Student FAQs

All courses are required to have objective marking criteria and these should be followed by all academics when marking assessments. There are also independent checks to ensure that marking is objective. These checks are made internally and by our ‘external examiners’. The ‘external examiner’ is an academic employed by another higher education institution who is asked to give an independent view on the appropriateness and integrity of UoP’s processes. 

As students you should have access to the marking criteria. If you do not have access please drop a line to your course leader and let them know or let your course rep know and they will pass on your feedback to the Faculty. 

We understand the frustration of having a timetable that does not work well for you. We are working as quickly as we can to address these issues and move towards a timetable that clusters classes, as far as possible. 
 

We know that the vast majority of our students do not use such services. We also know that some students sometimes misunderstand the University’s regulations and, in those cases, we seek to inform and support students. You can access a short (30 min) course to help you understand the University’s requirements here.

Where our regulations are breached deliberately, we take this very seriously indeed and the Student Conduct Policy, section 4 sets out how we will respond in those circumstances. 

If you are unsure about academic integrity matters or would like further information and support, please do talk to your personal tutor or let your course reps know and ask them to pass on the message to the Faculty. 

In some cases there are regulatory requirements for certain types of assessment, particularly those assessments that represent the culmination of a student’s studies. However, our aim is to build in choice of assessment at every stage of a student’s journey and we are working on ensuring that this is available to all of our students. 

It will depend on your course and the type of failure that you experience. Please speak to your personal tutor as soon as possible if you feel anxious or concerned about your assessments or if you have failed any of your assessments. Your personal tutor will be able to advise. There is also a MyPort page that explains what happens next if you have failed. It also answers a number of frequently-asked questions. 

Working in groups is a really important skill to learn and we know that employers really value people who are good team players. However, we know that it can be frustrating when not all members of a group pull their weight and when your mark is dependent on other people’s work.

We are currently developing clearer guidelines about how to manage group work and how to ensure that good work is always rewarding. If you do have concerns about group work, please talk to your module tutor. They are there to support you. 

I’m sorry that you have experienced a lack of responsiveness from colleagues. Please do let us know when this happens by dropping a line to your course leader or letting your course rep know and they will pass on your feedback to the Faculty. 

It’s worth noting that we don’t expect colleagues to respond to emails out of hours or while they are on annual leave or off sick so do look out for Out of Office responses in some of those cases. The Out of Office message should tell you who to contact in the event that a colleague is away for a while. 

Yes it is. We do expect that you will be provided with good feedback and feedforward on your written work as a matter of course. In particular, we ask colleagues to give you ‘feedforward’ or information about what you need to do to improve for the future. We have worked with Kajetan Albin, one of your SU elected officers, to establish guidelines for this. 

We don’t ask colleagues to give you lots of feedback. We know that can be overwhelming and can make it difficult to know what you should be responding to in the future. However, your feedback should be clear, concise, polite and useful. If you feel that is not the case please do let us know by contacting your course leader or your course rep. 

You might also want to receive more feedback or have the opportunity to discuss feedback or receive additional support. If that is the case you can talk to your personal tutor or you can go to see your module tutor during their office hours. 

You can also make an appointment to get additional support for skills development. Details for each Faculty are here: 

• Faculty of Business and Law

• Faculty of Creative and Cultural Industries

• Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences

• Faculty of Science and Health

• Faculty of Technology

Our assignments align with the intended learning outcomes of a module so are there to test what you have learned. 

We know that it can sometimes feel as though you are just learning to the test though and that deep learning, of the kind that changes mindsets and promotes personal growth, has not happened. Colleagues at the University want that kind of learning to happen as much as you do and are keen to support your journey. If you want to extend your learning: 

• Talk to your module tutor about how to extend your understanding of a topic through additional practical experience or reading;
• Think about how you can apply your knowledge or skills through placements, paid work or volunteering. Talk to the Careers Service about opportunities; 
• Take advantage of extracurricular opportunities such as talks, events and student societies that will help you apply your learning and develop further knowledge and skills. UPSU’s groups page is a good place to start. 

You can always ask your module tutor to spend some time in class going over what is expected in an assignment. You can also see your module tutor during their office hours if you want some more dedicated support.

You can also make an appointment to get additional support for skills development. Details for each Faculty are here: 

• Faculty of Business and Law

• Faculty of Creative and Cultural Industries

• Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences

• Faculty of Science and Health

• Faculty of Technology

There is such a module, but no requirement to work on military projects and an option not to work with the MoD, if preferred. The School of Computing have told us that students are not obliged to work on anything military, for example, there are a number of environmental challenges for them to tackle. Furthermore, none of the problems narratives have military goals at all. For our students who have a principled objection to working with the MoD in any capacity whatsoever, we do provide a local, civilian problem statement instead of one from an H4 programme. 

If you are ever concerned about or have a principled objection to an assessment or assessment scenario, please do discuss this with your module tutor or your course rep. 

We recognise the need to improve many of the buildings on our campus. We have chosen projects that are high-priority areas and which will benefit the most number of students. We will look towards more investment in other areas of campus in the future. Meanwhile, we continue to carry out maintenance and upgrades across the campus to deliver positive improvements throughout the university.

We actively encourage students not to bring their car to Portsmouth, but to use the local transport links and other sustainable forms of transport. 

A parking permit is required to park in University car parks. We review all requests for car parking permits based on individual circumstances and travel duration. To ensure students can use public transport safely and conveniently, we consider the following criteria:

• Location: The geographical area of the student’s residence.
• Travel Time: The total time required to travel via train, bus, and walking.
• Availability of Public Transport: The accessibility and frequency of public transport options.
• Arrival for 9 am Lectures: Ensuring students can arrive on campus in time for 9 am lectures.
• Walking Distance: The distance students need to walk from public transport stops to campus.
• Environment Safety: Ensuring areas have adequate street lighting and pavements for safe walking.

