory pass components, supplementary assessment must be awarded and shall normally be directed towards the area in which the student has failed.

The only grades available after supplementary assessment are Pass or Fail. An Ungraded Pass is not available. If supplementary assessment is not completed by the six-week deadline, a result of Fail will be recorded.

For those of its units that are offered on a full-year basis, the timetable for supplementary assessment in the Faculty of Health Sciences may differ from that stated above. Students enrolled in affected courses will be informed of any variation.

Deferred Assessment

Students may apply for deferment of assessment on grounds of serious illness or other exceptional personal circumstances that seriously impair their performance. For deferred assessment to be approved, the student must have submitted all work due for assessment at the time the circumstances requiring deferred assessment arose (or been granted an extension to a later date), and it must still be possible for the student to pass the unit.

Deferred assessment is not available for illness or other circumstances occurring in the first three weeks of semester or pro rata for teaching periods of different length (and normally not for weeks 4 to 7 of semester or pro rata for teaching periods of different lengths, unless the impact was severe); where an examination is during working hours unless the employer refuses leave; where an examination was missed because the student misread the timetable, forgot or overslept; and normally not for units in which the student has been granted supplementary assessment.

Applications must be made in writing to the Office of Central Student Administration no later than the last week of the teaching period, or, if the circumstances arose after that date, before the examination (if the unit does not have an examination during the assessment period, then before the end of the assessment period). Application forms are available from the Office of Central Student Administration or can be downloaded from

http://www.murdoch.edu.au/oss/exams/deferred.html

All applications must be supported by appropriate documents confirming the grounds on which the application is based. If the application is based on medical grounds, a medical certificate must be provided: students should use the medical certificate form provided by the Office of Central Student Administration.

Where an application is rejected, the student may appeal to the Chair of the Student Appeals Committee. Any appeal must be lodged within seven calendar days of the date of the letter notifying rejection of the application, or, if the examination is within that period, before the examination (if feasible).

Dishonesty in Assessment

Academic integrity is an adherence to five fundamental values: honesty, trust, fairness, respect and responsibility in all work. Academic integrity is fundamental to the operation of all scholarship, whether it be original research or undergraduate assignments. It ensures that proper credit is given to those who do the work and that their intellectual contribution is acknowledged. It ensures that proper evaluation and feedback of performance can be given, and it buttresses the worth and reputation of academic awards on the basis they have been honestly earned. Murdoch University regards academic integrity as a fundamental value of student learning. It requires all students enrolled in the University to adhere to academic integrity in fulfilling each assessment task.

The University regards most seriously any acts of dishonesty relating to assessment of University courses and research. This includes plagiarism, unauthorised collaboration, examination misconduct, theft of other students’ work and misconduct in research. Acting unfairly or dishonestly in assessment is defined as misconduct under Statute No. 23 Student Discipline.

Depending on the seriousness of the case, dishonesty in assessment can lead to a requirement to undertake additional work, failure in a unit or in a part of it, suspension from the University or even permanent expulsion from the University. (Below is a schedule of penalties, and of aggravating and mitigating factors, which has been approved by Academic Council.) The University regards any form of cheating as a serious matter of academic dishonesty that threatens the integrity of the assessment processes and awards of the University, to the detriment of all other students and graduates of the University.

Plagiarism constitutes using the work of another without indicating by referencing (and by quotation marks when exact phrases or passages are borrowed) that the ideas expressed are not one’s own. Students can use the ideas and information from other authors, but this use must be acknowledged. It is also not acceptable to submit an assignment that is simply a paraphrasing of extracts from other authors: the work submitted must include some intellectual contribution of the student’s own. The Foundation units in particular assist students in identifying plagiarism, which may be an acceptable practice elsewhere, but is not acceptable within universities.

Re-submission of previously marked work — the submission of the same piece of work for assessment in two different units by the student author — is not acceptable practice if it is not acknowledged.

Unauthorised collaboration (‘collusion’) constitutes joint effort between students, or students and others, in preparing material submitted for assessment, except where this has been approved by the Unit Coordinator. Students are encouraged to discuss matters covered in units, but when writing an assignment, computer program, laboratory report or other piece of assessed work, the recording and treatment of data and the expression of ideas and argument must be the student’s own.

Dishonesty in assessment applies to work in any medium (for example, written or audio text, film production, computer programs, etc.)

Penalties for Dishonesty in Assessment

Penalties for Dishonesty in Assessment form Appendix A of the Assessment Policy.

All penalties must be reported to the Office of Central Student Administration and be recorded on the student’s computer record.

Academic Progress

Students are expected to complete successfully at least half of their enrolled points each academic period. Failure to do so may result in a warning; failure to do so in two consecutive academic periods after a warning was issued may result in exclusion from the University. Appeals against exclusion should be submitted through Faculty Student Administration using the form available from:

http://www.murdoch.edu.au/fsa/forms

More information can be found in the various Academic Progress Rules.

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