For each individual, the system will evaluate these factors to determine the eligibility for a car parking permit. For more information or to apply for a car parking permit email: car.parking@port.ac.uk.

We will need to temporarily close the existing Student Union building while the construction work is underway. We expect the new Student Hub to be completed by Autumn 2025.

As previously mentioned, a suitable temporary building has been found to ensure you have access to a space until the work is complete. We have been working with the Students’ Union to ensure it meets their requirements. We are still finalising the details but hope to make an announcement on this arrangement soon. 
 

We are open to exploring the opportunity of working with partners and businesses that could provide these types of services within our campus. 

The new Student Hub will have the infrastructure to allow for the provision of a bar should that be a requirement. 

By only running the University Bus service during term-time, we are able to keep the operation costs affordable which enables us to maintain a free of charge service to students and staff. 

The Student Hub development will create spaces for learning, socialising and well-being services, including additional facilities like lounge areas, events spaces, cafe, kitchens etc.

The plan has been to understand what our need is before presenting to the student body, although lighttouch student engagement has already been conducted. A more formal process of student engagement is beginning where we can share indicative layouts and have important conversations about how the spaces are constructed and used.

We have different types of part time contracts - casual contracts where staff come in just for occasional teaching as required and the amount changes each year and staff that are on permanent contracts for a set amount of time each year.

Casual staff are not part of the academic reset. They are paid for from an annual budget managed by the Dean (often responsibility passed down to Heads of School). It is true that these budgets, like all budgets, are reduced due to less income but it will be for the Heads to decide what is needed in schools.

Permanent part time academic staff are included in the Academic Reset and in areas where staff are being reduced due to reduced student numbers part time and full time staff will go through the same process to secure jobs in the newly merged schools.

We are not stopping this as part of Academic Reset. Heads of School work to ensure that all learning outcomes that require field trips are achieved via field trips. Your course leader or Head can provide more information.

There are two elements to this - the number of academics needed (full time equivalent, or FTE) and the areas that we need these academics to be in. The number of academics has been determined using a staff student ratio. Different staff student ratio targets are set for different areas based on the type of teaching they do (more or less intensive) and the other income generating activities the staff in that area do (e.g. research). We check these SSR targets against other universities.  

We can then look at the number of students in that area and calculate the number of staff we need.

We have also done a piece of work to assess national data to see what SSR levels are good or bad for student satisfaction. This showed that SSR does not correlate with student satisfaction - it seems to be very much about what staff do, not how many there are (within certain parameters) that makes the difference. This may also be because so much of the student experience is supported by staff other than academics too.

Once we know the number of staff we need Executive Deans and Heads of Schools identify the specialist areas that staff will need to deliver our courses. We are designing our new schools and staffing based on the needs they have identified.

We will have staff selection decisions by the middle of June so that we can set the new timetable around our staffing. For this reason and the fact that we will arrange leaving dates carefully, our plan is for there to be minimal impact on your courses - but we will be able to tell you more by the end of June.

The option of video recording equipment was reviewed a number of years ago and was not supported at that time. There has been further recent discussions around recording lectures but no decision has been taken at this time.

We will always try to buy an e-book first, by adding your request to our existing ebook collection. 

We will post books out to addresses within the UK and Ireland only - we don't post print books further than that.

We will provide electronic copies of a required book chapter on request, to be sent to you - this is subject to current copyright restrictions.

If you borrow a book either in person or having it posted to you within the UK, you may choose to then take it out of the country either returning home for a period, or going on placement or a year abroad.  In that case, please be aware that items borrowed are subject to recall and must be returned promptly at your expense.

To ensure library study rooms are available for as many students as possible, we have a system to encourage bookings to be used wherever possible. 

Each time you have a 'no show' because of not scanning to claim your room, you are sent a warning email. 

Only once you have three ‘no shows’, will you be prevented from using the booking system for 14 days.
We are looking at other ways of booking spaces in the Library but recognise that - for a resource in heavy demand - we may need to place restrictions on usage, including users who appear to have booked the space but not turn up to claim it
 

The Careers and Employability Service (CES) supports all students of the University, irrespective of their level of study, and graduates for up to 5 years after graduation.  The service provides comprehensive expert help for:

• Careers Advice
• Graduate job search
• Volunteering and work experience
• Self employment
• Part time work
• Further study options 

Every undergraduate, postgraduate and graduate can access our online platform, MyCareer, in order to receive immediate job alerts.  The platform offers a range of roles both local and national. Currently there are in the region of 29,000 UoP users signed up to the platform.

With regards to postgraduate students (PhD and MRes), the CES team offers a bespoke programme for the Graduate School that includes the following workshops:

• Preparing for Job Interviews
• MBTI 
• Career options for Researchers for Arts and Humanities Researchers
• Career options for Science Researchers
• Effective job searching
• Marketing yourself:  Developing effective application form or CV
• Capitalising on the enterprise culture: Starting your own business
• Enhancing your employability whilst studying
• Developing an effective LinkedIn profile

PhD and MRes students wishing to book an appointment with CES can do so in a variety of ways including through MyCareer, telephoning or emailing or by calling into the Careers Centre.

PhD and MRes students are able to book directly on to our workshop sessions using SkillsForgePhD and MRes students are able to book directly on to our workshop sessions using SkillsForge.

If there are any issues that are negatively impacting your attendance, please contact us so that we can support you. 

Please speak with your Personal Tutor who can refer you to any student support services, or contact our Student Wellbeing Service. 

There is more information on Engagement and Attendance on the MyPort website.